09/20/2007
By Michael Lafleur, mlafleur@lowellsun.com
Lowell Sun (Lowell, Mass., USA)
LOWELL -- Local community activists saw a ray of hope, tempered by nearly 30 years of justice delayed, in yesterday's arrest by Cambodian police of a top official in the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.
Nuon Chea, 82, was the chief ideologist behind the holocaust inflicted on Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, a period in which an estimated 1.7 million people were slaughtered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Chea has been charged by an international tribunal consisting of Cambodian and United Nations judges with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
He was known as "Brother Number Two" behind Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, who died in 1998 without ever facing trial for his role in the regime.
Today, Chea is held in a detention cell awaiting trial.
"Before this, everyone was thinking maybe it was just a show," said Sidney Liang, 38, host of the Voice of Cambodian Children radio program on WUML 91.5 FM. "Now, everybody is a little bit hopeful that maybe he can shed more light on what happened."
Thousands of families in Lowell, home to the nation's second-largest Cambodian immigrant population, have felt the homicidal brunt of the Khmer Rouge, which came to power after Cambodia was destabilized by a U.S. bombing campaign and invasion.
Virtually every Cambodian family was uprooted and forced into the countryside to implement the Khmer Rouge ideal of an agrarian paradise, but the wheels soon came off that plan. Starvation and disease became rampant. Summary executions were commonplace.
Liang said he and other local Cambodian immigrants will feel a great sense of closure if the mixed international tribunal can provide answers about what happened.
But that optimism is tempered by a sense of resignation, because Cambodia's government, which includes many former Khmer Rouge members, has appointed a majority of the judges.
Sayon Soeun, 40, president of the Southeast Asian Water Festival, said he would like answers, too. His entire family died during the Khmer Rouge period, his parents, two sisters and three brothers.
"I don't think we're going to find out what happened, and I don't think anybody will be held accountable for the genocide," he said. "There's not enough pressure from the international community to get the Cambodian government to move forward on the tribunal idea."
When he was 9, Liang's father and brother died of starvation on the same day. His sister later died as well.
"I would like to see some closure for my mom and her friends, before they all pass away, to see that something's being done," he said. "A lot of people, like my mother's age, she can't let it go because she's still living through it every day."
Lowell resident Samkhann Khoeun said many younger Cambodians, who did not live through the Khmer Rouge, have very little idea of what happened. The killing fields are not even mentioned in the curriculum at Cambodia's schools, he said.
"We can't expect too much from Cambodia's government itself," said Khoeun, 43, former executive director of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell. "If they could bury it, they would bury it. I'm glad the international community and the UN is involved, even if we didn't get 100 percent of what we wanted."
Nearly two decades of civil war followed the Khmer Rouge's ouster by an invading Vietnamese army. The tribunal process was delayed by years of wrangling between the UN and Cambodian government.
Community Activist Chuck Sart, 37, said the tribunal process can do real good for Cambodia despite many complications.
"It can bring closure as well as move the country forward," Sart said. "A precedent can be set to have some sort of a case to go through for our future."
Meanwhile, Rady Mom, 37, owner of Mom's Therapy on Pine Street, sees little chance for that.
"Whatever goes on right now is more like a political, to make it sound good for whomever it is in power," he said. "But when you actually go back to Cambodia and see the people, chaos is still there."
The big question is what will happen next, Liang said.
He said Ta Mok, the regime's No. 3 leader in 1978, was arrested in 1999 but died in prison last year without ever facing trial. Chea has claimed he was unaware of the regime's killings until after he defected to the government in 1998.
"You can't have everything, you know," Liang said. "Something is better than nothing. To find closure is very important."
For more information, visit the tribunal's official Web site at www.eccc.gov.kh
Nuon Chea, 82, was the chief ideologist behind the holocaust inflicted on Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, a period in which an estimated 1.7 million people were slaughtered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Chea has been charged by an international tribunal consisting of Cambodian and United Nations judges with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
He was known as "Brother Number Two" behind Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, who died in 1998 without ever facing trial for his role in the regime.
Today, Chea is held in a detention cell awaiting trial.
"Before this, everyone was thinking maybe it was just a show," said Sidney Liang, 38, host of the Voice of Cambodian Children radio program on WUML 91.5 FM. "Now, everybody is a little bit hopeful that maybe he can shed more light on what happened."
Thousands of families in Lowell, home to the nation's second-largest Cambodian immigrant population, have felt the homicidal brunt of the Khmer Rouge, which came to power after Cambodia was destabilized by a U.S. bombing campaign and invasion.
Virtually every Cambodian family was uprooted and forced into the countryside to implement the Khmer Rouge ideal of an agrarian paradise, but the wheels soon came off that plan. Starvation and disease became rampant. Summary executions were commonplace.
