PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Giant anti-genocide banners will be displayed at
Cambodian schools starting next year as part of an ongoing quest to educate
the young about the country's
painful history.
The Education Ministry approved a request to hang two banners at all 1,700
high schools nationwide, according to the country's leading independent
Khmer Rouge research group, which proposed the idea and made the ministry's
approval letter public on Tuesday.
The banners are part of an ongoing effort to fill a knowledge gap among the
young about the Khmer Rouge's brutal 1975-79 rule that left 1.7 million dead
through hunger, disease and executions, said Youk Chhang, director of The
Documentation Center of Cambodia.
One of the slogans will say: "Learning about the history of Democratic
Kampuchea is to prevent genocide," he said.
The other slogan reads, "Talking about experiences during the Khmer Rouge
regime is to promote reconciliation and to educate children about
forgiveness and tolerance."
The Documentation Center of Cambodia published the country's first Khmer
Rouge textbook, which is still being distributed to high schools, and
provided a multitude of documents about the regime's 1975-79 reign of terror
to the ongoing U.N.-backed tribunal.
"Having these slogans at school will help remind students about the
important history of their country and also to help them remember and
commemorate those who died," Youk Chhang said. He said the larger banner
would be roughly 6 feet by 13 feet (2 meters by 4 meters) and the other
would be about half that size.
The first and long-awaited verdict from the U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal
is expected next month. The tribunal will hand down its verdict July 26
against Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, the Khmer Rouge prison chief
accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture.
Trials of four other aging Khmer Rouge leaders are expected to begin late
this year or early next year.
Photo
A Cambodian student reads a newly-delivered copy of "A History of Democratic
Kampuchea" in Anlong Veng, in Uddor Mean Chey province, about 300 kilometers
(185 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, June 21, 2010. Cambodian
students in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold were issued the textbook
Monday that for the first time teaches the atrocities of the past, a little
more than a decade after government forces captured the movement's last
bastion. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Youk Chhang, Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
66 Sihanouk Blvd.,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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About Me
- Duong Dara
- Dara Duong was born in 1971 in Battambang province, Cambodia. His life changed forever at age four, when the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. During the regime that controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979, Dara’s father, grandparents, uncle and aunt were executed, along with almost 3 million other Cambodians. Dara’s mother managed to keep him and his brothers and sisters together and survive the years of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, when the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia, she did not want to live under Communist rule. She fled with her family to a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border, where they lived for more than ten years. Since arriving in the United States, Dara’s goal has been to educate people about the rich Cambodian culture that the Khmer Rouge tried to destroy and about the genocide, so that the world will not stand by and allow such atrocities to occur again. Toward that end, he has created the Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial, which began in his garage and is now in White Center, Washington. Dara’s story is one of survival against enormous odds, one of perseverance, one of courage and hope.
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