Documentation Center of Cambodia

In January 1979, Pol Pot and his brutal Khmer Rouge regime were defeated. Under new progressive leadership, the country struggled to re-emerge from the devastation and pioneer the difficult transition to a new era of peace and tranquility for a country and people that had endured an unprecedented reign of terror. That era of peace and tranquility continued as Cambodia embarked on the 21st century and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the ECCC, successfully prosecuted and imprisoned senior regime leaders in a sequence of criminal trials that many Cambodians viewed in person. Justice having been served, even if imperfectly, the country and its people are now poised to enter an era of greater peace and tranquility. That peace will be inspired by how the nation reconciled itself to this difficult era and triumphed over it, confident that the tragedy it created will never be repeated.