L.B.: Despite pain, survivors at 33rd anniversary vigil say remembrance is vital.
Los Angeles Newspaper group
By Greg Mellen, Staff writer
04/17/2008
LONG BEACH - It never goes away.
"It is in my eyes. It is in my head," Nuon Kanno says of his memories of life under the Khmer Rouge. "If I talk about Pol Pot, I cannot stop the tears."
For all the pain it dredges up, Nuon says events like Thursday's candlelight vigil at Wat Vipassanaram to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge ascendancy in Cambodia are vital.
Nuon says elders like he, who witnessed unspeakable horrors, owe it to their children and grandchildren to recall and retell the horrors and never forget.
For the fourth straight year, Cambodians in Long Beach held a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the genocide between 1975 and 1979 inflicted by the Khmer Rouge.
During the reign of the bloody Communist government, it is estimated that anywhere from 1.2 million to well over 2 million were slaughtered in the genocide that became known as the "Killing Fields." The most commonly cited number is 1.7 million estimated by Yale University in a U.S. State Department-sponsored study. Recent studies say it could be much higher.
With candles flickering in the cool night air outside the temple near Long Beach City College, about 120 survivors and their families gathered to honor the dead and rededicate themselves to the memories of lost families.
After prayers and sermons, survivors recalled their stories. Some wrote poems. Singer Plong Rithy, a well -known artist in Cambodia, sang a song she wrote and read a remembrance penned by Chantara Nop.
Paline Soth, an organizer of the event, also remembered and commemorated Dith Pran, a New York Times photographer who, before he died March 30, had become the face of the Cambodian genocide for many as the central figure in the 1984 Academy Award-winning film "The Killing Fields."
Earlier in the day, more than 200 templegoers attended prayers conducted by more than 20 monks from nearby temples and about 100 or stayed for lunch.
Like those who showed up in the evening, those who attended early said remembrance is vital.
"To the Cambodians who want to forget and say, 'The past is in the past,' I don't think we should ever forget," said Song Chhang, the former Minister of Information in Cambodia.
Chhang added that the current tribunals in Cambodia prosecuting former Khmer Rouge leaders are an important step in reconciling the past, although he says "the search for justice should not be stopped" with the end of the trials.
In the evening session, Chantara Hak, president of the nonprofit Killing Fields Memorial Center, talked about recent disputes that have divided the Cambodian community in Long Beach and urged Cambodians to come together.
No matter how their politics and social values may differ, there is one thing that binds all Cambodians, and it is April 17.
Los Angeles Newspaper group
By Greg Mellen, Staff writer
04/17/2008
LONG BEACH - It never goes away.
"It is in my eyes. It is in my head," Nuon Kanno says of his memories of life under the Khmer Rouge. "If I talk about Pol Pot, I cannot stop the tears."
For all the pain it dredges up, Nuon says events like Thursday's candlelight vigil at Wat Vipassanaram to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge ascendancy in Cambodia are vital.
Nuon says elders like he, who witnessed unspeakable horrors, owe it to their children and grandchildren to recall and retell the horrors and never forget.
For the fourth straight year, Cambodians in Long Beach held a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the genocide between 1975 and 1979 inflicted by the Khmer Rouge.
During the reign of the bloody Communist government, it is estimated that anywhere from 1.2 million to well over 2 million were slaughtered in the genocide that became known as the "Killing Fields." The most commonly cited number is 1.7 million estimated by Yale University in a U.S. State Department-sponsored study. Recent studies say it could be much higher.
With candles flickering in the cool night air outside the temple near Long Beach City College, about 120 survivors and their families gathered to honor the dead and rededicate themselves to the memories of lost families.
After prayers and sermons, survivors recalled their stories. Some wrote poems. Singer Plong Rithy, a well -known artist in Cambodia, sang a song she wrote and read a remembrance penned by Chantara Nop.
Paline Soth, an organizer of the event, also remembered and commemorated Dith Pran, a New York Times photographer who, before he died March 30, had become the face of the Cambodian genocide for many as the central figure in the 1984 Academy Award-winning film "The Killing Fields."
Earlier in the day, more than 200 templegoers attended prayers conducted by more than 20 monks from nearby temples and about 100 or stayed for lunch.
Like those who showed up in the evening, those who attended early said remembrance is vital.
"To the Cambodians who want to forget and say, 'The past is in the past,' I don't think we should ever forget," said Song Chhang, the former Minister of Information in Cambodia.
Chhang added that the current tribunals in Cambodia prosecuting former Khmer Rouge leaders are an important step in reconciling the past, although he says "the search for justice should not be stopped" with the end of the trials.
In the evening session, Chantara Hak, president of the nonprofit Killing Fields Memorial Center, talked about recent disputes that have divided the Cambodian community in Long Beach and urged Cambodians to come together.
No matter how their politics and social values may differ, there is one thing that binds all Cambodians, and it is April 17.
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