ICC-ASP-20100603-PR536
In the context of the stocktaking exercise on international criminal
justice, a “Peace and Justice” session was held during the Review Conference
in Kampala. The debates offered an opportunity for States to affirm that
peace and justice are complementary, rather than mutually exclusive.
The first speaker of the panel, Mr David Tolbert, President of the
International Center for Transitional Justice, stated that the long-term
benefits of pursuing justice far outweigh any short-term benefits of
amnesties. He also pointed out that the role of the Prosecutor needs to be
understood: he has to know the situation on the ground and be conscious of
the importance of the timing of issuing arrest warrants.
Mr James LeMoyne, former Special Adviser for Colombia to the United Nations
Secretary-General, addressed the panel by stressing that peace processes
that take justice into account are more sustainable and lasting. If
mediators would be allowed to have some flexibility on how to approach
justice issues in particular regarding timing, that would help their work
considerably. Nevertheless, this flexibility should not be extended to the
most serious crimes under the Rome Statute.
Mr Barney Afako, Legal Adviser to the Chief Mediator on the Ugandan peace
process negotiations, stated that the dilemma of contradicting strategies to
render justice and establish peace would exist as long as there are ongoing
conflicts.
In spite of the fact that it took 30 years to start prosecuting some of the
perpetrators of the Cambodian genocide, not a single day did the victims
forget that they wanted justice, explained Mr Chhang Youk, Director of the
Documentation Center of Cambodia.
In his closing remarks the moderator of the panel, Mr Kenneth Roth,
Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, highlighted that the establishment
of the International Criminal Court (ICC) had indeed brought about a
paradigm shift: whereas before the discussion was called “peace versus
justice”, you could now observe an understanding of peace and justice as
allies which sustain one another. Nevertheless, tensions between cessation
of violence and justice could arise which had to be addressed and managed
carefully. Furthermore, Mr Roth pointed to some new challenges resulting
from the ICC’s existence. Mediators had to find ways to convince parties to
come to the negotiating table against the backdrop of actual or possible
indictments. The potential deterrent effect of justice would be undermined
if it was viewed as an exceptional or negotiable measure.
The panelists generally agreed that alternative transitional justice
mechanisms should not be seen as an alternative, but rather supplementary to
criminal justice processes, with the ICC concentrating on the most serious
crimes.
As for victims, experience showed that their views shifted over time, with
the immediate goal for peace followed by a quest for justice.
Finally, Mr. Roth stated that the establishment of the ICC constituted a
development as momentous as the adoption of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. He called on States to demonstrate their commitment through
executing arrest warrants and standing up to those that defy the ICC.
Summary of Peace and Justice panel.
http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/asp_docs/RC2010/RC-ST-PJ-1-ENG.pdf
Further information about the Review Conference can be found on the website
of the International Criminal Court at:
http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ASP/ReviewConference/Review+Conference.htm.
For additional information please contact Ms. Bettina Ambach (+256
787-700-942, email: Bettina@bettinaambach.de) or Ms. Suzan Khan at (+256
787-105-832, email: suzan22@btinternet.com)
Source: Assembly of States Parties
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
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Investigators' spat reveals more divisions at Khmer Rouge tribunal
Jun 9, 2010, 11:36 GMT
Phnom Penh - Further divisions in Cambodia's war crimes tribunal came to
light Wednesday after its two senior investigators openly disagreed on when
to proceed with cases against five new suspects.
The hybrid UN-Cambodian court, which is tasked with trying those responsible
for Khmer Rouge-era crimes, has a dual structure in which local and foreign
staff fill equal positions in each of the court's operational areas.
Documents released Wednesday showed Cambodian investigating judge You
Bunleng reversed an earlier agreement with his international counterpart to
start investigations into the five suspects, none of whom has been named by
the court.
Court spokesman Lars Olsen said tribunal rules meant international
investigating judge Marcel Lemonde would proceed alone.
'The international investigating judge will go ahead by himself and start
the investigation,' Olsen said.
In his memorandum to Lemonde, You Bunleng said he had changed his mind after
taking into account several factors, including the state of Cambodia's
society.
That echoed comments made by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has argued that the
prosecutions could lead to civil war. His weighing-in on the tribunal led to
accusations of political interference.
You Bunleng told his international counterpart that they could discuss the
issue in September once formal notices to prosecute four ageing Khmer Rouge
leaders now in custody were issued.
Youk Chhang - who heads DC-Cam, an archive of material relating to the
1975-79 rule of the Khmer Rouge - said he was encouraged that You Bunleng
had not ruled out investigating the new cases.
'The good news is that he is not saying no,' Youk Chhang said in reference
to fears that political pressure could stop those cases.
Judgement in the tribunal's first case - that of the former head of the S-21
prison, Comrade Duch - was scheduled for July 26. Duch was prosecuted for
war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the deaths of more
than 12,000 people who entered S-21 in Phnom Penh.
The four surviving senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge are in detention for
their alleged involvement in the deaths of 1.7 million people. Their trials
were expected to begin early next year.
The four are: former Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, the movement's ideologue;
former head of state Khieu Samphan; former foreign minister Ieng Sary; and
his wife, the former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.
Around 1.7 million people are thought to have died from execution, disease,
starvation and overwork during the Khmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia. Its
leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 on the Thai-Cambodian border.
© 2003 - 2010 by Monsters and Critics.com, WotR Ltd. 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
Phnom Penh - Further divisions in Cambodia's war crimes tribunal came to
light Wednesday after its two senior investigators openly disagreed on when
to proceed with cases against five new suspects.
The hybrid UN-Cambodian court, which is tasked with trying those responsible
for Khmer Rouge-era crimes, has a dual structure in which local and foreign
staff fill equal positions in each of the court's operational areas.
