Preliminary Hearing Cools Some Anger at Court

Tuesday, 05 July 2011
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

"The victims want to see the court work transparently, to deliver justice, not as a joke.”

The head of a US-based group that advocates for victims at the Khmer Rouge tribunal said last week’s hearings for four jailed leaders will likely soften some criticism for the court.

Nou Leakhena, director of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, said on “Hello VOA” Thursday that court officials had eased some of the concerns of victims, “to make sure their grievances and voices are heard.”

Nou Leakhena was in Cambodia last week to help Cambodian-American victims of the Khmer Rouge file and be represented at the upcoming trial.

Some court observers say they now worry the court will not bring indictments for five other leaders in two more cases, but Nou Leakhena said Thursday the number of cases was not as important as proper proceedings that can serve as an example and prevent such atrocities from happening again.

Cambodians Demand Justice

Leakhena Nou

June 13, 2011
Letters to the International Herald Tribune

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia was established by the government of Cambodia and the United Nations to prosecute “senior leaders” of Democratic Kampuchea and “those who were most responsible” for the atrocity crimes committed from 1975 to 1979. It carried a mandate to include survivors in the litigation process.

The first E.C.C.C. case involved S-21’s notorious warden, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Comrade Duch. The second case will start on June 27 and engages four senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

As a Cambodian American scholar, I founded a community-based, social action organization dedicated to justice-oriented initiatives. We looked to the E.C.C.C. as a space wherein survivors could find justice. We filed 170 testimonies, which included 41 civil parties and 129 complainants.

Time and distance were often not on our side, as we labored to collect testimonies thousands of miles away from Phnom Penh. We endured knowing that Cambodian survivors both wanted and deserved justice. And, we had faith in the “extraordinary” court. Until recently.

The E.C.C.C. has shifted to a “no more trials” policy. On April 29 the court announced that the investigation of case 003 was concluded, without conducting any field investigations or interviewing suspects. This shows that the E.C.C.C. is more concerned with expediting process than pursuing justice. It has no regard for survivor testimonies and participation. Tragically, it has now become an impediment to justice.

Leakhena Nou

Founding director, Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia

The Other War Criminals - Op-Ed by Khmer Guardian

The Other War Criminals
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/57049643?access_key=key-2nvgg7fvq5gwj0ishaeb

Professor Takes on Khmer Rouge Trauma in US

Nou Leakhena, a Cambodian-American sociologist and professor, spends much of her free time helping other Cambodians in the US. (Photo: by Pin Sisovann)

Pin Sisovann, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Tuesday, 31 May 2011

"The three of us were tied together and were beaten up for a night and a day. This man died.”

When the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal stood up in 2006, it offered a chance for many Cambodians to seek some form of truth and justice that many hoped could help heal some of the trauma wrought by the regime.

In the US, much of that help has come from Nou Leakhena, a Cambodian-American sociologist and professor who spends much of her free time helping other Cambodians in the US take advantage of what healing the tribunal might offer.

At a recent gathering in Long Beach called “From Victims to Witnesses,” Nou Leakhena sought to explain to victims how they might file grievances with the tribunal, which is preparing a trial for four jailed leaders of the Khmer Rouge.

Long Beach Cambodian-Americans lobby for tribunals

Cal State Long Beach professor leading campaign to continue Khmer Rouge trials.

05/28/2011
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

Those who want to petition the ECCC to continue investigate can do so online at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cambodiansurvivorsseekjustice/

LONG BEACH — The four older Cambodian women walked along Anaheim Street and greeted passersby and talked with a sense of purpose to shop owners.

Refugee women survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide, are not typically known for such forthright and outward displays, but here they were united and strong.

The four women, accompanied by local activist and Cal State Long Beach professor

Leakhena Nou, were out to rally support among the immigrant community and pass out petitions to urge a tribunal court in their home country to press forward with prosecutions of alleged perpetrators of atrocities.

The effort by the women, whose names are being withheld for their protection, comes in the wake of growing indications that the United Nations-backed court will close down after its upcoming trial slated to begin in late June.

While two cases are pending with five unnamed defendants, progress has stalled in the face of Cambodian government opposition.

US Group Condemns UN Tribunal in Cambodia

Leakhena Nou (L) with a KR victim (Photo: AP)

Robert Carmichael, VOA
Phnom Penh May 26, 2011

A US-based organization for survivors of the Khmer Rouge condemned the UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Thursday for preventing overseas Cambodians from taking part in the court’s controversial third case. Tribunal observers fear the court is trying to dismiss those cases in the face of stringent government opposition.

The U.S.-based survivors group ASRIC says the war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh will fail to deliver justice if it ditches its third and fourth cases that are opposed by the Cambodian government.

The judges closed the investigation into case three about one month ago. But the international prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, later said the investigation into case three was deficient and said more work should be done. Since then, Cayley has been ordered by the court to retract the criticism but he says he will appeal the order.

ASRIC says the tribunal cannot decide on the merits of its third case without a proper investigation.

Long Beach residents' recollections of Cambodian horror will be heard

Statements will form part of evidence against Khmer Rouge leaders.

04/30/2011
By Greg Mellen, Staff writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH — A year-and-a-half ago when refugee survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime gathered in Long Beach to fill out forms about atrocities they witnessed in the mid-'70 s in Cambodia, they had no idea whether it would make a difference.

On Saturday, many of them got their answer. Leakhena Nou, a sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach told a gathering that their statements would be part of an upcoming trial against four former leaders of the Khmer Rouge.

"We wanted to make sure your voices are heard thousands of miles away," Nou told the elderly crowd that assembled at the Mark Twain Branch Library.

"Your applications have been heard and have been accepted by the court," Nou said. "You are heroes."

Event puts Khmer Rouge leaders on `trial'

(Photo: AP)

04/25/2011
Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH - Residents are invited to a moot Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal Saturday between noon and 4:30 p.m. at the Mark Twain Library, 1401 E. Anaheim St.

The Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, which was founded by medical sociologist Leakhena Nou, is playing host to the event. Her group helped collect survivor testimonies among Cambodian-American refugees that may be used in the tribunal.

Four surviving Khmer Rouge leaders - Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan - will be on trial. An estimated 2million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge reign between 1975 and 1979.

