DC-Cam Reaches Outside Cambodia

Reported by Dacil Keo



Both inside Cambodia and among international circles focused on human rights, genocide studies, and international law, DC-Cam is known for its dedication to researching and documenting the Khmer Rouge era and for its outreach activities across the Cambodian countryside. In the past month alone, DC-Cam staff and volunteers traveled to the provinces of Strung Treng, Kampot, Preah Sihanouk, and Kratie to conduct local teacher trainings as part of its Genocide Education Project; organized meetings with civil party participants to educate them on Case 002 of the ECCC; conducted a seminar for 200 university students on accessing electronic Khmer Rouge resources; screened ECCC trial hearings and held discussions in villages in Pursat province; and traveled to several other provinces to assist Khmer Rouge victims file civil complaints to the ECCC. In the month of April, DC-Cam also expanded its global outreach efforts through lectures, photographic exhibitions, and community-based teaching initiatives. These efforts have led to an increase in the number of students who intern and conduct research in the summer at DC-Cam.



In the last two weeks, DC-Cam traveled across American universities to mount an exhibition on the Cambodian genocide and to promote its work. DC-Cam Director Youk Chhang traveled to several schools in the UC system including USC, UCSD, UCLA, and UC-Irvine, in addition to Stanford University, Cal State Long Beach, and Rutgers University to give presentations on the current state of Cambodian society in regards to the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge era. His visit was organized by Penny Edwards, Chair of the Center for Southeast Asian Center at UC-Berkeley, and Barbara Gaerlan, Assistant Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA, and funded by the U.S. Department of Education.



Mr. Chhang’s lecture tour of American universities began on April 19 in New Jersey at Rutgers University where Alexander Hinton, a scholar of the Cambodian genocide, leads the university’s Center for Conflict Resolution and Human Rights. A few days later on April 21, Director Chhang was in California to give a public lecture at UC-Berkeley. As UC-Berkeley and UCLA’s biannual Distinguished Visitor from Southeast Asia, Mr. Chhang gave a compelling presentation on the work of DC-Cam, his personal motivations, and the complicated issues of justice, reconciliation, and healing in Cambodian society. Following his hour-long presentation, Mr. Chhang spent another hour answering questions from audience members concerning human rights in Burma, the justifications for a tribunal in Cambodia, reactions of children of perpetrators, educational outreach, rule of law, and other complex questions. On the next day, Mr. Chhang was at Stanford University to present at the Graduate School of Business. Then on April 26, Mr. Chhang gave a talk at UCLA that was funded by the university’s International Institute. This lecture, similar to the others, focused on the difficulties of trying to mend the “broken pieces of Cambodian society.”



During his two weeks of visiting American universities, Mr. Chhang met with many students and professors to discuss in greater depth the issues he raised in his presentation. At UC-Berkeley, he worked with professors and library staff on the preservation of the classical Khmer poem, Tum Teav. This literary classic tells the story of a monk, Tum, and a young woman, Teav, who fall in love. Their relationship ends tragically however with the deaths of both Tum and Teav. This story is widely known and read in Cambodia and has been adapted into feature-length films. In 2005, DC-Cam published an English translation by George Chigas. At UC-Berkeley, the text has been used in courses on Southeast Asia.



Mr. Chhang attended a play by the Cambodian Student Association of UC-San Diego called Unspoken Words by third-year Cambodian-American student Jennifer Ka. The play by Ms. Ka made a great impression on Mr. Chhang due its strikingly similar in theme and tone to DC-Cam’s own Breaking the Silence. Both plays deal with the hardship of having open dialogues on the Khmer Rouge era among survivors. Breaking the Silence, directed by Amrita Performing Arts in Phnom Penh, has already undertaken two national tours and in April began airing its radio version on Voice of America-Khmer, a very popular radio program in Cambodia. The radio version of Breaking the Silence is available on VOA-Khmer’s website for public download.



DC-Cam photo exhibitions were mounted at USC on April 14 and Ohio University on April 30. At USC, the exhibition was held in mid April and sponsored by the Soah Foundation and the Levan Institute. Directors of both organizations, along with International Relations Lecturer and DC-Cam Deputy Director Mr. Kosal Path, and Cambodian genocide survivor Mr. Danny Vong, gave opening remarks at the exhibition. The exhibition at Ohio University accompanied a lecture on the ongoing Khmer Rouge Tribunal by Dr. John Ciorciari, Assistant Professor at Michigan University and DC-Cam’s Senior Legal Advisor. The lecture was organized by DC-Cam project leader Farina So and Ohio’s Southeast Asian Center’s Haley Duschinski.



Also in the month of April, several DC-Cam staffs concluded their three-month long internship at Lowell High School in Lowell, Massachusetts where they assisted teachers in teaching about Khmer Rouge history to students. The city of Lowell contains the second largest population of Cambodian immigrants and Cambodian-Americans after Long Beach, California.

Dr. Phala Chea, coauthor of Teacher’s Guidebook: the Teaching of A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979, helped organized this internship and worked with the textbook’s author, Khamboly Dy to facilitate the internship.



These outreach efforts in America have helped to nearly double the number of students (usually graduate and law students) who normally intern and conduct research at DC-Cam during the summer from 30 to 60 students. This summer, DC-Cam plans to host students from the following universities: Texas A&M, Seattle, Tulane, Rutgers, Colombia, Michigan, Temple, Georgetown, UW-Madison, Santa Clara, USC, USD, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, UC-Irvine, and the National War College. Students from these schools cover a wide range of disciplines including history, political science, documentary film, law, psychology, and international business. Among the group are several Cambodian-Americans: Jennifer Ka (US-San Diego), Monica Sar (UC-Irvine), Phanith Sovann (UC-Irvine), and Dacil Keo (UW-Madison).





For specific articles regarding each event, please visit:



Dr. Ciorciari at Ohio University:

http://www.faculty-commons.org/atlab/?p=1562



Mr. Chhang at USC:

http://college.usc.edu/vhi/events/detail.php?nid=1084



Mr. Chhang at Rutgers:

http://www1.voanews.com/khmer-english/news/kr-issues/Tribunal-Not-a-Cure-All-Experts-Warn-91823934.html



Mr. Chhang at UC-Berkeley:

http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/ihouse.html?event_ID=29878&



Mr. Chhang at UCLA:

http://www.international.ucla.edu/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=8034



Mr. Chhang at Stanford:

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/chhang-Cambodia.html



Lowell, Massachusetts:

http://www1.voanews.com/khmer-english/news/kr-issues/For-US-Cambodians-a-Question-of-Healing-91913754.html



Breaking the Silence from VOA-Khmer:

http://www1.voanews.com/khmer-english/news/special-reports/entertainment/Breaking-the-Silence--A-New-Cambodian-Play-91838704.html



A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979), Audio Reading from VOA-Khmer:

http://www1.voanews.com/khmer-english/news/special-reports/politics/Democratic-kampuchea-90092047.html