Documents released Wednesday showed Cambodian investigating judge You
Bunleng reversed an earlier agreement with his international counterpart to
start investigations into the five suspects, none of whom has been named by
the court.
Court spokesman Lars Olsen said tribunal rules meant international
investigating judge Marcel Lemonde would proceed alone.
'The international investigating judge will go ahead by himself and start
the investigation,' Olsen said.
In his memorandum to Lemonde, You Bunleng said he had changed his mind after
taking into account several factors, including the state of Cambodia's
society.
That echoed comments made by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has argued that the
prosecutions could lead to civil war. His weighing-in on the tribunal led to
accusations of political interference.
You Bunleng told his international counterpart that they could discuss the
issue in September once formal notices to prosecute four ageing Khmer Rouge
leaders now in custody were issued.
Youk Chhang - who heads DC-Cam, an archive of material relating to the
1975-79 rule of the Khmer Rouge - said he was encouraged that You Bunleng
had not ruled out investigating the new cases.
'The good news is that he is not saying no,' Youk Chhang said in reference
to fears that political pressure could stop those cases.
Judgement in the tribunal's first case - that of the former head of the S-21
prison, Comrade Duch - was scheduled for July 26. Duch was prosecuted for
war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the deaths of more
than 12,000 people who entered S-21 in Phnom Penh.
The four surviving senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge are in detention for
their alleged involvement in the deaths of 1.7 million people. Their trials
were expected to begin early next year.
The four are: former Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, the movement's ideologue;
former head of state Khieu Samphan; former foreign minister Ieng Sary; and
his wife, the former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.
Around 1.7 million people are thought to have died from execution, disease,
starvation and overwork during the Khmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia. Its
leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 on the Thai-Cambodian border.
© 2003 - 2010 by Monsters and Critics.com, WotR Ltd. 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
Village Forum and Discussion on Khmer Kampuchea Krom with the ECCC International Prosecutor Rumlech commune, Pursat province
June 13, 2010
The Living Documents Project will conduct its second large scale village forum with Khmer Kampuchea Krom community in Pursat on June 13, 2010. With participation of the judicial official of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) as guest speaker, the village forum intends to provide the community members with significant discussion on issue surrounding Genocide Crime charged against the Khmer Krom which was denied by ECCC’s co-investigating judges. In addition, topic of this discussion would also be centered on the Khmer Kampuchea Krom’s sufferings and atrocities that the Khmer Rouge has committed on them.
Last year, the Living Documents project held its first community forum in Wat Rumlech pagoda to discuss the possibility in erecting a memorial for those victims, especially the Khmer Krom, who were executed under the Khmer Rouge regime. Previously, the last forum has invited the local authority, the DC-Cam staff members and scholars, and local community members to come together to discuss about local initiative in building such meaningful monument to remember to the victims. Now that the ECCC or commonly known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal decided to charge those suspects of the current investigating case 002 with genocide charges and crimes against humanity against Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese minorities, without inclusion of Khmer Krom in the decision, the forum is even more important to develop into well awareness so that the community eases suspect on ECCC’s scope of investigation.
The forum will be presided over by the district chief, who has been actively engaging in social activities regarding the process of delivering justice and been supportive to the idea of memorials construction. Beside, the ECCC’s international co-prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, will also be presented as a guest speaker to discuss about the current issues related to the criminal suspect on Case 002 and issues related to Khmer Kampuchea Krom. And finally, DC-Cam’s director, Youk Chhang and Living Documents’ team members will be on site to facilitate the discussion. Following the spectacular debate on this significant topic, the forum will lay out invaluable opportunity for local villagers to directly interact with the ECCC’s official through question and answer session. Finally, the Living Documents team will take the chance to conduct individual interview with participants for their personal experiences and comments on the forum and the concepts of forgiveness, especially among the community members.
For more information, please contact:
- Savina Sirik: 012 688 046
- Dara Vanthan: 012 846 526
The Living Documents Project at DC-Cam is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy of Human Rights and Labor with support from Cambodia ’s Ministry of Interiors.
___________
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010052639276/National-news/justice-for-the-khmer-krom.html
Justice for the Khmer Krom
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 15:02 John D Ciorciari
As KR leaders face their fate at the ECCC, the court should not forget other victims.
After more than 30 years of impunity, some key architects of the Khmer Rouge reign of terror are finally being held accountable at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The upcoming joint trial of Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirth and Khieu Samphan holds promise for survivors who have waited too long for justice.
Unfortunately, one important set of crimes is in danger of exclusion. In January, the ECCC's co-investigating judges decided to charge the suspects with genocide and crimes against humanity against Cambodia's Cham Muslim and ethnic Vietnamese minorities, but not the Khmer Krom - ethnic Khmers with roots in southern Vietnam. The ECCC's pre-trial chamber recently upheld that decision.
The pre-trial chamber grounded its decision partly on a technicality. Months ago, the co-prosecutors sent a memo to the co-investigating judges about possible genocide against Khmer Krom in Pursat province. They titled the memo an "investigative request" rather than a "supplementary submission". The latter title would have triggered an investigation; the former may cost some Khmer Krom survivors their deserved day in court. But the pre-trial chamber's decision does leave some room for reconsideration. It does not bar the possibility that the co-prosecutors can simply white-out the old title, type on a new one and resubmit their memo as a "supplementary submission". The co-prosecutors ought to do so.
The ECCC cannot account for the myriad offenses of Democratic Kampuchea (DK), but there are good reasons to hear out the Khmer Krom, who have long argued that their community suffered genocide and targeted crimes against humanity. Indeed, documents and survivor accounts indicate that the DK regime sometimes targeted Khmer Krom for abuse. In at least one well-documented case, Khmer Krom were butchered en masse. In 1977, hundreds were rounded up and massacred in Pursat's Bakan district - a calculated mass murder with some chilling parallels to the Srebrenica Massacre of 1995. Such offenses demand investigation and justice.