In San Jose, Talk of Atrocity Reparations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4SiWHe8-sQ&NR=1

Pin Sisovann, VOA Khmer
San Jose, California Tuesday, 01 March 2011

“I want real and clear justice, not a fake one, like that of a show trial."

Sophany Bay had her last look at her daughter’s corpse some 35 years ago. Her child died under the Khmer Rouge and was being taken away for burial in a shallow grave in Takeo province.

Now an American, Sophany Bay is filing as a complainant in the upcoming Khmer Rouge tribunal for four regime leaders. She says she wants to have a monument erected, one where she can keep a photograph of her youngest daughter and where she might engrave the names of her two other children lost to the regime.

Sophany Bay is among 41 Cambodians in the US who are filing as civil parties with the UN-backed court, which expects to hold a trial in Phnom Penh later this year for leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith.

Forum "From Victims to Witness'' Offers Opportunity to Cambodian-Americans in Lowell, Massachusetts

'History cannot be hidden' as Khmer Rouge leaders tried

Chum Mey visits S-21, a Khmer Rouge secret prison in Phnom Penh, where he was held for four months in 1978. The brutal communist regime killed his wife and daughter. (Photo: Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
By Calum MacLeod
USA TODAY

"People don't believe you can try the Khmer Rouge under this kind of government, who are Khmer Rouge themselves" - Son Chhay, opposition whip

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The Khmer Rouge shot and killed his wife and child. They tortured him with electric shocks and yanked out his toenails. They turned rice paddies into "killing fields," where the corpses of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were left to rot.

So for all that, jailing one old man for 19 years doesn't feel like justice to Chum Mey.

"It's a shame we don't have the death penalty anymore," says Chum, 79, inside S-21, a former Khmer Rouge secret prison where he was once jailed.

The subject of Chum's dismay is Kaing Guek Eav, 67, the former commandant of S-21 who is also known as Comrade Duch. In July, an international tribunal here convicted Duch of carrying out the torture and killings of 12,000 people.

Duch is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders arrested on charges of crimes against humanity. All are accused of taking part in killing as many as 3 million people from 1975 to 1979 — roughly one-third of Cambodia's population at the time, the United Nations says — in a ghastly attempt to turn back the clock on Western influences here and create an agrarian communist paradise.

Cambodians — including the 100,000 who fled to the United States by 1990 — have been waiting for more than 30 years to see justice for the Khmer Rouge, whose rule was followed by a Vietnamese occupation, civil war and U.N. oversight.

But Duch's sentence has angered survivors who say it is far too light for a man whose guards smashed the skulls of children against trees to prevent them from avenging the death of their parents. They ask how the tribunal can deliver justice when only five of the hundreds of former Khmer Rouge cadres and collaborators living freely in Cambodia are to be tried before it. Human rights groups say the U.N. is risking its credibility if the tribunal fails to satisfy the victims.

"I think it's not right. Somebody kill a lot of people, but they are still alive," says Wendy Lim, 57, who works the counter at the Phnom Pich Jewelry store in Long Beach, Calif., home to many Cambodian-owned businesses.

A mother of four who arrived in the USA in 1983, she wipes tears from her cheeks as she recalls the brutality of the Khmer Rouge, which killed her brother. Apologizing for her imperfect English, she says Duch's sentence was too light: "Not good — in the jail too short. He should die."

Others, however, say no tribunal will satisfy everyone and warn that justice is difficult in a country where despite a turn toward elective politics some alleged Khmer Rouge still hold powerful positions.

"This court could keep going for another 50 years because of all the crimes that were committed," says Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which is researching the genocide.

The Khmer Rouge's rise

Cambodians have been at the mercy of colonialism, communism and invaders for decades.

The French made Cambodia part of their Indochina empire in the 19th century, reaping profits from the harvesting of rice and rubber. At the height of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s, Soviet-backed North Vietnamese army troops hid in Cambodia's jungles to attack non-communist South Vietnam.

The United States, backing the South with U.S. troops, bombed the bases repeatedly and aided attempts by Cambodia military to oust the Vietnamese. Hundreds of villages were destroyed. A militia arose from the countryside, calling itself the Khmer Rouge, or Red Khmer, the name given them by the French (Khmer is the predominant ethnic group of Cambodia). Led by Pol Pot, a Khmer who once studied radio electronics at a Paris engineering school, the Khmer Rouge vowed to bring order and equality.

After a brutal campaign, Pol's soldiers surrounded the capital in April 1975. Phnom Penh fell five days after the U.S. Congress ended an airlift of food and weapons to the besieged city.

Cambodia was renamed Democratic Kampuchea. In what it called "Year Zero," the Khmer Rouge set out to cleanse the country of Western influence and traditional Cambodian culture. Banks were closed, money eliminated, schools shuttered. City residents were herded into the countryside to farm. Lawyers, teachers, property owners and Buddhist priests were ordered to be exterminated.

Pol's handiwork resulted not in utopia but poverty, famine and mass murder. It ended when Vietnam's army invaded in 1979.

"Our project was to transform the nature of society," Nuon Chea, one of the four remaining accused Khmer Rouge leaders awaiting trial, says in a newly released documentary film, Enemies of the People, winner of the 2010 Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

During its rule, the Khmer Rouge established labor camps, farm collectives and 196 prisons where people were starved, worked to death or killed, often after digging their own graves. In the film, an admitted Khmer Rouge executioner identified as Suon talks about how his hands grew tired from slitting throats so he switched to stabbing his victims as they lay face down with their hands tied. Like Duch, he says he was following orders.

"If we didn't obey, we would have been killed," says their superior, "Sister Em."

Cambodians who fled the Khmer Rouge for the United States still struggle with the horror they endured. They demand to know why it happened and who is responsible.

Danny You, 45, an urban planner who has lived in the USA since 1984, says he and most Cambodian-Americans he knows have little regard for the tribunals. He thinks those most responsible for the mass killings will never be brought to justice.

"They are corrupt, the government," he says. "How can one guy have killed so many?" he asks, suggesting some are getting away with murder. "I saw the killing. I witnessed everything."

Tom Am, 45, who arrived in America in 1982, agrees: "Someone masterminded it. There were orders from somewhere. There should be others" on trial.

A block down Anaheim Street, the heart of Cambodia Town, or Little Phnom Penh as it is unofficially known, Sam Ty is pleased with the tribunal.

"I think it was good, verdict was fair," says Ty, owner of Pich Kiri jewelry store. "It took a long time, too long."

