More than 40 years after the Khmer-Rouge-Regime in Cambodia, the public and individual processing of its crimes continues to be a big challenge. Between 1975 and 1979, almost a quarter of the population died from forced labor, starvation, torture, and murder. Together with the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO) Cambodia, Dr. Nadine Stammel and doctoral student Louisa Heinzl conducted a research project in Cambodia in 2024. Survivors of the regime who participated as civil joint plaintiffs in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (ECCC) were interviewed about their experiences and the psychosocial repercussions of the tribunal.

The flexible funds enabled the recommencement of a research cooperation founded in 2008. Interview guidelines were created together with Cambodian colleagues in Phnom Penh and local interviewers were trained who afterwards conducted the interviews with survivors in the local language Khmer. Additionally, the results of the interviews were presented to representatives of research, development, local organisations and the tribunal at a symposium in Phnom Penh in December 2024.

“The funding for these journeys is invaluable,” says Dr. Nadine Stammel. Only the personal meetings facilitated the cooperation with the partner organisation after such a long time, the establishment of new contacts, and the discussion of research results with relevant stakeholders in Cambodia. The funding also enables a close cooperation with the local NGO TPO Cambodia as a partner from the Global South and strengthens a long-term international research alliance. At the same time, the cooperation and its results benefit the teaching at Freie Universität Berlin, for example with guest lectures by TPO Cambodia in online formats which were received very positively by students.