The reasons for these atrocities remain subject to debate. The Khmer Krom spoke Vietnamese and brought syncretic cultural practices from the Mekong Delta. Cultural disdain may thus have contributed to their plight. Under the Pol Pot regime, persons with foreign cultural characteristics were suspect. Depending on the evidence, the ECCC could find that senior DK officials committed genocide by seeking to destroy Khmer Krom based on their perceived ethnic impurity.
The case for crimes against humanity is easier because it encompasses abuses based on political motives. Political targeting of the Khmer Krom was clearly at work. The communist DK regime bitterly resented the prominent roles Khmer Krom played in Lon Nol's Khmer Republic and the CIA's Mobile Strike Force Command during the Vietnam War. The Khmer Rouge also regarded ties to Vietnam as politically suspect after 1975, when the xenophobic DK regime turned its back on Hanoi. Documents show that Vietnamese-speaking Khmer Krom were often singled out as potential spies and purged for that reason.
The complex case of the Khmer Krom lies at the heart of unresolved questions about the DK regime. For three decades, survivors and scholars have tried to discern the motives for Khmer Rouge brutality. Was the killing driven primarily by excesses in radical communism? Or was the violence also rooted to a considerable extent in racism and nationalism?
The legal distinction between genocide and other grave crimes is sometimes unhelpful. In Cambodia, it risks suggesting that certain victims suffered more than others, when in reality all suffered horrific abuses. This
distinction is nevertheless useful in trying to properly understand the terror in Democratic Kampuchea. By examining crimes against the Khmer Krom, the ECCC can help shed light on the true animus of the DK regime.
The ECCC does not have infinite resources, and it is rightly under pressure to rein in its budget and speed up the trials. However, ECCC officials must be wise in deciding how and where to cut and prune. Adjudicating crimes against the Khmer Krom in Pursat would add little to the hefty sum of time and money already spent on the trials. In fact, the court's investigators and prosecutors have completed most of the necessary investigation evidencing these crimes. Bypassing the Khmer Krom case would deny this important and courageous community a sense of justice. The ECCC could also fail to reveal some of the most illuminating truths about the Pol Pot regime.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John D Ciorciari is an assistant professor of Public Policy at the
University of Michigan and a senior legal advisor with the Documentation
Centre of Cambodia.
Copyright © 2010 The Phnom Penh Post. 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
The Living Documents Project will conduct its second large scale village forum with Khmer Kampuchea Krom community in Pursat on June 13, 2010. With participation of the judicial official of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) as guest speaker, the village forum intends to provide the community members with significant discussion on issue surrounding Genocide Crime charged against the Khmer Krom which was denied by ECCC’s co-investigating judges. In addition, topic of this discussion would also be centered on the Khmer Kampuchea Krom’s sufferings and atrocities that the Khmer Rouge has committed on them.
Last year, the Living Documents project held its first community forum in Wat Rumlech pagoda to discuss the possibility in erecting a memorial for those victims, especially the Khmer Krom, who were executed under the Khmer Rouge regime. Previously, the last forum has invited the local authority, the DC-Cam staff members and scholars, and local community members to come together to discuss about local initiative in building such meaningful monument to remember to the victims. Now that the ECCC or commonly known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal decided to charge those suspects of the current investigating case 002 with genocide charges and crimes against humanity against Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese minorities, without inclusion of Khmer Krom in the decision, the forum is even more important to develop into well awareness so that the community eases suspect on ECCC’s scope of investigation.
The forum will be presided over by the district chief, who has been actively engaging in social activities regarding the process of delivering justice and been supportive to the idea of memorials construction. Beside, the ECCC’s international co-prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, will also be presented as a guest speaker to discuss about the current issues related to the criminal suspect on Case 002 and issues related to Khmer Kampuchea Krom. And finally, DC-Cam’s director, Youk Chhang and Living Documents’ team members will be on site to facilitate the discussion. Following the spectacular debate on this significant topic, the forum will lay out invaluable opportunity for local villagers to directly interact with the ECCC’s official through question and answer session. Finally, the Living Documents team will take the chance to conduct individual interview with participants for their personal experiences and comments on the forum and the concepts of forgiveness, especially among the community members.
For more information, please contact:
- Savina Sirik: 012 688 046
- Dara Vanthan: 012 846 526
The Living Documents Project at DC-Cam is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy of Human Rights and Labor with support from Cambodia ’s Ministry of Interiors.
___________
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010052639276/National-news/justice-for-the-khmer-krom.html
Justice for the Khmer Krom
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 15:02 John D Ciorciari
As KR leaders face their fate at the ECCC, the court should not forget other victims.
After more than 30 years of impunity, some key architects of the Khmer Rouge reign of terror are finally being held accountable at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The upcoming joint trial of Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirth and Khieu Samphan holds promise for survivors who have waited too long for justice.
Unfortunately, one important set of crimes is in danger of exclusion. In January, the ECCC's co-investigating judges decided to charge the suspects with genocide and crimes against humanity against Cambodia's Cham Muslim and ethnic Vietnamese minorities, but not the Khmer Krom - ethnic Khmers with roots in southern Vietnam. The ECCC's pre-trial chamber recently upheld that decision.
