Translating Genocide, the Politics of Memory, and (In)Commensurabilities in Post-conflict Cambodia

Abstract

This article examines the multiple translations of 'genocide' in Cambodia as prolai pouch-sas since the end of the Khmer Rouge Regime. It traces the term's double meaning from the authoritarian People's Republic of Kampuchea's (PRK) 1980s Khmer translation as the annihilation of the Cambodian nation, to the ECCC's international legal translation as the annihilation of difference in the 2000s. The PRK translation differed from the international legal concept but resonated with the experiences of the majority of the Cambodian population who picked it up and vernacularised the term. The ECCC translation was rejected by many Cambodians and could not transcend the legal proceedings of the tribunal. Consequently, genocide is now a word with a double meaning appearing in different political and legal locales and settings. This duplicity became part of contestations between liberal and illiberal peacebuilding and transitional justice.