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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores post-conflict memory work at the intersection of international transitional justice funding, national politics of memory and local engagements with a violent past in post-conflict Cambodia.

Paper long abstract:

This paper situates post-conflict memory work at the intersection of international transitional justice funding, national politics of memory and local engagements with a violent past. It explores the work of a Cambodian Youth NGO in the context of outreach activities for the Extraordinary Chambers in the courts of Cambodia (ECCC), also known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, in the years 2009 to 2011 in a village at a former Khmer Rouge prison site. Partly funded and advised by the German Civil Peace Service, the NGO deployed art as a major vehicle for collective transgenerational memory work. The art project took place in cooperation with a local memory committee of elders and a youth group. While the project ran successfully for a few years, a decline of engagement set in at a later stage due to internal problems of the NGO as well as the decrease of outreach activities and funding at the ECCC and by international donors. The national political climate had also changed over the years from a favourable to a more negative outlook towards transitional justice activities. In addition, many young people in the village finished high school and left for further education or employment to town. That said the project left impressive material traces in forms of a local memorial site and a learning centre. The peacebuilding activities themselves have become part of the collective memory of the village and strengthened the village's social fabric. Many of the young people involved both from the NGO and the village had built valuable capacities that laid foundations for further studies and work careers.