The pre-trial chamber grounded its decision partly on a technicality. Months ago, the co-prosecutors sent a memo to the co-investigating judges about possible genocide against Khmer Krom in Pursat province. They titled the memo an "investigative request" rather than a "supplementary submission". The latter title would have triggered an investigation; the former may cost some Khmer Krom survivors their deserved day in court. But the pre-trial chamber's decision does leave some room for reconsideration. It does not bar the possibility that the co-prosecutors can simply white-out the old title, type on a new one and resubmit their memo as a "supplementary submission". The co-prosecutors ought to do so.
The ECCC cannot account for the myriad offenses of Democratic Kampuchea (DK), but there are good reasons to hear out the Khmer Krom, who have long argued that their community suffered genocide and targeted crimes against humanity. Indeed, documents and survivor accounts indicate that the DK regime sometimes targeted Khmer Krom for abuse. In at least one well-documented case, Khmer Krom were butchered en masse. In 1977, hundreds were rounded up and massacred in Pursat's Bakan district - a calculated mass murder with some chilling parallels to the Srebrenica Massacre of 1995. Such offenses demand investigation and justice.
The reasons for these atrocities remain subject to debate. The Khmer Krom spoke Vietnamese and brought syncretic cultural practices from the Mekong Delta. Cultural disdain may thus have contributed to their plight. Under the Pol Pot regime, persons with foreign cultural characteristics were suspect. Depending on the evidence, the ECCC could find that senior DK officials committed genocide by seeking to destroy Khmer Krom based on their perceived ethnic impurity.
The case for crimes against humanity is easier because it encompasses abuses based on political motives. Political targeting of the Khmer Krom was clearly at work. The communist DK regime bitterly resented the prominent roles Khmer Krom played in Lon Nol's Khmer Republic and the CIA's Mobile Strike Force Command during the Vietnam War. The Khmer Rouge also regarded ties to Vietnam as politically suspect after 1975, when the xenophobic DK regime turned its back on Hanoi. Documents show that Vietnamese-speaking Khmer Krom were often singled out as potential spies and purged for that reason.
The complex case of the Khmer Krom lies at the heart of unresolved questions about the DK regime. For three decades, survivors and scholars have tried to discern the motives for Khmer Rouge brutality. Was the killing driven primarily by excesses in radical communism? Or was the violence also rooted to a considerable extent in racism and nationalism?
The legal distinction between genocide and other grave crimes is sometimes unhelpful. In Cambodia, it risks suggesting that certain victims suffered more than others, when in reality all suffered horrific abuses. This
distinction is nevertheless useful in trying to properly understand the terror in Democratic Kampuchea. By examining crimes against the Khmer Krom, the ECCC can help shed light on the true animus of the DK regime.
The ECCC does not have infinite resources, and it is rightly under pressure to rein in its budget and speed up the trials. However, ECCC officials must be wise in deciding how and where to cut and prune. Adjudicating crimes against the Khmer Krom in Pursat would add little to the hefty sum of time and money already spent on the trials. In fact, the court's investigators and prosecutors have completed most of the necessary investigation evidencing these crimes. Bypassing the Khmer Krom case would deny this important and courageous community a sense of justice. The ECCC could also fail to reveal some of the most illuminating truths about the Pol Pot regime.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John D Ciorciari is an assistant professor of Public Policy at the
University of Michigan and a senior legal advisor with the Documentation
Centre of Cambodia.
Copyright © 2010 The Phnom Penh Post. 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
Forgiveness Is Difficult for Vork Ty
Kok-Thay Eng
Vork Ty is a Cham woman living in Chankiek village, Ourussey commune, Kampong Tralach district, Kampong Chhnang province. She is 45 years old, and when the Khmer Rouge took control of Kampong Tralach in 1975 she was 15 years old. Vork Ty is careful to say that she does not remember many events that happened before the Lon Nol regime and she can only describe what happened to her village when the Khmer Rouge intensified its grip on Cambodia . Vork Ty does not remember when US B-52 bombers sprayed the Cambodian countryside with bombs, images that are still vivid in the memories of many Cambodian survivors today. What Vork Ty remembers is only the blurry images and sounds of low flying aircraft just above the tree tops, strafing people running to take cover.
When asked her opinion about America , Vork Ty said she does not know the United States ’ policies today or what it did about the bombing of Cambodia . The only things she knows about the United States are the American people who come to visit her village and ask villagers about their living conditions. Some have supported her village with English language tutoring and smaller village projects. Currently the embassy of the United States provides funding for her Imam San sect community to conduct a small research project on the traditional Cham dialect. She said, “Many Americans I meet are very nice. So I like America .”
Under the Khmer Rouge regime, Vork Ty lost an elder sister who was executed after stealing food in Kampong Chhnang. She does not know where her sister was buried or the larger details surrounding her death. The news about her death came to her through fellow villagers who were kind enough to send her family the bad news. Vork Ty, however, remains grateful that only her sister perished under the Khmer Rouge, while the rest of her family survived the regime. Vork Ty never blamed Allah for her and her family’s ordeal or for the death of her sister, but she is grateful to Allah that her family did not suffer as much as other families in the village. Before 1975 there were 63 families in Chankiek village, but in 1979 only 33 families returned to the village. Vork Ty’s faith in Islam remains strong, even stronger than it was before the Khmer Rouge. Indeed many villagers in her village think the same. They see the suffering under the Khmer Rouge regime as a suffering that happened to everyone including Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and Muslims. Thus God is not to blame.
Many villagers in Chankiek village were evacuated from their homes when the Khmer Rouge completely controlled Cambodia . They were sent many places: some to Khmer villages, a few others to Cham villages. Many of them were forced to eat pork, and women were not allowed to keep their hair long. They were not allowed to speak the Cham language. They were ordered to change their Cham names and given new Khmer names. Qurans were collected and burned. However, according to a woman in Chankiek village, one Khmer Rouge cadre also showed pragmatism in his practice of atheism. The cadre forced a woman to eat food with some pork hidden inside. When she ate the food she threw up in front of the cadre. The cadre thought that this showed that not eating pork was not only a belief, but also that some Cham people could not digest pork. The cadre therefore never asked her to eat pork again. Some village men reported that a Cham died after he was forced to eat pork due to sickness.
