Dealing with traumatic issues on a regular basis puts people at risk of themselves being traumatized
Lately, I have just found out something important.
Supporters of persons with severe mental health issues, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), risk getting severe Burnout Syndrome. This may be especially true for NGO workers in Cambodia working within psychosocial services. These people often make, more or less, conscientious commitments towards self-improvement and recognize it as a chance to develop their own personality pattern. However, few realize that dealing with traumatic issues or traumatized people on a regular basis puts them at risk of themselves being traumatized, or at the very least, suffering from mental or physical exhaustion. It is a fact that health care workers are prone to burnout…
Solutions:
1. Develop a realistic picture of yourself – know what you’re feeling and why.
2. Set realistic goals for yourself.
3. Recognize the symptoms of stress and burnout.
4. Ask for help when needed.
5. Develop a structural and personal support system.
6. Retain hope.
7. Develop a detached concern for recipients of your efforts.
8. Maintain an active personal social life outside of work.
9. Take a “time-out†when necessary.
10. Maintain a regimen of proper nutrition and physical exercise.
11. Develop a sense of organizational involvement.
12. Be willing to accept counseling when needed.
13. Develop self-therapies such as meditation, biofeedback, or relaxation response.
14. Accentuate the positive. (2)
15. To be able to support people who struggle with high tension and inner stress, professional social workers should educate themselves in anger management, conflict resolution, and relaxation techniques.
If you have found these symptoms in yourself or in other people, please read on.
Ailing Former KR Top Leaders
The major concern in the KR tribunal process is the advanced age and deteriorating health of those former leaders. It is worried that they could die before the official trials begin. For instance, Khieu Samphan is being hospitalized at Calmette Hospital while Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith have frequently visited hospital. Even Duch is getting old.
Cambodians living inside and outside the country want the trial of the former Khmer Rouge leaders to get underway as soon as possible in order to reveal the masterminds of the Khmer Rouge and the reasons behind the mass killings. If it is still delayed, they are afraid that those aging former Khmer Rouge leaders being detained at the special tribunal’s detention center could just pass away before the trial. All the Cambodians would regret all the mysteries that would remain unknown if the unwanted guess happened.
Observers of the Khmer Rouge tribunal have not believed that the hybrid tribunal could seek justice for Cambodian victims, despite the participation of the United Nations. Indeed, since its commencement, the hybrid tribunal has spent tens of million dollars without noticeable results. Moreover, according to senior Khmer Rouge tribunal officials, the official trials will be delayed to late 2008 or early 2009.
Some independent observers and civil society officials have criticized the Khmer Rouge tribunal for its unwillingness to seek justice for the victims. “If the Khmer Rouge tribunal is established for the sake of the victims, the trials will begin soon,†they said.
What do you think?
Is Ieng Thirith Really Mentally ill?
The former Khmer Rouge leader whose health is fragile and who is mentally ill could threaten the trial in the Khmer Rouge court, according to a lawyer for the accused.
Pat Pov Seang told Phnom Penh Post Wednesday last week that he had seen Thai doctors’ documents and that it claimed that his client, Ieng Thirith, former Democratic Kampuchea Social Actions minister, had a metal problem, which she could not appear in the trial. Both Ieng Thirith and her husband, former DK Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, had been to Thailand regularly to have their illnesses treated, before their arrest in November last year.
Pat Pov Seang said that if the judges conform to the law, she (Ieng Thirith) should be released since they could not punish those with mental illnesses.
Her family members who had visited her in the detention center in the Khmer Rouge tribunal said similarly that she was seriously ill and should be released. “She is ill, so she should not be kept under detention,” Phnom Penh Post quoted Seng Rorn, Ieng Thirith’s son-in-law, as saying. He, however, said that it depended on the lawyers and the judges to decide whether or not she should be remanded on bail.
So far, the former Khmer Rouge top leaders are becoming old and ailing. For example, Pol Pot has passed away without going through this public and formal trial. Obviously, people think that all the detained former top KR leaders were behind the Khmer Rouge regime which killed 1.7 million Cambodians. As a result, many people besides the dead have been victimized and living through trauma, just like mentally ill people. Who should be held responsible for this?
People just need justice, not anther victim to appear at all. If the ECCC did not try to accelerate the trial process more quickly, would all the former KR top leaders claim that they themselves are too aging to be tried or some kind of excuse?
Should low-level Khmer Rouge Officials Be Tried after the top five?
So far, only five former top Khmer Rouge leaders have been detained and the definite results have not been produced to the public. The question has not been definitely been answered.
However, the ECCC has told their aim that low-level officials or second/third-tiers will not be tried and only the top ones will be. Whereas, some people perceive this differently and want the ECCC to also bring low-level officials who were passive perpetrators to justice.
What about you? What do you think? Do you think the ECCC should try low-level officials?
KR Tribunal Seeks Funds to Try Five Top KR Leaders
The UN-joint Khmer Rouge tribunal was originally projected to require more than $56 million for its 3-year mandate. However, after the co-investigating judges and the co-prosecutors accused five former senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime of their responsibilities for the mass killing of as many as almost two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979, it has become so complicated.
The five Khmer Rouge detainees include: Nuon Chea, former president of the KR People’s Representative Assembly; Ieng Sary, former KR deputy prime minister and foreign minister; Khieu Samphan, former chairman of KR State Presidium; Ieng Thirith, former KR social actions minister; and Kiang Guek Eav, alias Duch, former director of Tuol Sleng or notorious S-21 torture center, where some 16,000 intellectuals, diplomats and Cambodians were executed.
The tribunal’s and government’s officials are seeking an extra fund of $114 million. However, the efforts to seek the fund for the trial of the five former Khmer Rouge leaders whom the co-investigating judges charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity have not produced any remarkable results yet.
It is also reported that after the trial of the five suspects, the Khmer Rouge tribunal plans to request for more funds from the UN in order to continue the investigation on other people. It is believed that at least 3 other former Khmer Rouge most responsible in region or division during the Khmer Rouge reign will be charged. Presently, some of them are residing in former Khmer Rouge strongholds while others are holding positions in the Royal [Cambodian] Armed Forces.
Up to now, Khmer Rouge tribunal’s officials have yet to request for a new budget to bring other people to justice, but instead it is looking for an extra fund to try the five currently detained former Khmer Rouge leaders.
Former Khmer Rouge Detained
 A former KR soldier involved in the killing of a British citizen and his Cambodian translator in 1996 was detained by the court under the charge of premeditated killing.
The Raksmey Kampuchea newspaper reported that Sin Dorn, a former Khmer Rouge soldier was arrested by military police on 2nd May 2008, in the Anlong Veng zone, stemming from an arrest warrant issue by the Phnom Penh municipal court. He was then sent to Phnom Penh where he arrived on 04 May.
Sin Dorn was taken to the court for questioning of 06 May. The court decided to detain him under the accusation of premeditated murder, and he is now waiting for further investigation in the case.
There are cases that former Khmer Rouge killed foreigners and more Cambodians even after the regime collapsed. One of them was committed by Chhuk Rin and Sambith who passed away on 18 February 2008 due to serious illness.