Another Gentle Reminders from Theary Seng

Another cycle of GENTLE REMINDERS:

1. Kramanation – Wear Krama Campaign:

We are about to start our 6th page. Click on to see the new members of Kramanation spotted around the world. Rumors are spreading that within the year we may see George Clooney donning the krama. Let us wait and see…

http://www.thearyseng.com/random/188-signature-khmer-kramas-silk-scarves/194

Kramanation’s emissary to the European Union, Rafael Dochao-Moreno.

2. Tribute to Loved Ones Lost

Please send in your personal remembrances. See new ones, deeply, eloquently remembered…

The beautiful Sophea Omnou of Great Britain pays tribute to her parents and 7 siblings killed by the Khmer Rouge.

http://www.thearyseng.com/victims-association

3. Campaign for 24 Provincial Learning Centers to be furnished with the inventory of the ECCC:

A forum of education, for memorializing (think Berlin with all its memorials/information center combined into one), for recording personal testimonies (think Shoah Foundation), virtual library, traditional library and resource hub – all connected via information communication technology (thanks to the Vietnamese military who are almost finished laying the telecommunications infrastructure for all the villages of Cambodia – isn't this high TREASON in another country besides here, what Shinawatra was ousted for (and that, for only selling a fraction, minority shares of his telecommunications company to a foreign country)?? Currently, memorializing/education is concentrated in Phnom Penh but 85% of Cambodians live outside of the capital.

http://www.thearyseng.com/random/191-press-release-kr-victims-demand-eccc-inventory-and-provincial-learning-centers

4. Related, Campaign to de-commercialize, de-personalize MEMORIALS.

We need national leadership on this matter. First, detract the contract with the foreign private company owning Choeung Ek Killing Fields; this is a slap in the face of victims. SACRELIGIOUS !! Second, preserve as many of the skulls and bones and mass graves as possible as sites of memory, which could be the same as the sites for the Provincial Learning Centers.

http://www.thearyseng.com/victims-association

The skulls at Wat Beoung Rai in one of 2 unprotected "cheddai". Among the 30,000 skulls including that of my mom, these are the only ones remaining: over the years, the villagers have been taking the skulls at liberty to grind them into traditional medicine. The bones are still in the mass graves in and around the pagoda and the nearby prison (above photo). On this visit with a great friend of Cambodia at the EU-Brussels and painter Danielle Dal Molin (4 Sept. 2010), I noticed that an "excellency" has spent @ US$3,000 to reconstruct this gaudy shiny "cheddai" with his name boldly, decidedly inscribed into this very public cheddai... This is the problem when memorializing is left into private hands with no community involvement and no national leadership at preservation.

Cambodia to Preserve Khmer Rouge Sites for Tourism

March 10, 2010

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Cambodia will preserve 14 sites at the last bastion of the murderous Khmer Rouge, including the home of their leader Pol Pot, as tourist attractions, an official said Wednesday.

Following Cabinet approval last week, the sites at Anlong Veng will be protected from destruction by local people and illegal encroachment, the area's district chief Yim Phana said.

Anlong Veng, about 185 miles (300 kilometers) north of Phnom Penh, fell to government forces in 1998 after nearly 20 years of fighting.

The Khmer Rouge regime, under which an estimated 1.7 million people died from execution, disease and malnutrition, was toppled in 1979 but its guerrillas fought on in the jungles, with Anlong Veng becoming their last stronghold.

Yim Phana said the 14 sites include homes belonging to Khmer Rouge leaders, an ammunition warehouse and the grave of Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

Once a remote town, Anlong Veng is now connected by good roads to nearby Thailand and Cambodia's greatest tourist attractions, the temples of Angkor.

Can Telling a Story Heal the Hurt?

Socheata Poeuv

By Soeung Sophat VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
02 March 2010

The simple act of telling a story could be one way of healing trauma. At least that’s what Poeuv Socheata, a Cambodian-American who is gathering the stories of many of her countrymen, thinks. And not just for an individual, but for an entire community.

Poeuv Socheata, who is 29, runs a program through Yale University to collect narratives from Cambodian survivors, and she said this has taught her the power of a story.

“I interviewed one older gentleman who was a survivor [and] who said the one thing that kept him going during the Khmer Rouge time was this idea that he would survive and then he would tell the world about what happened,” she told VOA Khmer in a recent interview. “That it was essential for him to tell the world. I think there are more and more people like him.”

Trauma-related illnesses are a major social problem for Cambodians, many of whom suffer from post-traumatic stress symptoms and depression as a result of Khmer Rouge traumas.