In early 1975, Vork Ty’s family moved from Chankiek village to a small town just 15 kilometers away, south of Udong. The first time she encountered the Khmer Rouge was when they marched into the town and ordered everyone to leave. She said her family and others left in haste. On a small dirt road leading away from the town, people marched with their belongings. Nobody dared stray from the road because the Khmer Rouge would shoot them if they did. Vork Ty’s family was sent to Kampong Cham. She was put to work in a children’s unit. She used to speak with some Khmer Rouge cadres and village guards in the field. She said she was very scared of the Khmer Rouge but she was never victimized by them in any brutal way. She saw a child who was tortured with plastic bag covering her head and beaten until she almost fainted. Later the child disappeared.
Although she did not suffer nearly as much as other victims of the Khmer Rouge, Vork Ty can not forgive Khmer Rouge leaders. She is also certain that other women she knows would not be able to forgive them because they lost too many loved ones. She said, “The loss to some families is too great to forgive anyone.” Vork Ty knows through newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, and television shows that there is a Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh . She also heard that what’s being done at the court is intended to help people feel relief that some degree of justice can be given to the victims, but won’t bring the complete justice that victims of murder should receive. She said, “It is only symbolic. It would be disappointing if any of the Khmer Rouge leaders currently on trial were released. I want them to stay in prison for the rest of their lives.”
END.
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
Vork Ty is a Cham woman living in Chankiek village, Ourussey commune, Kampong Tralach district, Kampong Chhnang province. She is 45 years old, and when the Khmer Rouge took control of Kampong Tralach in 1975 she was 15 years old. Vork Ty is careful to say that she does not remember many events that happened before the Lon Nol regime and she can only describe what happened to her village when the Khmer Rouge intensified its grip on Cambodia . Vork Ty does not remember when US B-52 bombers sprayed the Cambodian countryside with bombs, images that are still vivid in the memories of many Cambodian survivors today. What Vork Ty remembers is only the blurry images and sounds of low flying aircraft just above the tree tops, strafing people running to take cover.
When asked her opinion about America , Vork Ty said she does not know the United States ’ policies today or what it did about the bombing of Cambodia . The only things she knows about the United States are the American people who come to visit her village and ask villagers about their living conditions. Some have supported her village with English language tutoring and smaller village projects. Currently the embassy of the United States provides funding for her Imam San sect community to conduct a small research project on the traditional Cham dialect. She said, “Many Americans I meet are very nice. So I like America .”
Under the Khmer Rouge regime, Vork Ty lost an elder sister who was executed after stealing food in Kampong Chhnang. She does not know where her sister was buried or the larger details surrounding her death. The news about her death came to her through fellow villagers who were kind enough to send her family the bad news. Vork Ty, however, remains grateful that only her sister perished under the Khmer Rouge, while the rest of her family survived the regime. Vork Ty never blamed Allah for her and her family’s ordeal or for the death of her sister, but she is grateful to Allah that her family did not suffer as much as other families in the village. Before 1975 there were 63 families in Chankiek village, but in 1979 only 33 families returned to the village. Vork Ty’s faith in Islam remains strong, even stronger than it was before the Khmer Rouge. Indeed many villagers in her village think the same. They see the suffering under the Khmer Rouge regime as a suffering that happened to everyone including Buddhists, Christians, Hindus and Muslims. Thus God is not to blame.
Many villagers in Chankiek village were evacuated from their homes when the Khmer Rouge completely controlled Cambodia . They were sent many places: some to Khmer villages, a few others to Cham villages. Many of them were forced to eat pork, and women were not allowed to keep their hair long. They were not allowed to speak the Cham language. They were ordered to change their Cham names and given new Khmer names. Qurans were collected and burned. However, according to a woman in Chankiek village, one Khmer Rouge cadre also showed pragmatism in his practice of atheism. The cadre forced a woman to eat food with some pork hidden inside. When she ate the food she threw up in front of the cadre. The cadre thought that this showed that not eating pork was not only a belief, but also that some Cham people could not digest pork. The cadre therefore never asked her to eat pork again. Some village men reported that a Cham died after he was forced to eat pork due to sickness.
In early 1975, Vork Ty’s family moved from Chankiek village to a small town just 15 kilometers away, south of Udong. The first time she encountered the Khmer Rouge was when they marched into the town and ordered everyone to leave. She said her family and others left in haste. On a small dirt road leading away from the town, people marched with their belongings. Nobody dared stray from the road because the Khmer Rouge would shoot them if they did. Vork Ty’s family was sent to Kampong Cham. She was put to work in a children’s unit. She used to speak with some Khmer Rouge cadres and village guards in the field. She said she was very scared of the Khmer Rouge but she was never victimized by them in any brutal way. She saw a child who was tortured with plastic bag covering her head and beaten until she almost fainted. Later the child disappeared.
Although she did not suffer nearly as much as other victims of the Khmer Rouge, Vork Ty can not forgive Khmer Rouge leaders. She is also certain that other women she knows would not be able to forgive them because they lost too many loved ones. She said, “The loss to some families is too great to forgive anyone.” Vork Ty knows through newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, and television shows that there is a Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh . She also heard that what’s being done at the court is intended to help people feel relief that some degree of justice can be given to the victims, but won’t bring the complete justice that victims of murder should receive. She said, “It is only symbolic. It would be disappointing if any of the Khmer Rouge leaders currently on trial were released. I want them to stay in prison for the rest of their lives.”
