National Archives of Cambodia
A Department of the Prime Minister's Cabinet, Council of Ministers, the
National Archives of Cambodia (NAC) is responsible for preserving documents created by the government of Cambodia which possess enduring legal and historic value. It also aims to serve the government in research, and assist in establishing an efficient and systematic records management service, as stipulated in National Archives circulars.
The NAC is divided into the following sections: (i) Administration; (ii) Technical Archive Services; and (iii) Repository Services. It operates currently with a staff of 20, 10 of whom work in the NAC repository itself and the remainder in Administration and Technical Archive Services office, which is situated in a different location.
The National Archives repository houses some 1,800 linear metres of documents, covering every field of government administration. As of 2004 the holdings of the NAC comprised the following collections:
● Records of the Résident Supérieur of Cambodia cover the French colonial period from 1863 to 1954; they comprise by far the largest and most complete collection of the National Archives, containing over 38,000 records from all the various services of the French administration, from commune level up to national level.
● Maps and plans, produced mostly during the colonial period, including maps of Cambodia, of the provinces, cadastral plans, architectural plans of public buildings and the
Royal Palace, various commercial and political posters, public announcements.
● Post-1970 records of the Council of Ministers have been acquired which may be accessed subject to the approval of the Senior Minister at the Council of Ministers. However, records of the post-colonial governments of Cambodia from the 1950s and 1960s were held at their respective government ministries in 1975 and have largely dissappeared - it is possible that many of these documents were thrown out when the population returned to Phnom Penh.
● Publications, periodicals and official journals include the official journals of the French administration of Cambodia, which reassemble in chronological order all laws, decrees, decisions, appointments and other official acts of the colonial administration. Following independence in 1954 the official journals continued to be published until 1972. Publication recommenced in 1983 in Khmer under the title of Reachkeach.
● Commercial records of the Pol Pot regime comprise over 100,000 pages of commerce records from the Commerce Ministry of Democratic Kampuchea, including treaties, bills of lading, list of exports, shipping records and a vast archive of other documentation on the internal and external trade of DK. The
Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), an NGO, also has an extensive collection of documents on the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot Regime.
● Records of the Genocide Tribunal of 1979, organised after the fall of Pol Pot’s Democratic Kampuchea, consist primarily of written testimonies from survivors. Most testimonies have been translated from Khmer into French and English. Researchers need special permission of the Council of Ministers to consult this collection of documents.
● Documentation Collection comprising mainly publications relating to Cambodia or published in Cambodia from the colonial period to present day. The collection also includes speeches, ceremonies and political statements by His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk during the Sangkum period; there are over 3,500 titles in this collection.
● Newspapers from the early 1920s to present day published in French, Khmer, Chinese and Vietnamese, although many are in too fragile a condition to be consulted.
● Records of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) from 1992-1995 stem from the processing of land disputes and complaints relating to the ownership of real estate in Cambodia. The records are arranged by province and complainant’s name, and a detailed inventory is available.
● Photographs, including a collection of over 2,000 black and white photographs taken between 1961 and 1969, focusing on the achievements of the Sangkhum Reastr Niyum government. They feature His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk at special functions and meeting foreign dignitaries such as President Charles de Gaulle, Jacqui Kennedy, and Joseph Tito. Photographs from the French period also make up this collection and are available in digital format.
● Political and public information posters, numbering over 500, document events and education campaigns from 1954 and include images of His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk, politicians and other public figures, making it an important documentary source covering a period where few documents survive. An inventory in Khmer is available.
The recognition of archives as being important instruments in the democratic process, holding people accountable for their actions, as well as being a tool for research, is still some time away in Cambodia. Cambodia’s history of social upheaval and its limited recognition of the written word have been the major obstacles to archives being accorded a high priority. Nevertheless from the mid-1980s, with Vietnamese and Soviet assistance, the socialist government attempted to restore the National Archives as an important means ‘to review experiences in all areas of each revolutionary era’ (introduction to the directive from the Cambodian People’s Revolutionary Party, 15 May 1986).
In 1995, with the assistance of international volunteers and funding from various international donors, the NAC was able to begin a project of institutional strengthening and capacity building. Thousands of files, books, newspapers, journals, posters and photographs have been sorted and a database for the French period archives has been established based on the original French Archives classification system devised in 1918 by Boudet. Significant progress has been made in improving the conditions under which records are kept. Staff have been trained in conservation methods and there is now a small conservation room where they can carry out basic conservation repair work on maps, plans, posters, newspapers and other documents. Staff have also been trained in computer skills and have attended English language classes.
Much progress has been made using only small amounts of funding and taking on basic tasks that have long term benefits. However, the development of the NAC is susceptible to stalling since it is still dependent on technical and financial assistance from abroad, and long term donor commitments designed to keep in pace with the development of the government are needed.