Sara Pol-Lim, a survivor of the "killing fields" and executive director of the United Cambodian Community in Long Beach, says many Cambodians remain fearful of talking about that period.

Despite distrust in the government, sociologist Leakhena Nou is trying to get the testimonies of Cambodian-Americans about the horrors they suffered in their native land accepted by the tribunal by its Friday deadline.

"Many people are in their 60s and 70s, so this might be their only chance to make a mark on history. They are reclaiming the power that the Khmer Rouge took away from them 35 years ago," says Nou, an assistant professor at California State University-Long Beach.

Questions about the tribunal

Under international pressure, the Cambodian government requested U.N. help in 1997 to establish a tribunal to prosecute senior Khmer Rouge leaders but demanded it exclude thousands of henchmen.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia opened in 2007, with three Cambodians and two foreigners serving as judges. Having passed judgment on Duch, Case 001, the tribunal is to hear its next trial in 2011. But the presence of former Khmer Rouge officials in Cambodia's government, including long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen, raises the issue of whether serious criminals are being shielded from prosecution, critics say.

"People don't believe you can try the Khmer Rouge under this kind of government, who are Khmer Rouge themselves," says Son Chhay, an opposition member of a Cambodia parliament dominated by Hun Sen's party.

Others question whether the tribunal shows the limitations of an international system for perpetrators of genocide.

Human Rights Watch says the tribunal's mandate is being interfered with by the Cambodian government, which could derail additional indictments and trials. The Cambodian government appears to be behind decisions to block additional indictments, it says.

Despite millions dead, "the government is refusing to hold more than five people to account," says Sara Colm, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The U.N. and the tribunal's international donors should not allow political interference with the court to undermine its credibility."

Critics say that has happened.

Sophal Ear, a Cambodian-American political economist in Monterey, Calif., pointed to the 2009 appointment of Helen Jarvis of Australia as head of the tribunal's victims unit as an example of political bias. According to Ear, Jarvis once wrote with her husband: "We, too, are Marxists and believe that 'the ends justify the means.' ... In time of revolution and civil war, the most extreme measures will sometimes become necessary and justified."

"Everyone, including the donors know, that it's a lemon," Ear says of the tribunal. "It either needs to be fixed or it needs to be taken off the lot."

The tribunal is at a crossroads between legitimacy and failure, says Panhavuth Long, project officer at the Cambodia Justice Initiative, which supports the idea of international tribunals. He says the Cambodian government does not want more than five people prosecuted even though Cambodians say many more are guilty. Pol Pot died in a jungle hideaway in 1998.

"Cambodians' dissatisfaction at the (Duch) verdict makes it doubtful they will stay ... engaged for Case 2," he says.

That case involves former deputy leader Nuon Chea, 84, who along with three other Khmer Rouge leaders will be tried next year. Unlike Duch, they have not admitted guilt.

International co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley said the tribunal could prove to be a model for other nations that need international support to tackle serious crimes. "People will look back at this time and appreciate the fact that justice was met to international standards," says Cayley, a British lawyer.

Today, Cambodia is a fledgling democracy with an economy that was growing at 10% a year until the recession. Garment factories have sprung up to take advantage of cheap labor. Tourism is a big source of revenue and jobs. Two million people arrive annually to visit rain forest reserves, sparkling beaches and Angkor Wat, a 12th-century temple.

Chin Yong, driver of a tuk-tuk taxi that is a combination motorbike and carriage, is waiting for a fare near Gold Tower 42, the latest of a few skyscrapers that have gone up recently in Phnom Penh.

On this day, he is more concerned about his poor wages ($5 a day) than seeing justice for the Khmer Rouge. Although he had many relatives die under the regime, he says more tribunals are "not good for the country. We don't want more suffering through the memories."

In the countryside where most Cambodians still live, farmer Tep Naran echoes such sentiments.

"Life for people here is pretty much the same," says Naran, 29, at his home village near Skuon town, Kompong Cham province. "I don't know much about the Khmer Rouge as I wasn't even born then." Of Duch, he says, "He's so old now, why do they want to punish him?"

His father, Tep Sok, who says Duch was his math teacher before the Khmer Rouge, feels differently. "He used to advise me to be a good student, to benefit my family and the whole society. But he must have changed after that," says Tep, 65, who says he wants justice to come for the former Khmer Rouge cadres who live near his village.

In northwest Pailin province, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold, some people defend the regime.

"If there was no Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese would have stolen our land," says Ven Ra, niece of Ta Mok, a Pol Pot commander known as "The Butcher" who was awaiting trial for allegedly directing massacres and died in detention in 2006.

Those kinds of claims are one reason Chum Mey keeps coming to the former S-21 prison, now a genocide museum. When some students arrive, he rises from his seat again to tell what he witnessed here.

"History," he says, "cannot be hidden."

In Lowell, Cambodians Expect More from Tribunal

Leakhena Nou assisting a KR victim (Photo: AP)

Pin Sisovann, VOA Khmer
Lowell, Massachusetts Wednesday, 18 August 2010

“From Victims to Witnesses” aimed to assure people that the surprises they may have experienced in Duch's case do not have to be repeated for the next trial."

Lowell, Mass., has one of the largest Cambodian populations in the US. Nearly 40,000 Cambodians live here, and many of them were also victims of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodians here have followed the Khmer Rouge tribunal with much interest, and on a recent Sunday, nearly 50 of them gathered to discuss more work of the UN-backed court.

They gathered at Middlesex Community College for a discussion called “From Victims to Witnesses,” which was put on by the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, where they learned updates from the Khmer Rouge tribunal and discussed the impact of the regime.

The aim of the discussion was to promote healing in a community that suffers from trauma and other psychological distresses even more than 35 years after the Khmer Rouge took power.

Fear, distress and mistrust are all problems faced by survivors of the Khmer Rouge, and the goal of the discussion was to promote healing through speaking out, whether in their own communities or as participants in the Khmer Rouge court.

The tribunal is preparing for Case 002, a trial of four senior leaders: Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith. Kaing Kek Iev, the former prison chief better known as Duch, could also be tried for general Khmer Rouge atrocities, even though he has already been found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role as the head of Tuol Sleng prison.

The court allows participation from victims, which could help.