END.
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
LOOKING FOR MONTAGNARD MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN… who expelled by the French Embassy in Cambodia on April 20, 1975
When the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh on April 17, 1979 and ordered a city-wide evacuation, hundreds of people fled to the French Embassy for refuge. Upon pressure from the Khmer Rouge however, the French Embassy expelled between 150-300 Montagnard (of Rhade and Jarai ethnicity) men, women, and children on April 20, 1975 reportedly under the direction of Comrade Nhem. Thirty years on, their family members are still patiently awaiting news and would be extremely grateful for any information. Below is a partial list of some of the people who were handed over to the Khmer Rouge that day. If you have any information regarding Comrade Nhem or the people listed below, please contact Documentation Center of Cambodia or Youk Chhang immediately by mail or phone.
Y Huer Buon Ya (male, ~50 years old now, once a student at Lycee Descartes,
son of Y Bhan Kpor)
H'Lan Buon Ya (female, ~ 45 years old
H'o Buon Ya (female, ~ 40 years old)
Y Van Buon Ya (male, ~37 years old)
H'dak Buon Ya (their mother, ~65 years old)
Y Dhik Buon Ya (their uncle, ~60 years old)
Y Nam Buon Ya (their uncle, ~60 years old)
Y Ju Buon Ya (male, ~50 years old now, son of Y Nham Eban)
H'Ngiem Buon Ya (female, ~47 years old)
Y Huan Buon Ya (male, ~45 years old)
H'Nut Buon Ya (their mother, ~60 years old)
"Bernard" Eban (male, ~~45 years old now, son of Y Dhon Adrong)
H'Dua Eban (his mother, ~60 years old)
Y Goc Buon Ya (male, ~ 43 years old now, son of Ksor Duot)
H'Nguom Buon Ya (his mother, ~60 years old)
Y Paul (male, ~ 43 years old now, son of Kpa Doh)
H'Diat (his mother, a nurse, ~ 65 years old)
H'Rec (daughter of Y Dhun Nie, ~55 years old now)
H'Ni (daughter of Y Bham Enuol, ~55 years old now)
Y Be and ___ and ___ (~43 year old son, and two younger children, of Y Ksuah Buon Krong, a teacher H'Ri Buon Ya (their mother, also a teacher, ~65 years old)
Y Phut (~45 years old, son of Y Wun Nie)
----------------
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
Y Huer Buon Ya (male, ~50 years old now, once a student at Lycee Descartes,
son of Y Bhan Kpor)
H'Lan Buon Ya (female, ~ 45 years old
H'o Buon Ya (female, ~ 40 years old)
Y Van Buon Ya (male, ~37 years old)
H'dak Buon Ya (their mother, ~65 years old)
Y Dhik Buon Ya (their uncle, ~60 years old)
Y Nam Buon Ya (their uncle, ~60 years old)
Y Ju Buon Ya (male, ~50 years old now, son of Y Nham Eban)
H'Ngiem Buon Ya (female, ~47 years old)
Y Huan Buon Ya (male, ~45 years old)
H'Nut Buon Ya (their mother, ~60 years old)
"Bernard" Eban (male, ~~45 years old now, son of Y Dhon Adrong)
H'Dua Eban (his mother, ~60 years old)
Y Goc Buon Ya (male, ~ 43 years old now, son of Ksor Duot)
H'Nguom Buon Ya (his mother, ~60 years old)
Y Paul (male, ~ 43 years old now, son of Kpa Doh)
H'Diat (his mother, a nurse, ~ 65 years old)
H'Rec (daughter of Y Dhun Nie, ~55 years old now)
H'Ni (daughter of Y Bham Enuol, ~55 years old now)
Y Be and ___ and ___ (~43 year old son, and two younger children, of Y Ksuah Buon Krong, a teacher H'Ri Buon Ya (their mother, also a teacher, ~65 years old)
Y Phut (~45 years old, son of Y Wun Nie)
----------------
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
Friday, June 4, 2010
ECCC: THE ROLE OF ASEAN
In his recent address on May 25, 2010, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised the efforts of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and reiterated its importance for Cambodia and the international community at large. It is without a doubt that the tribunal is vital for Cambodia’s long road to recovery from years of genocide and decades of civil war. Likewise, this tribunal also promises to end one of the worse cases of impunity which existed for more than a quarter century: atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime from April 1975-January 1979 that claimed two million lives and displaced nearly the entire population.
Cambodians have waited patiently for justice and they must not be denied it any longer. As ASEAN members are aware of, the tribunal currently lacks the funds needed to complete its trials. A sudden ending to the tribunal resulting from insufficient funds would be a disaster in the justice-seeking process and also an embarrassment for the international community’s commitment to protecting human rights.
Since officials and staff began work in 2006, the tribunal has wrapped up its first case involving former S-21 prison chief Duch in November 2009 (verdict expected in late July 2010) and is presently working on Case 002 involving the four highest level Khmer Rouge leaders still alive: Noun Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, and Ieng Thirith. During its three years of operation, the tribunal has overcome many serious challenges and has improved in its outreach to survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime allowing over 31,000 Cambodians to directly observe Duch’s trial hearing. It is expected that many more Cambodians will observe the trial hearings of Case 002 given the prominence of the four defendants. Additionally, the trials of former of Khmer Rouge leaders has helped to promote national discussions of the atrocities during that era, thereby breaking a long and deeply painful silence borne by millions of survivors. Lastly on a global scale, the tribunal can serve as an effective model for other internationalized criminal tribunals due to its relative low cost, speedy progress, and victim outreach, as noted by his Excellency Mr. Chan Tani, Secretary of the State of the Office of the Council of Ministers of Cambodia at the pledging conference on May 25, 2010. Thus, it is imperative that the tribunal has the necessary funds to continue this valuable work.