Poeuv Socheata, who wrote and directed a documentary, “New Year Baby,” following the effect of the Khmer Rouge on her own family, said a personal narrative can heal because it is empowering.

“What happens is you can become the controller of that story as opposed to being [a] victim that’s being acted upon,” she said. “And so by telling the story, you can actually regain some shred of control and power over your own narrative. And that’s a really important step in terms of healing, I think.”

However, the notion of personal narrative as a healing mechanism is a Western idea, she said, while other cultures, like Africa’s Burundi, may deal with trauma through silence.

“In the Burundian culture, there is this idea of gusimbura, which is to say that you cannot even speak the name of the person who died and you can only talk about them indirectly,” she said. “And it is very rude to bring up these tragedies.”

“I don’t know of a similar concept in Cambodian culture,” she said, “but there is certainly this idea in Cambodian culture that expressing your emotions at all in a way that’s strong is negative, and everyone should be very serene and placid and always be very neutral in their emotions, and that’s what is best for a person and that’s what is best for a society.”

Chhang Youk, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has interviewed thousands of former Khmer Rouge cadres and their victims, called storytelling an important source of healing, but he said the concept was not necessarily Western.

“Whether a person is Jewish, German, Rwandan, or Iraqi, we are all humans, and when we become victims, we maintain our humanity,” he said. “When a person loses a loved one, we all suffer, whether we have lighter or darker skin, or wherever we live.”

Survival stories are compatible with Cambodian culture, because oral history is an important part of the culture, he said. It is rare for Cambodians to downright refuse to talk about their pasts.

“There have been those refusing to be interviewed, but not in a negative way, but in the context that they they’ve already told their stories for 30 years but haven’t seen any results,” he said. “And we understand their feeling. And we consider this a method to healing if they can forget these tragic memories, which we respect and want them to utilize.”

Whether or not these narratives are compatible with Cambodian culture, Poeuv Socheata said she believes many people want to tell their stories.

So she is now recording survivor testimonies for Khmer Legacies, at Yale, to “provide a healing opportunity for survivors by witnessing their testimonies.”

The program is taking individual testimonies in the US, but she would like it to grow into community testimonies both here and in Cambodia.

Khmer Legacies expects to send two researchers to Cambodia this summer to record testimonies. Poeuv Socheata said she hopes Cambodian people, especially younger Cambodians, will become involved by interviewing survivors in their families or communities or through the group’s ongoing transcription process. She can be contacted at info@khmerlegacies.org.

Nhem En would like you to visit Pol Pot's restroom [W.C.] in Anlong Veng

Pol Pot shoes: Nhem En renounces to the auction sale

24 April 2009
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

The Club of Khmer Journalists (CKJ) decided not to support the undertaking of the former KR photographer who still wishes to find a buyer out of an official auction sale.

Nhem En decided to renounce for an official auction of the alleged Pol Pot’s shoes, he told Cambodge Soir hebdo on Friday 24 April.

The former KR photographer announced that he would put for auction, with starting bid at $500,000, a lot of items including a pair of shoes and two cameras.

When solicited by Nhem En to hold a press conference for the auction sale, the CKJ declined this request following its meeting on Tuesday 21 April.

The committee of the CKJ directors believed that it was only Nhem En’s personal undertaking, i.e. the ethics issue is questionable, as well as the authenticity of the items for sale. Furthermore, the announcement for the auction sale generated enough media coverage already.

“I will continue to find a buyer for Pol Pot’s shoes out of an official auction,” Nhem En announced when he was asked by Cambodge Soir Hebdo. “I am reminding that this [sale proceed] will allow for the financing of a tourist site dedicated to the memory.”

Nhem En, who had publicly apologized for his involvement in the KR regime on 25 January 2007 at the US embassy, announced that he had asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as Jean François Desmazières, France ambassador to Cambodia, to buy these shoes while recalling that “this country [France] helped Cambodia since long ago.”

“The Anlong Veng area is now unfavorably known as one of the last KR fiefs. If we create a museum there, it could become a second tourist site in the country, right after Angkor Wat,” Nhem En added while stressing that the site would include the houses and graves of Pol Pot, Ta Mok, Son Sen, as well as “Pol Pot’s restroom [W.C.].”

“Now, around Ta Mok’s house, there are restaurants, karaoke parlors … it is regrettable. I want to preserve the site for the Cambodian nation and people. All the objects belonging to Ho Chi Minh, Hitler, Saddam Hussen are preserved,” Nhem En claimed while rejecting the venality accusation and while indicating that he spent “more than $200,000” for the creation of the museum.

“Furthermore, Samdach Hun Sen encourage me to create a tourist site,” Nhem En said.