“Problematic experiences under the Khmer Rouge regime still have impact on their feelings,” said Nou Leakhena, head of ASRIC and a sociologist. “These brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts of ours don’t know that they have these wounds. The wounds plus their everyday hard lives create a society of suffering. They live hopelessly for no future. They feel they are living under the suspicious watch of all around. And the worst trauma is they don’t trust anyone. Children, mothers, fathers are at odds and don’t understand each other. These are their psychological diseases. If we could give them a chance to take part in Khmer Rouge tribunals, to spell out their disease, it would at least heal some of their psychological diseases.”

But so far not everyone is happy with the court's work. Tribunal judges sentenced Duch to a commuted 19 years in prison last month, following a lengthy trial. This frustrated some members of the Lowell community.

Sam Angsan, a participant of the discussion, said a person of Duch's guilt “must be held in a cave, or grave, for 18 lifetimes.”

At Sunday's event, people exhibited chest sobs and the kind of laughter that comes from stress. Many were angered that the court threw out the claims of 24 participants at the last minute, denying them a piece of the verdict.

“Why did the [tribunal] wait for a year before announcing the denial of the 24 claims?” asked Ny Koeun, who filed a complaint with the court. “In Case 002, please inform people early if there are any files to be denied. I was one of the victims, and I filed a complaint too.”

Some experts say the court is not the only way people can heal. Discussions like Sunday's meeting in Lowell can also help.

“I think gathering is very important,” said Samkhan Khoeun, a student adviser at Lowell Community College. “It helps Cambodians be better informed about events performed by [the tribunal]. Having released their bitter experiences, their stories of suffering, they feel relieved. This is a particularly important lesson, not only as a warning to leaders but also as a lesson for future generations. It proves to them that though the crime passed 20 or 30 years ago, justice ultimately prevails. I hope that present leaders would take this seriously as a model.”

Nou Leakhena acknowledged that the tribunal is undertaking a complicated process and that it so far has not done well allowing participation of civil parties.

Her institute was only able to assist in Duch's hearing, but for the next case it has already helped victims fill out nearly 170 forms, including 41 people filing as civil parties.

“From Victims to Witnesses” aimed to assure people that the surprises they may have experienced in Duch's case do not have to be repeated for the next trial, she said.

Experts Say Healing Must Come From In and Outside the Tribunal

Leakhena Nou (L) (Photo: AP)

Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Friday, 13 August 2010

"To continue acknowledging or thinking that we are victims is like to continue living in the Khmer Rouge time.”

There are many ways that people can heal from the Khmer Rouge. The UN-backed tribunal is only one of them. And though some have voiced disappointment with a relatively short sentence for Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, experts say it's a start.

“To continue our lives as victims is like allowing Duch to control our lives,” Chhang Youk, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which researched Khmer Rouge atrocities, said in a recent phone interview. “We are now doctors, workers, farmers, medical practitioners, and teachers so we have to move on with our lives. This is a way to add punishment on Duch. Teaching our children [about Khmer Rouge regime] is also another way. To continue acknowledging or thinking that we are victims is like to continue living in the Khmer Rouge time.”

Reconciliation is one of the main mandates of the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal. But with the verdict of Duch passed and the court now looking at its second case, some victims have not been satisfied.

However, Chhang Youk said, no amount of punishment will repair the lives lost under Duch. But the perpetrator was brought to justice.

“Nineteen years is not a whole lot [in terms of the] number of years,” said Nou Leakhena, executive director of Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, which works with Khmer Rouge victims in the US. “But at the same time, a verdict was reached, and that sets the precedent that perpetrators or potential perpetrators will be punished for crimes that they commit against innocent civilians and the destruction of a society.”

Nou Leakhena, whose institute has helped Cambodians in the US file complaints with the UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia, said the process has been legally complicated and the court has not done a good job improving the participation of victims.

“So my recommendation is, to the survivors, do not reach a decision until you fully understand the context by which the verdict was reached and at the same time what they do to ensure that this type of surprise verdict does not happen for Case 002,” said Nou Leakhena, who attended the Duch verdict. “I think too often survivors tend to react emotionally without looking at the situation more rationally. And by combining both rationality with emotion, I think it would be a lot healthier, not only for them but also to help encourage the court to do its job and to hold them accountable, to find justice not only for the Cambodian survivors but for Cambodian society at large."

After 77 days of testimony, which included appearances of surviving prisoners of Tuol Sleng and researchers, Duch was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for overseeing the execution of more than 12,000 prisoners.

The verdict has brought mixed reactions.

“I think that this is acceptable,” Vann Nath, who survived the prison, told VOA Khmer this week. “There's nothing more we can demand than that. I am so happy. He is now 68 or 69 and for 19 more years we don't know if he can stand it. I am now feeling much relieved."

Ronnie Yimsut, an author and activist in the US, has both joyful and unhappy feelings, but suggested that people should find ways to move forward.

“I think that all Cambodian people, including myself, have to accept the result of the court,” he told VOA Khmer on Monday. “What Cambodians should do is keep monitoring Case 002, which focuses more on senior Khmer Rouge leaders. Duch was just a junior follower, and I hope Duch would testify against them.”

Another Tuol Sleng survivor, Chum Mey, reacted with tears and disagreement when he first heard the July 26 verdict, but by this week, he said he now feels “some relief.”

“After considering it all over, I feel some relief, because we have a court with international participation,” he said. “This makes me more relieved. I am not just heated like before. It is a relief also because we have set up a law in Cambodia, unlike the three years and eight month lawless regime” of the Khmer Rouge.

Tribunal officials hope the verdict will provide this kind of relief to Cambodians who suffered under the regime. They have now published the verdict in its entirety and begun to distribute it to educational and other institutions for the public.

“This verdict has a big part in helping to heal their mental wounds,” tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said, “which the court has done for the Cambodian people as well as those who love justice across the world.”

Khmer Rouge Leader's Sentence Gets Mixed Reaction

Robert Carmichael, VOA
Phnom Penh 28 July 2010

On Monday, a United Nations-backed tribunal convicted Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, of war crimes and crimes against humanity - the first major Khmer Rouge figure to be tried since the regime was overthrown. He has already spent 16 years in prison, and the tribunal sentenced him to another 19 years.

Eight months after his trial concluded, Comrade Duch was sentenced to 35 years by the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh.

The court deducted 11 years for time already spent in pre-trial detention for Duch, who headed the movement's main torture and execution center known as S-21. And it granted a further five-year credit because Duch was held illegally for some of that time.