I therefore call upon ASEAN member states to answer Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call for pledge contributions to the tribunal and suggest additionally other ways to provide support. As a fellow ASEAN member nation, Cambodia hopes that other member states will show their support for human rights in the region and in the world, by providing much needed assistance for the Khmer Rouge tribunal. As of present, no member nation has done so.
For the sake of justice for millions of Cambodians, national healing, strengthening relations among ASEAN members, and support of the international human rights regime, it is greatly hoped that ASEAN members will support its neighbor in their effort to rebuild a stronger and more just society.
Youk Chhang
Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
Cambodians have waited patiently for justice and they must not be denied it any longer. As ASEAN members are aware of, the tribunal currently lacks the funds needed to complete its trials. A sudden ending to the tribunal resulting from insufficient funds would be a disaster in the justice-seeking process and also an embarrassment for the international community’s commitment to protecting human rights.
Since officials and staff began work in 2006, the tribunal has wrapped up its first case involving former S-21 prison chief Duch in November 2009 (verdict expected in late July 2010) and is presently working on Case 002 involving the four highest level Khmer Rouge leaders still alive: Noun Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, and Ieng Thirith. During its three years of operation, the tribunal has overcome many serious challenges and has improved in its outreach to survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime allowing over 31,000 Cambodians to directly observe Duch’s trial hearing. It is expected that many more Cambodians will observe the trial hearings of Case 002 given the prominence of the four defendants. Additionally, the trials of former of Khmer Rouge leaders has helped to promote national discussions of the atrocities during that era, thereby breaking a long and deeply painful silence borne by millions of survivors. Lastly on a global scale, the tribunal can serve as an effective model for other internationalized criminal tribunals due to its relative low cost, speedy progress, and victim outreach, as noted by his Excellency Mr. Chan Tani, Secretary of the State of the Office of the Council of Ministers of Cambodia at the pledging conference on May 25, 2010. Thus, it is imperative that the tribunal has the necessary funds to continue this valuable work.
I therefore call upon ASEAN member states to answer Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call for pledge contributions to the tribunal and suggest additionally other ways to provide support. As a fellow ASEAN member nation, Cambodia hopes that other member states will show their support for human rights in the region and in the world, by providing much needed assistance for the Khmer Rouge tribunal. As of present, no member nation has done so.
For the sake of justice for millions of Cambodians, national healing, strengthening relations among ASEAN members, and support of the international human rights regime, it is greatly hoped that ASEAN members will support its neighbor in their effort to rebuild a stronger and more just society.
Youk Chhang
Director
Documentation Center of Cambodia
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
Justice for the Khmer Krom
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 15:02 John D Ciorciari
As KR leaders face their fate at the ECCC, the court should not forget other
victims.
After more than 30 years of impunity, some key architects of the Khmer Rouge
reign of terror are finally being held accountable at the Extraordinary
Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The upcoming joint trial of Nuon
Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirth and Khieu Samphan holds promise for survivors
who have waited too long for justice.
Unfortunately, one important set of crimes is in danger of exclusion. In
January, the ECCC's co-investigating judges decided to charge the suspects
with genocide and crimes against humanity against Cambodia's Cham Muslim and
ethnic Vietnamese minorities, but not the Khmer Krom - ethnic Khmers with
roots in southern Vietnam. The ECCC's pre-trial chamber recently upheld that
decision.
The pre-trial chamber grounded its decision partly on a technicality. Months
ago, the co-prosecutors sent a memo to the co-investigating judges about
possible genocide against Khmer Krom in Pursat province. They titled the
memo an "investigative request" rather than a "supplementary submission".
The latter title would have triggered an investigation; the former may cost
some Khmer Krom survivors their deserved day in court.
But the pre-trial chamber's decision does leave some room for
reconsideration. It does not bar the possibility that the co-prosecutors can
simply white-out the old title, type on a new one and resubmit their memo as
a "supplementary submission". The co-prosecutors ought to do so.
The ECCC cannot account for the myriad offenses of Democratic Kampuchea
(DK), but there are good reasons to hear out the Khmer Krom, who have long
argued that their community suffered genocide and targeted crimes against
humanity. Indeed, documents and survivor accounts indicate that the DK
regime sometimes targeted Khmer Krom for abuse. In at least one
well-documented case, Khmer Krom were butchered en masse. In 1977, hundreds
were rounded up and massacred in Pursat's Bakan district - a calculated mass
murder with some chilling parallels to the Srebrenica Massacre of 1995. Such
offenses demand investigation and justice.
The reasons for these atrocities remain subject to debate. The Khmer Krom
spoke Vietnamese and brought syncretic cultural practices from the Mekong
Delta. Cultural disdain may thus have contributed to their plight. Under the
Pol Pot regime, persons with foreign cultural characteristics were suspect.
Depending on the evidence, the ECCC could find that senior DK officials
committed genocide by seeking to destroy Khmer Krom based on their perceived
ethnic impurity.
The case for crimes against humanity is easier because it encompasses abuses
based on political motives. Political targeting of the Khmer Krom was
clearly at work. The communist DK regime bitterly resented the prominent
roles Khmer Krom played in Lon Nol's Khmer Republic and the CIA's Mobile
Strike Force Command during the Vietnam War. The Khmer Rouge also regarded
ties to Vietnam as politically suspect after 1975, when the xenophobic DK
regime turned its back on Hanoi. Documents show that Vietnamese-speaking
Khmer Krom were often singled out as potential spies and purged for that
reason.
