Cambodians' day to mourn Friday

Two local groups will gather to commemorate a somber annual rite.

04/15/2009
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

Want to go?

• Who: Killing Fields Memorial Center
• What: Memorial prayers, testimonials and candlelight vigil
• When: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m.-dark Friday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday
• Where: Wat Vipassanaram (Wat IRAP), 1239 E. 20 th St.
• Info: Bryant Ben, 562-999-6148, or Paline Soth, 562-360-5355

LONG BEACH — On Friday, two local Cambodian groups will gather to commemorate a somber annual rite.

April 17 marks the 34th anniversary of the date the Khmer Rouge rolled into Phnom Penh and cemented its ascendancy in Cambodia. It is also the date that is associated with the Killing Fields genocide campaign that left more than 2 million Cambodians dead from execution, starvation, disease and deprivation under the brutal 45-month reign of the Khmer Rouge.

As a result, for many Cambodians in Long Beach and worldwide, April 17 is a day of mourning, prayer and remembrance.

The Killing Fields Memorial Center began formally remembering April 17 in 2005 with a candlelight vigil, after it helped lead a fight to prevent the first Cambodian New Year Parade from being held on the 30th anniversary of the rise of Khmer Rouge.

This year, the group will stage its fifth annual memorial day at Wat Vipassanaram, also known as Wat IRAP, 1239 E. 20th St, with a day of prayer, testimonials and a candlelight vigil.

Also on Friday, for the first time, the United Cambodian Community will commemorate the day with remembrances and a fundraising dinner at New Paradise Restaurant.

At Wat Vipassanaram, survivors share tales every year about experiences in Cambodia during the genocide years. Often their voices quake with emotion.

One time, Chhom Nimol, a popular singer with the group Dengue Fever, showed up at the event and sang several traditional Khmer songs a cappella.

Chantara Nop is a poet who has written about the Killing Fields and is a regular at the memorial.

He said it is vital for the community to remember and share survivor stories so that history won't be repeated in Cambodia and so that children learn about the history of their forbears.

It is also important for the victims, according to Nop.

"It feels much relief when people are supportive," Nop said. "You go through so much pain if you don't tell and you keep secrets."

For UCC, the experience is new but continues efforts it has undertaken this year to heal wounds and close the generational gap.

"This year we're piggybacking on what we've done to help heal the community," said executive director Sara Pol-Lim. "We're addressing the past. We hope by facing it we can put it behind us."

Pol-Lim is also inviting the Jewish community to the UCC event, because of the history of suffering the two cultures share.

In addition to the dinner, the UCC event will feature Buddhist blessings and Jewish prayers, speeches and proclamations by elected officials, the honoring of survivors, poetry by youth and a veterans' salute.

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

Want to go?

• Who: Killing Fields Memorial Center
• What: Memorial prayers, testimonials and candlelight vigil
• When: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m.-dark Friday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday
• Where: Wat Vipassanaram, 1239 E. 20 th St.
• Info: Bryant Ben, 562-999-6148, or Paline Soth, 562-360-5355

• Who: United Cambodian Community
• What: Commemoration Day dinner
• When: 6:30 p.m. Friday
• Where: New Paradise Restaurant, 1348 E. Anaheim St.
• Admission: $40 individual ticket, 10-person table rates vary.
• Information: 562-433-2490

[Wat IRAP] Temple leadership put to vote again

Congregants vote for nine new board members of Wat Vipassanaram in Long Beach on Friday. A court challenge to an election a year ago framed a yearlong dispute over leadership of the Cambodian Buddhist temple. More than 400 temple members were expected to vote. (Stephen Carr/Staff Photographer)

01/23/2009
By Greg Mellen Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH - Despite a gloomy forecast, cold weather and rainfall, for the second time in a year about 400 congregants of a Cambodian Buddhist temple showed up to cast ballots in an attempt to find leadership at the embattled temple.

Friday's election, for all nine spots on the temple's board of directors, was ordered by Superior Court Judge Joseph Di Loreto, who has been overseeing a yearlong legal battle between the long-standing board of directors at Wat Vipassanaram and a dissident group of congregants supported by the monks.

