ABSTRACT
Money, markets and traditional community life were replaced by cooperatives where people worked day and night in a constant state of fear and terror. Freedom of speech, movement and assembly were severely curtailed. Buddhism, which infused the daily life of the majority of Cambodians, was banned. Family members were forced to live and work apart for long hours and often on starvation rations. Time constitutes a much bigger backdrop at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and is directly linked to the ways in which truth and knowledge are produced in the court. The ECCC is authorized to examine mass human rights violations that took place while the Khmer Rouge were in power – not before and not after. One of the key dangers of this transitional justice imaginary is that it directs attention away from social practice and the ways in which the meaning and understanding of such transitional justice processes are negotiated on the ground.
