Cambodians commemorate the end of the 'Killing Fields'

Members of the Rochester Cambodian community, led by Sarasarith Pum Chhum, senior minister of Rochester Cambodian Church of the Nazarene, march Thursday in front of the Olmsted County Government Center in Rochester. Cambodians mark the anniversary of Jan. 7, 1979, the end of Pol Pot's killing fields. Michele Jokinen/Post-Bulletin

1/8/2010

By Christina Killion Valdez

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

(CAAI News Media)

Newly married in 1974, Sarasarith Chhum, 57, had everything to look forward to. Unfortunately that newlywed bliss was short-lived.

Months after Chhum and his wife,Vanna, embarked on their life together in their native country of Cambodia, their world was ravaged by misery, starvation and executions during one of the worst genocides of the century.

Yet on Thursday, Chhum was able to look back with gratitude that he, his wife and their young daughter survived the "Killing Fields."

"We saw death in front our eyes day and night. We thought we'd never survive," Chhum said.

About 2 million people, approximately 25 percent of the country's population, died between 1975 and 1979 under Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. On Jan. 7, 1979, Pot was deposed during an invasion by Vietnam.

"We remember Jan. 7, 1979, as the day we live again -- the new resurrection of Cambodia from the killing field," Chhum said.

Commemoration march

To commemorate the occasion, Chhum contacted several other Cambodian families living in Rochester to gather at the city-county Government Center and a couple of Asian grocery stores Thursday in remembrance. While marches are held in Cambodia each year on Jan. 7, Chhum said this was the first time Cambodians stepped out in Rochester.

The demonstrations were important he said so that people never forget and so that new generations understand what happened, he said.

"I remind my children all the time," Chhum said.

Among the dead were Chhum's father, brothers sisters, uncle and wife's uncle, said Chhum who moved to the United States in 1982 with his family.

Remembering the past

Still today, he said he wakes up at night thinking he's living in a dream and cries for those who didn't survive.

Recalling a night spent listening to a man cry out for food, Chhum said that in the morning the man was found dead, holding a spoon, fork and plate.

"I didn't let my wife see that," he said.

Lack of food was an issue for them, too. When Vanna was pregnant with their first child, Chharvina Senevisai, now 32, she labored for nine days without food, Chhum said.

"At the time, a lot of mothers and babies died when giving birth," he said.

And while starvation was a problem, so was lack of education, he said.

Much work was needed to reconstruct the country, but today students in Cambodia can obtain a master's degree or Ph.D., something they couldn't have done before Jan. 7, 1979, he said.

"We are thankful for the 7th of January," Chhum said. "It gave life back to Cambodia and the light of education."