Liang said he and other local Cambodian immigrants will feel a great sense of closure if the mixed international tribunal can provide answers about what happened.
But that optimism is tempered by a sense of resignation, because Cambodia's government, which includes many former Khmer Rouge members, has appointed a majority of the judges.
Sayon Soeun, 40, president of the Southeast Asian Water Festival, said he would like answers, too. His entire family died during the Khmer Rouge period, his parents, two sisters and three brothers.
"I don't think we're going to find out what happened, and I don't think anybody will be held accountable for the genocide," he said. "There's not enough pressure from the international community to get the Cambodian government to move forward on the tribunal idea."
When he was 9, Liang's father and brother died of starvation on the same day. His sister later died as well.
"I would like to see some closure for my mom and her friends, before they all pass away, to see that something's being done," he said. "A lot of people, like my mother's age, she can't let it go because she's still living through it every day."
Lowell resident Samkhann Khoeun said many younger Cambodians, who did not live through the Khmer Rouge, have very little idea of what happened. The killing fields are not even mentioned in the curriculum at Cambodia's schools, he said.
"We can't expect too much from Cambodia's government itself," said Khoeun, 43, former executive director of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell. "If they could bury it, they would bury it. I'm glad the international community and the UN is involved, even if we didn't get 100 percent of what we wanted."
Nearly two decades of civil war followed the Khmer Rouge's ouster by an invading Vietnamese army. The tribunal process was delayed by years of wrangling between the UN and Cambodian government.
Community Activist Chuck Sart, 37, said the tribunal process can do real good for Cambodia despite many complications.
"It can bring closure as well as move the country forward," Sart said. "A precedent can be set to have some sort of a case to go through for our future."
Meanwhile, Rady Mom, 37, owner of Mom's Therapy on Pine Street, sees little chance for that.
"Whatever goes on right now is more like a political, to make it sound good for whomever it is in power," he said. "But when you actually go back to Cambodia and see the people, chaos is still there."
The big question is what will happen next, Liang said.
He said Ta Mok, the regime's No. 3 leader in 1978, was arrested in 1999 but died in prison last year without ever facing trial. Chea has claimed he was unaware of the regime's killings until after he defected to the government in 1998.
"You can't have everything, you know," Liang said. "Something is better than nothing. To find closure is very important."
For more information, visit the tribunal's official Web site at www.eccc.gov.kh
4 comments:
The arrest of Nuon Chea is just an act by the CG to silence its critic. That's all. Nothing else.
Then, things will drag their feet.
It has mostly been this way the most memorable eras of various Cambodian regimes.
They are not real.
For the Cambodian people to have confidenc (or faith) in them, the CG must abide by their own words, not lip service.
How can you have confidence in the judicial system, when many people in that system are themselves crooked (thieves)?
Perhaps the Sun can also publish article on the continued detained Ven. Tim Sakhorn, Khmer citizen, by the communist Vietnamese.
Would like to suggest the Sun to obtain some more opinions on the Khmer Rouge issue in Lowell in addition to the sources and/or individuals already publised here.
For example, Khmer Buddhist temples, women, orphaned population that the DK caused family separation and many other entities.
Hi 2:55 AM. I agree with you wholeheartly, but many of these posters don't see what we see. They get too excited for nothing.
Is it not funny the KRT is in Cambodia under the Yuon/CPP control? When we are cursing the King the Yuon are laughing with their butts upside down.
When the King said he will testify if the trial is at outside Cambodia, then Mr. Nguyen Van Son aka Hok Lundy ordered to arrest Noun Chea. It is jusy for a Show, so some of us who are so dumb can be happy.
Some said bring the King to testify so they can get Viet Cong? It makes me wonder "Are these peopel really normal or they are crazy?"
Viet Cong/Minh are good in making us to kill each others, and they did well.
I thought only those uneducated and dumb people who scream at their own Khmers, but someone with a high education like Dr. Lao Mong Hay is also an IDIOT.
82 years old Noun Chea is not worrying if he dies or not, but what will he say if Viet Cong/CPP threat him "If you tell the truth that our Viet Cong Force have never left Cambodia after we helped you to kick the US and Lon Nol, we will execute all your family members"
Have anyone ever thought after the Viet Cong/Minh troops helped Khmer Rouge to defeat the US and Lon Nol really left Cambodia? How did they left? Were not they empited the capital and cities just day they took the country? Where did those Viet Cong/Minh go in one day?
In Hun Sen regime, after Presdent Reagan told the Viet Cong to leave Cambodia, they did some but then they transformed themselves into another human beings like we see today Nguyen Van Son became Hok Lundy.
Viet Cong/Minh have never left Cambodia that is for sure.
So this KRT in Cambodia is sure a SHOW.
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