The end result is that Duch will likely serve just 19 more years.

His sentence surprised and angered many people, including Bou Meng and Chum Mey, two of the survivors of S-21 prison. They felt it was unduly lenient for a man who had overseen the torture and execution of more than 12,000 people.

Speaking outside the court Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American lawyer who lost members of her family to the Khmer Rouge, said 19 years was insufficient for the horrific acts the 67-year-old defendant had overseen while head of S-21.

"That is not acceptable," Seng said. "What is unacceptable is to envision him as a free man even for one minute in the public sphere."

But the reaction was mixed. While some welcomed the verdict, including a third S-21 survivor, the artist Vann Nath, others felt Duch should have been executed.

The reaction from Cambodians living overseas was also mixed.

Professor Leakhena Nou, a Cambodian-American sociologist, was in court on Monday along with three Cambodian-Americans who have applied to be civil parties in the court's second case, which should start next year.

"As you heard from one of our civil parties in today's meeting, she was not very happy with the verdict, having lost one of her parents and her siblings. But from our older survivor, who is in his late 70s, he felt that one positive thing that came out of the trial was the transparent process on how the rule of law was implemented," Nou said. "Although he was not happy with the number of years, he felt the court did make a concerted effort to find justice."

Speaking on Wednesday, Theary Seng said civil society must now focus on the second case involving four senior Khmer Rouge leaders who will be tried for their alleged roles in the deaths of around 1.7 million Cambodians.

"That responsibility rests with the senior Khmer Rouge leaders, and that's case 002," Seng said. "So we need to shift our anger now and our energy from anger toward energy in lobbying and advocating and demanding that case 002 involving the senior Khmer Rouge leaders take place, and take place soon before these old men die of ill health and of old age.”

Beyond case two, the court's international investigating judge said he wants to look at another five suspects.

The court has faced complaints of political interference as well as a series of cash crunches over the years.

Anne Heindel is a legal adviser at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an archive of papers on the Khmer Rouge period. She says there is a risk that donors simply won't pay for any further prosecutions.

"In many ways, I think funding might be the greater issue actually," Heindel stated. "It could very well be that when it comes to it, it will be the donors that aren't willing to pay for cases 3 and 4 rather than the government saying we aren't willing to let these cases move forward. And that's actually my greatest concern right now, because Japan is not putting forward as much support as it has in the past and thus far there's been no other state willing to take its place."

Sociologist Leakhena Nou notes that a successful tribunal process would have huge benefits for Cambodian society and for Cambodians living overseas.

Not only would it help survivors get recognition of their suffering and provide a sense of closure, she says, it would also leave a beneficial legacy for current and future generations.

Two days after his verdict was handed down, many are looking to a brighter future in which the catastrophe that Duch and others wrought on Cambodia is - in some small way - repaired.

Long Beach's Cambodian-Americans revisit darkest of times

Reflections on the Killing Fields a step toward healing.

05/01/2010
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH -- It began with tears and it ended with tears.

And in between there was a lot of information when a local nonprofit held a community forum before a packed house at the Mark Twain Library.

The Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia staged the forum to update members of the local community on what the institute's leader, Dr. Leakhena Nou, called "a beginning of a new chapter in healing" in the Cambodian-American community.

Nou and her fledgling all-volunteer nonprofit spearheaded an unprecedented effort to gather statements and testimonials from refugee survivors of the 1970s Cambodian genocide about the abuses they suffered. Their stories and the evidence contained within were made available for use at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

They are people like Vishsnah Cragn, a survivor from Battambang of the genocide that killed upwards of 2million.

Cragn was among a group of women who wept at intervals during the 3-hour event. At times the women would cover their eyes or cry silently into napkins or tissues. One elderly woman took to stuffing tissues under her glasses and over her eyes.

"There is hurt, very hurt. We still hurt," Cragn said in English. "I was born in Cambodia. We live good times before the Khmer Rouge. After. Everything destroyed."

Later, in translation, Cragn said each time the past is brought up, it brings back vivid memories of a time during the Khmer Rouge days when she was tied up and about to be raped.

"When someone talks, it seems like it's right in front of my eyes," Cragn said.

When Nou began her efforts to collect testimony like Cragn's, only about 100 testimonials, or victim information forms, had been collected outside Cambodia from refugees of the genocide.

In 2010, volunteers from UCLA law's International Rights Program, which assisted Nou's group in gathering information, presented about 200 testimonials to Cambodia for the war tribunal court to examine. That tripled the existing documentation from the Cambodian diaspora.

In Cambodia itself, about 7,000 statements were filed.

The tribunal just completed the first of at least two trials against leaders of the Khmer Rouge. The first trial, which still is awaiting a verdict, was against Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who oversaw the notorious Tuol Sleng detention center, where more than 15,000 detainees were either executed or died from torture.

The second case, which has yet to begin, will prosecute four leaders in the Khmer Rouge regime: Nuno Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan.

Saturday's meeting, entitled "From Victim to Witness: In Pursuit of Justice and Healing," was meant both as a celebration of the victims who bared their souls and revisited the darkest corners of their lives to provide testimony and evidence and as an update on the legal proceedings and how the information will be used.

The meeting opened with a dance by local performer Prumsodun Ok, who did a traditional dance that symbolizes restoring the world to order, peace and tranquility after a time of trauma and disorder.

Nou then praised the crowd of 80 or so residents, mostly genocide survivors, and offered a message of resilience.

"By honoring you and honoring your loved ones, we are also telling perpetrators they did not destroy your spirit."

Nou told those in attendance who filed forms said their willingness to stare down their fears and testify "is about giving voice and power to you and not the political elites."

"We have only this moment in history right the wrongs of 30 years ago," she later added. "You have a right to participate in this. This is your history and it belongs to you."

At the end of the event, there was a brief question-and-answer session.

At one point, several of the elderly women, including Cragn, spoke. They expressed frustration at the court process and wondered whether they would even live to see verdicts handed out and justice delivered.

"There are piles of skeletons and bones piled up for you to see everywhere," Cragn said. "How much more evidence do you need? Just go to my home in Battambang and ask around. Everyone knows. Everywhere there is so much evidence."

Nou also teared up when she listened to the women asking about whether they would live to see justice.

"They've invested so much," Nou said. "But at least they got the chance to talk."

