Phnom Penh
24 April 2008
The Documentation Center of Cambodia, which for more than a decade has worked to catalogue crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge regime, plans to build a genocide research facility beginning next year.
The institute will include a museum, library, research center and classes for national and international genocide experts to study, Youk Chhang, director for the Documentation Center said.
“This institute will be built across 5,600 square meters on the former Khmer Rouge detention camp of Boeung Trabek,” he said.
The Cambodian government provided the land, and the US government has contributed $2 million for the construction of the institute, he said.
“We will particularly focus on the study of the genocide in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, genocide in Africa, in Europe, and in the other places in the world,” he said.
The institute will be a center of study for all facets of the Khmer Rouge: its build-up, armed struggle and take-over, evacuation of cities, administrative power and control, internal power struggles and purges and its collapse, Youk Chhang said. It will also be a place to study the movement’s continued battles with government forces through the 1991 peace accords.
“This institute is for the participation of genocide prevention and to reduce violations of human rights in Cambodia,” he said. “This institute is very important for one individual, one human, one country, and for victims’ children to fulfill their duty to build up the rule of law and human rights promotion.”
Chum Mey, a survivor of the regime’s infamous Tuol Sleng prison, said the institute would be of “historical importance.”
“I feel very happy for the construction of the genocide institute, because it’s a very valuable thing for the Cambodian young generation and to prevent the loss of concrete history of the Khmer Rouge regime,” he said.
The institute will include a museum, library, research center and classes for national and international genocide experts to study, Youk Chhang, director for the Documentation Center said.
“This institute will be built across 5,600 square meters on the former Khmer Rouge detention camp of Boeung Trabek,” he said.
The Cambodian government provided the land, and the US government has contributed $2 million for the construction of the institute, he said.
“We will particularly focus on the study of the genocide in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, genocide in Africa, in Europe, and in the other places in the world,” he said.
The institute will be a center of study for all facets of the Khmer Rouge: its build-up, armed struggle and take-over, evacuation of cities, administrative power and control, internal power struggles and purges and its collapse, Youk Chhang said. It will also be a place to study the movement’s continued battles with government forces through the 1991 peace accords.
“This institute is for the participation of genocide prevention and to reduce violations of human rights in Cambodia,” he said. “This institute is very important for one individual, one human, one country, and for victims’ children to fulfill their duty to build up the rule of law and human rights promotion.”
Chum Mey, a survivor of the regime’s infamous Tuol Sleng prison, said the institute would be of “historical importance.”
“I feel very happy for the construction of the genocide institute, because it’s a very valuable thing for the Cambodian young generation and to prevent the loss of concrete history of the Khmer Rouge regime,” he said.
6 comments:
congratulations for the new innovation. and thank you america for your financial supports on this important project as well as the cambodian gov't for setting aside land for this purpose. god bless cambodia.
this is a step toward healing the cambodian wounds of the KR era. i'm glad there is a plan for the cambodian holocaust museum as cambodia can not afford to forget its tragic history and the world can come and study or use this center for research or any other study on the KR and its ideology. just because it is history now doesn't mean cambodia and the world should forget what had happened in cambodia. everyone can learn from this history, plus it is a tourist site for cambodia as well. all in all, it will be good for cambodia in the long run. god bless cambodia.
It is a toward healing and reconstructing for our heart and soul of humans to a nation of peace and normalcy again. Thank you for your bright idea and support! Surely it will be the significant place for peace and healing years to come.
It's wonderful to have such a place for people to go to read and research on topic as well as to serve as a centre to remind us of the past dark age.
I hope the institute will also contained information about how/when/and where the Khmer Rouge where formed from the beginning, and how they survived ... . I don't like people who whitewashing things.
yes, the center should be all about the KR from birth to ending, etc. i mean, it should have everything and anything about the KR as a museum so cambodians and the world can come to visit and see what's it's like to live, work, eat, sleep,etc. under the KR gov't. it will be a great place to learn and observe. and the museum can charge a small fee for entry. congratulations for doing a noble cause for cambodia. god bless.
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