Although temple bylaws allow only three members to be elected to the board in any year, Di Loreto said the existing board members had so abrogated their responsibilities that all nine seats should be put up.

The temple was open from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. to give working templegoers time to vote. Ballots were being counted late Friday night and results should be in Sunday's Press-Telegram.

The candidates are Yin Ath, Chhan Aun, Nhror Aun, Bryant Ben, Kosal Chhum, Kea Him, Amphan Keo, Elizabeth Keo, John Kong, Alex Lim, Siu Chheng Lim, Anthony Ly, Chou Ngim Ly, Sonly Muy, Teang Neth, Sovannara Nou, Chhakry Oun, Mum Pel, Teang Pream, Larry Sar, Hack Sok, Darin Sun, Sophal Um, Praseur Vann.

Twenty-four congregants were nominated and placed on the ballot, including monk Aun, in an apparent violation of the temple bylaws. Typically monks, especially in the conservative Theravada school of Buddhism practiced at Wat Vipassanaram, eschew politics and secular matters. Aun was the only monk to accept nomination to the board.

A last-minute appeal by the existing board of directors for an injunction to stop the election failed when the Second District Appellate Court denied the petition.

While the election was being staged on one side of the wat complex, Siphann Tith, executive director of the current board, and his supporters sat on the other.

Tith said he sent a letter to the dissidents saying an election wouldn't be allowed on temple property, but relented when the congregants arrived.

"As long as they don't cause problems," Tith said, he wouldn't contest the staging of the event.

"I'm not going to have a confrontation, there has already been too many," Tith said.

Regardless of Friday's results, the existing board of directors is appealing Di Loreto's authority and rulings. None of the current board members is on the ballot, and Tith says he will not recognize the results.

The dissidents say when Di Loreto approves the election results they will assume control of governance of the temple and its assets, which are currently being handled by a court-appointed receiver.

"It feels good, finally," said board candidate Ly, one of the original leaders of the group contesting the current board of directors. "We'll just follow the judge's orders and everything should be OK."

Ben, another board candidate, was eager for the results to come in Friday afternoon.

"As soon as the judge approves, we're going to take action right away," Ben said.

"We're going to clean up this mess," said Sar.

In January 2008, in similar weather, members of the wat showed up in big numbers to oust the existing board of directors in the first election in more than a decade.

At the time, members of the board asked that the election be postponed until March. They had been in the process of rewriting bylaws since June to conform to California law and said they needed to finish the job to provide a fair and legitimate election.

Members of the existing board accused outsiders of trying to hijack the election and control of the temple assets by orchestrating a large influx of temple members with no real connection to the wat.

No members of the board were listed as candidates in the 2008 election and the board did not recognize the vote.

The two sides have been in court ever since.

The year-long legal struggle for control of Wat Vipassanaram, which owns several properties and had $4 million in assets before the legal wranglings began, has been a tumultuous experience.

Along the way:

• The existing board of directors tried to dissolve the board and reform it as a separate entity.
• The court appointed a receiver because of fears of absconding of temple funds.
• The executive director was jailed for contempt of court for refusing to turn over financial records to the receiver.
• The temple had a brief relationship with a Gnostic church in Orange run by John Ramirez, aka Johnny Rhondo, who was implicated in a Texas insurance fraud scheme in 2002.

As the rain fell, Paline Soth, another dissident, reflected on the parallels between this year's election and last year's.

"If it's raining, a lawsuit will follow," he said with a laugh.

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

Report about Wat Vibassanaram (Wat IRAP) affair

Click here to download Angkor Borei's PDF report in Khmer about Wat Vibassanaram (IRAP) issue in Long Beach, California

The report above also mentions about an article published by The Khmer Post, a Cambodian local newspaper in Long Beach, on this issue also, this article is available by clicking here.

(Photo: Khmer Post)

Due to the length of this report, KI-Media apologize to our readers for not being to post the English translation.