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291

Airing memories of Khmer Rouge atrocities helps some victims recover

About 170 Cambodian refugees in the U.S. told their stories to be used at trial against Khmer Rouge leaders accused of crimes against humanity. Many had never spoken of what they endured.

May 1, 2010
By My-Thuan Tran
Los Angeles Times

Kieng Seng never wanted to relive her memories of the brutal Khmer Rouge era. She never said a word to her friends or children, having "buried the memories in the ground under 100 layers."

But last year, she recounted those nightmares openly for the first time, entering them as witness testimony in tribunals against former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of crimes against humanity.

Seng was one of about 170 Cambodian refugees in the United States who submitted personal histories at the urging of activists who aimed to give expatriate Cambodians a voice in the Phnom Penh tribunal.

On Saturday, Seng and several dozen genocide survivors gathered at a Long Beach library for an update on the tribunal's progress and the status of their testimonies.

"We are here to honor you as survivors of the Khmer Rouge," said Leakhena Nou, an assistant professor of sociology at Cal State Long Beach who led the outreach efforts. "We are here to tell the perpetrators in the regime that they did not destroy your spirits. . . . You have one moment in history to right the wrong of what happened decades ago."

As she spoke, several women in the audience pulled tissues from their pockets and dabbed their tears.

Last year, the United Nations-backed tribunal tried the first of five Khmer Rouge leaders whose charges stem from the genocide that took at least 1.7 million lives between 1975 and 1979.

The testimonies gathered by Nou's group, the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, were submitted to the court in January and entered for the second tribunal, which will try the remaining four leaders and is expected to begin next year.

Persuading survivors who had buried their memories for decades to open up was difficult, Nou said. "They felt the world did not want to listen to their stories," she said.

Many feared retribution if they were to travel to Cambodia, she said. But when one survivor began to share stories, others followed.

The group collected about 170 oral and written testimonies in Long Beach, home to the U.S.'s largest population of Cambodian refugees, as well as in Lowell, Mass.; Portland, Ore.; and Philadelphia.

Throughout the year the rules of the court kept changing, complicating the process of collecting testimonies, Nou said. And there was no guarantee that the Victim Information Forms they submitted would ultimately be used in court.

But despite the uncertainty and politics of the court, Nou and others said the process has helped survivors in deeper ways.

Sundaram Rama said the testimonies have allowed survivors like himself to heal.

"I think people are now ready to tell their stories," said Rama, director of the Cambodian Family, a social services nonprofit in Santa Ana. "Five or 10 years ago, people would share stories with me, but they would ask me not to share with anyone else. But now, more and more people are feeling comfortable."

Seng said she felt a sense of release in being able to let go of the horrific memories that had been bottled inside of her for 35 years when she gave her testimony in Santa Ana last September.

When the Khmer Rouge came to power, Seng was 13. Decades later, the memories remained vivid — being forced to wake up at 3 a.m. and dig to build a road, the fear of being separated from her sisters, brother and mother. In her sleep, she would see images of a man dressed in black pointing a gun at her or imagine she was drowning in water she was forced to dig through.

But after giving her testimony, she said, she felt lighter. The nightmares have lessened. "It's like it's passed already," she said. "I don't want this to go on until the next life. I want it to go away."

Still, the wounds run deep, and she said her pain may never entirely go away. She still has not told her two children everything.

"I don't want my kids to know all my suffering. I don't want them to think about what's going on with me," she said. "I want them to focus on studying here and to be happy. I don't want to remind myself."

my-thuan.tran@latimes.com

CSULB professor urges Cambodians to testify to history at event

Prof. Leakhena Nou with one of the KR victims (Photo: AP)

04/29/2010
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH - For two years now, Leakhena Nou has been engaged in a personal mission.

The sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach has been at the forefront of collecting testimony from victims of 1970s Khmer Rouge atrocities in the Cambodian refugee community. The information could become part of the court records in the ongoing Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal being held in Cambodia.

Even 35 years after the rise of Pol Pot's genocidal regime and more than 30 years after it was toppled, Cambodian residents of Long Beach still struggle with the legacy of a genocide that left upwards of 2 million, or about one-quarter of Cambodia's population dead.

And for years, Nou bristled at the unwillingness to come forth of her countrymen in the Cambodian diaspora who were witnesses to the genocide.

So she's done something about it.

With a tiny all-volunteer staff, Nou's nonprofit Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, has become the leading collector of testimony from the worldwide Cambodian refugee community.

Although the first of the war tribunals has concluded, at least one more is upcoming and so-called "victim information files" are still being collected.

On Saturday from noon until 3 p.m., Nou and representatives from other groups will be at the Mark Twain Library, 1401 Anaheim St., to continue the dialogue with the community and tell residents how they can still be involved in a historic effort.

Among event guests will be Rob Lemkin, co-director of "Enemies of the People," an award-winning documentary film about the Pol-Pot regime presented at the Sundance Film Festival this year and called "a watershed account of Cambodian history and a heartfelt quest for closure on one of the world's darkest episodes."

There will also be a representative from the tribunal court and other experts to explain the court process and update the news from Cambodia.

The event is entitled "From Victim to Witness: In Pursuit of Justice and Healing Community Forum." Nou says by speaking out, victims are able to regain a sense of power and justice.

"It's a matter of human rights," Nou said in 2009. "They have a right to be part of truth and reconciliation for their suffering and for their own healing."

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291

Melody Ross's death causes Cambodian parents' wariness and fears to grow

Wilson High School student Melody Ross,16, who was shot and killed Friday October 30, 2009, after a Wilson High School football game, at Wilson. Family Photo

11/08/2009
By Greg Mellen Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram

About the services

What: Funeral services for Melody Ross

When: Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Sky Rose Chapel at Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3888 S. Workman Mill Road, Whittier. The chapel is in the East Park area. The entrance is through Gate 1. The burial will follow. The event is open to the public.

Donations: The Long Beach Education Foundation has set up a fund for the Ross family to pay for the funeral and related costs and possibly as a college scholarship fund for Ross' two sisters, Emily, 17, and Kimberly, 6.

Donations can be made by check to the Long Beach Education Foundation with Melody Ross Memorial Trust Account noted on the memo line. Checks should be mailed to the Long Beach Education Foundation, 1515 Hughes Way, Long Beach, CA 90810.

The Cambodian Coordinating Council and other civic groups are also organizing fundraisers and events to help the family.

