L.B.: Despite pain, survivors at 33rd anniversary vigil say remembrance is vital.
04/17/2008
By Greg Mellen, Staff writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)
LONG BEACH - It never goes away.
"It is in my eyes. It is in my head," Nuon Kanno says of his memories of life under the Khmer Rouge. "If I talk about Pol Pot, I cannot stop the tears."
For all the pain it dredges up, Nuon says events like Thursday's candlelight vigil at Wat Vipassanaram to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge ascendancy in Cambodia are vital.
Nuon says elders like he, who witnessed unspeakable horrors, owe it to their children and grandchildren to recall and retell the horrors and never forget.
For the fourth straight year, Cambodians in Long Beach held a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the genocide between 1975 and 1979 inflicted by the Khmer Rouge.
During the reign of the bloody Communist government, it is estimated that anywhere from 1.2 million to well over 2 million were slaughtered in the genocide that became known as the "Killing Fields." The most commonly cited number is 1.7 million estimated by Yale University in a U.S. State Department-sponsored study. Recent studies say it could be much higher.
With candles flickering in the cool night air outside the temple near Long Beach City College, about 120 survivors and their families gathered to honor the dead and rededicate themselves to the memories of lost families.
After prayers and sermons, survivors recalled their stories. Some wrote poems. Singer Plong Rithy, a well-known artist in Cambodia, sang a song she wrote and read a remembrance penned by Chantara Nop.
Paline Soth, an organizer of the event, also remembered and commemorated Dith Pran, a New York Times photographer who, before he died March 30, had become the face of the Cambodian genocide for many as the central figure in the 1984 Academy Award-winning film "The Killing Fields."
Earlier in the day, more than 200 templegoers attended prayers conducted by more than 20 monks from nearby temples and about 100 or stayed for lunch.
Like those who showed up in the evening, those who attended early said remembrance is vital.
"To the Cambodians who want to forget and say, 'The past is in the past,' I don't think we should ever forget," said Song Chhang, the former Minister of Information in Cambodia.
Chhang added that the current tribunals in Cambodia prosecuting former Khmer Rouge leaders are an important step in reconciling the past, although he says "the search for justice should not be stopped" with the end of the trials.
In the evening session, Chantara Hak, president of the nonprofit Killing Fields Memorial Center, talked about recent disputes that have divided the Cambodian community in Long Beach and urged Cambodians to come together.
No matter how their politics and social values may differ, there is one thing that binds all Cambodians, and it is April 17.
04/17/2008
By Greg Mellen, Staff writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)
LONG BEACH - It never goes away.
"It is in my eyes. It is in my head," Nuon Kanno says of his memories of life under the Khmer Rouge. "If I talk about Pol Pot, I cannot stop the tears."
For all the pain it dredges up, Nuon says events like Thursday's candlelight vigil at Wat Vipassanaram to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge ascendancy in Cambodia are vital.
Nuon says elders like he, who witnessed unspeakable horrors, owe it to their children and grandchildren to recall and retell the horrors and never forget.
For the fourth straight year, Cambodians in Long Beach held a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the genocide between 1975 and 1979 inflicted by the Khmer Rouge.
During the reign of the bloody Communist government, it is estimated that anywhere from 1.2 million to well over 2 million were slaughtered in the genocide that became known as the "Killing Fields." The most commonly cited number is 1.7 million estimated by Yale University in a U.S. State Department-sponsored study. Recent studies say it could be much higher.
With candles flickering in the cool night air outside the temple near Long Beach City College, about 120 survivors and their families gathered to honor the dead and rededicate themselves to the memories of lost families.
After prayers and sermons, survivors recalled their stories. Some wrote poems. Singer Plong Rithy, a well-known artist in Cambodia, sang a song she wrote and read a remembrance penned by Chantara Nop.
Paline Soth, an organizer of the event, also remembered and commemorated Dith Pran, a New York Times photographer who, before he died March 30, had become the face of the Cambodian genocide for many as the central figure in the 1984 Academy Award-winning film "The Killing Fields."
Earlier in the day, more than 200 templegoers attended prayers conducted by more than 20 monks from nearby temples and about 100 or stayed for lunch.
