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
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
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