LONG BEACH - The shooting death of Melody Ross, a 16-year-old Cambodian American bystander killed after a high school football game, has reawakened old fears and concerns among a number of Cambodian parents in the community about the safety of their children.

The tragedy also has at least some reconsidering the involvement of their children in extracurricular activities.

It also has a Cambodian sociologist telling the community that retreat is the worst outcome for Khmer kids, who need to be active and involved in their schools and culture if they are to flourish.

While the death of Ross is a concern for parents of all races, it is particularly acute among parents in the Cambodian community, where the ghosts of the Killing Fields genocide and the culture of fear are never far beneath the surface.

Ross, the daughter of survivors, was not involved in the dispute that erupted in the fatal shooting after Wilson's homecoming game against Poly on Oct. 30. She was simply in a crowd and hit at random. Police say she was not a target and that race was not a factor.

That is little solace to survivors of the genocide that left upwards of 2 million dead between 1975 and 1979.

Since Ross' death, several Cambodian parents have said they are debating whether to let their children participate in after-school activities.

Dr. Leakhena Nou, a sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach, says for genocide survivors in particular the feelings are amplified.

"Any random act of violence can be a trigger for survivors who have lived through such terrible circumstances," Nou said. "This is definitely a step backward for psychological and emotional healing."

Traditional culture

Compounding the difficulty are aspects of Cambodian culture and identity.

Ross, for example, came from a traditional family that clung to the idea of "chabap srey" or the Cambodian code of behavior for girls.

Khmer parents typically are very protective of their girls and restrict their interactions outside of the family with friends and social groups.

The football game was the first Ross had been allowed to attend and she had to lobby her parents hard to gain permission to go.

The Cambodian Coordinating Council, in a statement to the Board of Education, expressed the feelings of many.

"As you know, many of the Cambodians in this community fled during the Killing Fields to other countries for peace and freedom. When this tragic incident happens in our city, it brings horrible memories for those who are survivors," the letter said.

The news shook John and Candy Vong. Their son, Petra, sings for Lakewood High's madrigals and the parents were debating whether to let him attend the next game.

"I'm afraid to let him go," Candy said. "We haven't made a decision, but right now it's about 98 percent we won't let him go. He's our only son."

Candy says John lost much of his family in Cambodia and was nearly killed himself.

A father's fears

Just hours before Friday's football game, Bryant Ben, a survivor whose 13-year-old son, Patrick, attends Poly, had a discussion with his son.

The boy wanted to exercise his freedom and ride the bus to the game after school.

Bryant said, "No," and they went through the motions of a typical father-son argument: the child wanting freedom and independence, the parent arguing for safety.

"He said, `You're overreacting,"' Bryant recalls, "I said `You can say that."'

Dr. Christina Lee is a survivor with two younger children who understands the fear of her compatriots.

For many Cambodians, survival during the Khmer Rouge reign depended on being invisible and going unnoticed. So it is difficult to expose their children to perceived hazards.

Lee said survivors who lost family members tend to be cautious and when they lose a child for no apparent reason it is like a double blow.

She said Ross' death will probably deter parents from letting children attend events, and she admits she'd "think twice" about letting her children go.

Nou says as difficult as it may be for parents to let go, it is a vital part of the children's acculturation, their identity and their self-esteem.

Being involved in school activities, Nou says, is integral to "adolescent identity building.

"Attending a football game is a natural part of growing up," she said.

And as tempting as it may be to want to shield kids, Nou says Khmer children need to experience the full range of the high school if they are to learn, grow, adapt and succeed, which ultimately is their parents' wish.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291

Cambodians testify for war crimes tribunal

In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Leakhena Nou, left, a Cambodian-American sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach, comforts Roth Prom, 63, during a workshop at the United Cambodian Community Center in Long Beach, Calif. Prom, is one of dozens of Cambodian refugees across the U.S. who are sharing their memories of Khmer Rouge atrocities with a legal team so they can be used as evidence in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Cambodian-American Sam Oeun York ,71, whose husband was killed by the Khmer Rouge, tells participants at a Long Beach, Calif., workshop how she survived the atrocities in Cambodia. York is one of dozens of Cambodian refugees speaking publicly _ many for the first time _ about Khmer Rouge atrocities so a legal team can use their testimony in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Cambodian-American Nhen Chheng, 70, who survived the rath of the Khmer Rouge, wipes tears away as she recalls her experiences to other survivors during a workshop in Long Beach, Calif. Prom is one of dozens of Cambodian refugees across the U.S. who are sharing their memories of Khmer Rouge atrocities with a legal team so they can be used as evidence in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Cambodian-American Chorn Van wipes away tears as she listens to Khmer Rouge survivors document their stories of war crimes to others during a workshop in Long Beach, Calif. Van is one of the many Cambodian refugees across the U.S. who are sharing their memories of Khmer Rouge atrocities with a legal team so they can be used as evidence in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this photo taken Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, Cambodian-Americans Rany Ork, left, and Chanthan Pich, foreground, who survived the wrath of the Khmer Rouge, wipe tears from their eyes during a workshop in Long Beach, Calif. The two survivors are some of the many Cambodian refugees across the U.S. who are sharing their memories of Khmer Rouge atrocities with a legal team so they can be used as evidence in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Saturday, September 26, 2009
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
AP

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The tiny Cambodian woman trembled slightly and stared blankly ahead as she told the story that has haunted her for half a lifetime: her parents and brother died in Khmer Rouge labor camps. Her baby perished in a refugee camp.

Roth Prom has wanted to die every day since and had never spoken those words so publicly until last week, when five minutes became the chance for justice she has longed for silently for so many years.

"I'm depressed in my head, I'm depressed in my stomach and in my heart. I have no hope in my body, I have nothing to live for," she said quietly. "All I have is just my bare hands."

As the tiny woman in the polka dot blouse slipped back to her seat, many of the nearly two dozen other Cambodian refugees in the room began to weep. They know Prom's pain. They were all there to tell stories just like hers.

Prom, 63, is one of dozens of Cambodian refugees speaking publicly — many for the first time — about Khmer Rouge atrocities so a legal team can use their testimony in an international war crimes tribunal underway in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.