Like those who showed up in the evening, those who attended early said remembrance is vital.
"To the Cambodians who want to forget and say, 'The past is in the past,' I don't think we should ever forget," said Song Chhang, the former Minister of Information in Cambodia.
Chhang added that the current tribunals in Cambodia prosecuting former Khmer Rouge leaders are an important step in reconciling the past, although he says "the search for justice should not be stopped" with the end of the trials.
In the evening session, Chantara Hak, president of the nonprofit Killing Fields Memorial Center, talked about recent disputes that have divided the Cambodian community in Long Beach and urged Cambodians to come together.
No matter how their politics and social values may differ, there is one thing that binds all Cambodians, and it is April 17.
17 comments:
Please gather your documentaries and send to Mr Ban Ki-Moon.
http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2008/04/un-chief-calls-for-speedy-cambodia.html
According to RFA today, Sihanouk was the one who has forced all Cambodian citizens to move out from their residence from all cities in Cambodia in 1975. He was also held responsiblity for all the killing in 1975. He was the one who has refused for a peace reconciation. He should be also sent to Khmer rouge Tribunal for all his very stupid leadership of the Khmer rouge who have brought all Anthepeals and all Derachharn to destroy Cambodia and Cambodia. He deserves nothing more than a killer of a Nation. Areak Prey
And how many people were killed in 1975?
Right on the money: he was the mastermind of the destruction of Cambodia. He is the one who harms his own kaun-chao. The worst about King Sihanouk is the fact that he never realizes that he had recklessy made mistakes, the most destructive mistakes in the Cambodian history.
to those who are tired of hearing the same thing again and again about our past bitter experices, just go to sleep and never wake up. If you wake and get into KI website, you will hear us again.
My beloved Khmers!
According to Dey Dek Cho Samdech Hun SenVarman's statement, Sihanouk is a father of Khmer's hero.
Your sam-ach Hun Xen is blind both physically and spiritually. He doesn't know anything much. He is just a puppet installed in power and protected by Vietname.
7:28PM Shihanouk may be a father of khmer's hero like Hun Xen but he is a killer of ordinary Khmers!!!
My beloved Friends, above!
I myself confidently have never said that Samdech Hun SenVarman and SihanoukVarman are evidently or historically my hero nor Khmer's hero. Frankly speaking, even though I am openly telling the world that I am unashamedly illiterate, I am still mainly attempting to understand of what precisely and completely went wrong? We Khmers could eventually achieve a real understanding of the Khmer's miserably suffocating histories through an analysis which consistently focused more on the unpleasant truths than the favorite leaders' little accomplishment. Learn and understand the past, in order to be well repared for the future, therefore 1+1 is no longer egual 20!
Ok 11:06PM we multiply too much!
Unfrankly speaking, when you say that you're illeterate, you brag about yourself, for an illiterate doesn't write or read. You must have misinterpreted the word 'illiterate'!
Or maybe the dictionary you use is the wrong one.
GOT him by the....!
My beloved 11:37PM!
Yes, indeed, we Khmers, especially leaders, are gloatfully multiply too much. Simply speaking, let's starting from SihanoukVarman, overnight he unquestionally became a father of Independence... Hun SenVarman was incidently join Heng Samrin and Pen Sovann in fighting Pol Pot, then suddenly he becomes a father of all Khmers' hero!
My beloved 11:38PM!
Forgive me for noticeably saying this, my definition of the word,"illiterate", is that person is forcefully knew how to write and to read a simple sentence, but unfortunately s/he (as including myself) doesn't have a higher levels of civilization and great intellectual achievements.
Still try to be better than Ditionary! eH!
May you should use the word Ignoeance instead of Illiterate?
From 11:48
Please don't take I said seriously; I was kidding you. I have fun when I have a chance to express my opinions. It's a part of self-entertainment.
Notthing serious we just take the oportunity to play with our vocabulary so we can leurn something fro the funny thing!
cambodia ought to build a permanent memorial to mark the KR era in order to educate all future generation to avoid this kind of gov't again in cambodia and as a commemoration to the victims of the KR atrocity. can't hide it as it is already well-known in the world for its atrocity. it is a good idea to teach history as is so people become aware of cambodian history.
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