The complex case of the Khmer Krom lies at the heart of unresolved questions
about the DK regime. For three decades, survivors and scholars have tried to
discern the motives for Khmer Rouge brutality. Was the killing driven
primarily by excesses in radical communism? Or was the violence also rooted
to a considerable extent in racism and nationalism?
The legal distinction between genocide and other grave crimes is sometimes
unhelpful. In Cambodia, it risks suggesting that certain victims suffered
more than others, when in reality all suffered horrific abuses. This
distinction is nevertheless useful in trying to properly understand the
terror in Democratic Kampuchea. By examining crimes against the Khmer Krom,
the ECCC can help shed light on the true animus of the DK regime.
The ECCC does not have infinite resources, and it is rightly under pressure
to rein in its budget and speed up the trials. However, ECCC officials must
be wise in deciding how and where to cut and prune. Adjudicating crimes
against the Khmer Krom in Pursat would add little to the hefty sum of time
and money already spent on the trials. In fact, the court's investigators
and prosecutors have completed most of the necessary investigation
evidencing these crimes. Bypassing the Khmer Krom case would deny this
important and courageous community a sense of justice. The ECCC could also
fail to reveal some of the most illuminating truths about the Pol Pot
regime.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John D Ciorciari is an assistant professor of Public Policy at the
University of Michigan and a senior legal advisor with the Documentation
Centre of Cambodia.
Copyright © 2010 The Phnom Penh Post. All Rights Reserved.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
As KR leaders face their fate at the ECCC, the court should not forget other
victims.
After more than 30 years of impunity, some key architects of the Khmer Rouge
reign of terror are finally being held accountable at the Extraordinary
Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The upcoming joint trial of Nuon
Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirth and Khieu Samphan holds promise for survivors
who have waited too long for justice.
Unfortunately, one important set of crimes is in danger of exclusion. In
January, the ECCC's co-investigating judges decided to charge the suspects
with genocide and crimes against humanity against Cambodia's Cham Muslim and
ethnic Vietnamese minorities, but not the Khmer Krom - ethnic Khmers with
roots in southern Vietnam. The ECCC's pre-trial chamber recently upheld that
decision.
The pre-trial chamber grounded its decision partly on a technicality. Months
ago, the co-prosecutors sent a memo to the co-investigating judges about
possible genocide against Khmer Krom in Pursat province. They titled the
memo an "investigative request" rather than a "supplementary submission".
The latter title would have triggered an investigation; the former may cost
some Khmer Krom survivors their deserved day in court.
But the pre-trial chamber's decision does leave some room for
reconsideration. It does not bar the possibility that the co-prosecutors can
simply white-out the old title, type on a new one and resubmit their memo as
a "supplementary submission". The co-prosecutors ought to do so.
The ECCC cannot account for the myriad offenses of Democratic Kampuchea
(DK), but there are good reasons to hear out the Khmer Krom, who have long
argued that their community suffered genocide and targeted crimes against
humanity. Indeed, documents and survivor accounts indicate that the DK
regime sometimes targeted Khmer Krom for abuse. In at least one
well-documented case, Khmer Krom were butchered en masse. In 1977, hundreds
were rounded up and massacred in Pursat's Bakan district - a calculated mass
murder with some chilling parallels to the Srebrenica Massacre of 1995. Such
offenses demand investigation and justice.
The reasons for these atrocities remain subject to debate. The Khmer Krom
spoke Vietnamese and brought syncretic cultural practices from the Mekong
Delta. Cultural disdain may thus have contributed to their plight. Under the
Pol Pot regime, persons with foreign cultural characteristics were suspect.
Depending on the evidence, the ECCC could find that senior DK officials
committed genocide by seeking to destroy Khmer Krom based on their perceived
ethnic impurity.
The case for crimes against humanity is easier because it encompasses abuses
based on political motives. Political targeting of the Khmer Krom was
clearly at work. The communist DK regime bitterly resented the prominent
roles Khmer Krom played in Lon Nol's Khmer Republic and the CIA's Mobile
Strike Force Command during the Vietnam War. The Khmer Rouge also regarded
ties to Vietnam as politically suspect after 1975, when the xenophobic DK
regime turned its back on Hanoi. Documents show that Vietnamese-speaking
Khmer Krom were often singled out as potential spies and purged for that
reason.
The complex case of the Khmer Krom lies at the heart of unresolved questions
about the DK regime. For three decades, survivors and scholars have tried to
discern the motives for Khmer Rouge brutality. Was the killing driven
primarily by excesses in radical communism? Or was the violence also rooted
to a considerable extent in racism and nationalism?
The legal distinction between genocide and other grave crimes is sometimes
unhelpful. In Cambodia, it risks suggesting that certain victims suffered
more than others, when in reality all suffered horrific abuses. This
distinction is nevertheless useful in trying to properly understand the
terror in Democratic Kampuchea. By examining crimes against the Khmer Krom,
the ECCC can help shed light on the true animus of the DK regime.
The ECCC does not have infinite resources, and it is rightly under pressure
to rein in its budget and speed up the trials. However, ECCC officials must
be wise in deciding how and where to cut and prune. Adjudicating crimes
against the Khmer Krom in Pursat would add little to the hefty sum of time
and money already spent on the trials. In fact, the court's investigators
and prosecutors have completed most of the necessary investigation
evidencing these crimes. Bypassing the Khmer Krom case would deny this
important and courageous community a sense of justice. The ECCC could also
fail to reveal some of the most illuminating truths about the Pol Pot
regime.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John D Ciorciari is an assistant professor of Public Policy at the
University of Michigan and a senior legal advisor with the Documentation
Centre of Cambodia.
Copyright © 2010 The Phnom Penh Post. All Rights Reserved.
Independently Searching for the Truth since 1997.
MEMORY & JUSTICE
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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.