From Virginia to California, refugees have spent the past few months pouring out long-suppressed memories to volunteers who fill notebooks with reports of gang rapes, execution, starvation, forced labor and brutal beatings. They attach names of dead relatives, sometimes a half-dozen per person, and scrawl out names of labor camps and far-flung villages where they lived for years on the edge of starvation.

The Khmer Rouge is implicated in wiping out an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians, nearly a quarter of the population, during their rule from 1975-79 under Pol Pot. People died from disease, overwork, starvation and execution in the notorious "killing fields."

Cambodians who fled their homeland decades ago relish the chance to participate in the war crimes trials unfolding thousands of miles away. The tribunal, a joint court created by the Cambodian government and the United Nations, allows Khmer Rouge victims to participate as witnesses, complainants and civil parties.

Depending on the stories, the accuracy of their memories and their own willingness to participate, survivors could be called to testify for the prosecution or defense and those filing as civil parties could be entitled to reparations. At a minimum, all filings will be archived and reviewed by those collecting testimony from survivors.

Leakhena Nou, the Cambodian-American sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach organizing the U.S. workshops, said submitting evidence forms is cathartic for victims who have often kept their trauma secret from spouses and American-born children. Many suffer from post-traumatic stress and have symptoms of severe depression, including memory loss, flashbacks and suicidal thoughts.

"They have a sense of powerlessness, but they have a lot more power than they realize," said Nou, founder of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia. "Most of them have not even talked about it for 30 years. They've been silent for so long."

Last week, testimony in Phnom Penh concluded in the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, who commanded the S-21 prison where up to 16,000 people were tortured and killed. Eav, also known as Duch, was the first to go before the tribunal and is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. More than 23,000 visitors attended his trial, which continues in November with closing arguments.

Four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are in custody awaiting trial set for January. Any testimony submitted by the end of the year can be used by prosecutors to bolster those cases.

The U.N. and Cambodian branches of the tribunal did not respond to e-mailed requests for comment.

Grassroots organizers with backing from the Asian Pacific American Institute at New York University have been building trust within the Cambodian-American communities for nearly two years but still expected many to shun the process out of fear and suspicion. Some victims believe the tribunal is run by the Khmer Rouge, while others fear if they speak out they could endanger relatives still living in Cambodia.

But Nou said turnout has been high, with some people even traveling from Arizona to share stories at the Southern California workshops held at a Cambodian community center.

"Before, they assumed that no one wanted to listen to them," she said. "They'll say, 'We thought that no one cared, that no one wanted to listen. But now that I know people want to listen, I have nothing else to lose. I've lost everything else already.'"

So far, the team has collected more than 100 statements from Cambodian expatriates at workshops in Virginia, Maryland, Orange County and Long Beach — home to the largest Cambodian ex-pat population. Future sessions are planned this fall in Oregon, Northern California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

They've uncovered chilling stories along the way.

One woman in Long Beach told of being gang-raped from dawn to dusk by Khmer Rouge cadres while 6 1/2 months pregnant. She never told her husband and only came forward last week because he had passed away.

Another recalled being held at gunpoint with her brother and being forced to watch as her father was executed and then disemboweled, his heart, liver and stomach ripped out by soldiers. The woman, now in her 50s, told the story to a volunteer in three distinct "spirit voices," as if to detach herself from the painful memories.

For Prom, the recent workshop in Little Cambodia was a chance to honor the memory of her loved ones — and to get justice for the brutal crimes that ruined her life and so many others. The Khmer Rouge split up her family, she was forced to pull a plow through rice paddies like an ox and her child died later in a refugee camp.

Prom harbors thoughts of killing herself and suffers from memory loss. She's terrified of the night — the time when Khmer Rouge soldiers would take neighbors away without explanation, never to be seen again.

"I try to forget, but it's hard to forget," Prom told a translator who dictated it to a volunteer law student. Prom had already penciled her story on paper in the rolling script of her native Khmer.

"I want to find justice for myself and for the Cambodian people," she said. "I'm here to teach history to the next generation, so this horrific crime will never happen again."

On the Net:
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: http://www.eccc.gov.kh/english
Asian Pacific American Institute at New York University: http://nyu-apastudies.org/new/index.php

Survivors' stories sought for trials

CAMBODIA: The testimony could be used against alleged perpetrators of Khmer Rouge.

09/14/2009
Greg Mellen
Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

Where and when:

• Thursday at McBride Park, 1550 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., from 10:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.
• Friday at United Cambodian Community, 2201 E. Anaheim St., from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday in Santa Ana at Cambodian Family Inc., 111 E. Wakeham Ave.

LONG BEACH - There are still a few chances for local Cambodian residents who were victimized by the Khmer Rouge to have their stories heard.

The Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, in partnership with several organizations, is talking to survivors and families of victims of the 1970s genocide at several events this week.

Participants have the opportunity to provide testimony that may be used in proceedings against alleged perpetrators in the ongoing war crimes tribunals in Cambodia.

For decades, a debilitating fallout for survivors of the genocide has been feelings of helplessness and powerlessness.

Dr. Leakhena Nou, a professor at Cal State Long Beach, has led the effort to get victims' testimony from the Cambodian Diaspora in the U.S.

Nou says by speaking out, victims are able to regain a sense of power and justice.

"It's a matter of human rights," Nou told the Press-Telegram in March. "They have a right to be part of truth and reconciliation for their suffering and for their own healing."

Kaing Geuk Eav, also known as Duch, is the first alleged war criminal appearing before the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, which is conducting the tribunal.

Duch is charged with overseeing the mass torture and execution in prison camps, including Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng, or S-21.

Between 1975 and 1979, an estimated 2 million Cambodians died from executions, starvation, illness and deprivation under the Khmer Rouge.

A second trial is slated for alleged Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith.

More trials and defendants are possible.

Victims and families affected between April 17, 1975, and Jan. 6, 1979, have the right to file complaints that will be brought to the ECCC.

Law students from UCLA's International Justice Clinic and translators will help victims fill out official information forms.

The sessions to provide possible testimony are:

Thursday at McBride Park, 1550 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., from 10:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Friday at United Cambodian Community, 2201 E. Anaheim St., from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday in Santa Ana at Cambodian Family Inc., 111 E. Wakeham Ave.

Similar efforts are being organized in Northern California, Lowell, Mass., Portland, Ore., Virginia/Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. Other sites are possible.

People interested in testifying are asked to RSVP by Wednesday by e-mail to apa.asric-khmer.justice@nyu.edu.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291