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Today marks the annual Day of Remembrance, when Cambodians commemorate the estimated 2 million people who died in the “killing fields” during the Khmer Rouge regime. In the past, this day was especially important – for decades, the country held no trial or public reckoning to acknowledge these crimes or punish those responsible. Cambodians used this occasion to publicly discuss the tortures they experienced and demand justice.

While the long-awaited genocide tribunal is finally underway, it has been plagued by a lack of funds and charges of corruption. The former Khmer Rouge leaders on trial are old and frail, and many fear they will die before giving a full accounting of their actions. Of the four on trial, one already has died and another has been declared mentally incompetent.

Many Cambodians still long for more information about why so many were killed and who was responsible for those deaths between 1975 and 1979. The Khmer Rouge regime was so secretive that its crimes have yet to be fully understood, and the identities of many involved remain unknown. A short history of the Khmer Rouge wasn’t included in Cambodian school textbooks until 2010 – more than 30 years after the fall of the regime.

In this excerpt from the Emmy-nominated “Enemies of the People,” journalist Thet Sambath embarks on a quest to track down the former killers for the Khmer Rouge to understand what happened and why. He spent 10 years gaining unprecedented access to the men and women who perpetrated the massacres. The journey is especially personal for Sambath, who lost most of his family to the Khmer Rouge.

“I do this work not just for my mother and brother and sister,” Sambath says, “I do it for all the people.”

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Amanda Pike (she/her) is the director of the TV and documentary department and executive producer of films and series at Reveal. Under her leadership, The Center for Investigative Reporting garnered its first Academy Award nomination and four national Emmys, among other accolades. She was the executive producer of the inaugural year of the Glassbreaker Films initiative, supporting women in documentary filmmaking and investigative journalism. She has spent the past two decades reporting and producing documentaries for PBS, CBS, ABC, National Geographic, A&E, Lifetime and The Learning Channel, among others. Subjects have ranged from militia members in Utah to young entrepreneurs in Egypt and genocide perpetrators in Cambodia. Pike also has dabbled in fiction filmmaking, producing the short film “On the Assassination of the President,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She is a graduate of Princeton University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.