February 1–8, 2001

cover story

Deadly Destiny, part 2

The nightmare of the killing fields continues to haunt Philadelphia’s Cambodian community.

by Helen i-lin Hwang

part 1 | part 2

Explosive evidence: Land mines on display at the Mine Museum in Cambodia.

Samuel Noh thinks about returning to Cambodia when he retires. He was in Thailand in 1975 when the country fell to Pol Pot and he was advised not to go back. Looking at the current situation, he says he won’t live there permanently until the country gets straightened out.

"A human life," he says, "is worth nothing there. Having a gun is the only way to defend human rights."

The Khmer Rouge regime has left a violent imprint on present-day Cambodia.

The terror of Pol Pot ended on Jan. 7, 1979 when anti-Khmer Rouge troops, backed by the Vietnamese Army, captured Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, withdrew to the Thai border. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Henry Kamm in Cambodia: Report from a Stricken Land, Vietnam installed a puppet government, filled with Khmer Rouge defectors. One of the early leaders of the anti-Khmer Rouge movement was Hun Sen, the current Prime Minister.

Hun Sen himself was part of the Khmer Rouge at one time. He was a Khmer Rouge Army commander until 1977 when he fled to Vietnam during a widespread internal scourge among the ranks.

According to many Cambodian-Americans in Philadelphia, Hun Sen is and has been collaborating with the Khmer Rouge for years. "Hun Sen is [a follower of] Pol Pot," says Heng Han. Samuel Noh calls Hun Sen a "Khmer Rouge dissident."

After the Khmer Rouge retreated to Pailin in 1979, the United States government funded Pol Pot’s military efforts to undermine the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government. This was the post-Vietnam War period and the United States was still angry about losing the war. They didn’t want Vietnam to gain more power. Because of the United States’ support, Pol Pot was armed for the next 11 years to continue the warfare in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge even retained the United Nations assembly seat to represent Cambodia until the 1980s, much to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s frustration.

Kim Hort Ou, who works as an engineer for the City of Philadelphia, has helped organize and participate in a demonstration in New York City to protest the Cambodian government and its slow efforts to move ahead with a trial.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has been reluctant about the tribunal for a number of reasons. At the end of 1998, Hun Sen made a speech, asking his people to "dig a hole and bury the past."

His hesitation may also have something to do with the fact that many Khmer Rouge commanders have defected to the government in the last few years. The most important defector is Ieng Sary, who was Pol Pot’s Deputy Premier. In 1996, he made a peace pact with Hun Sen and brought thousands of Khmer Rouge civilians and military personnel to the government’s side. Many of them have mid-level positions in the government today, even as one-star generals in the Cambodian Army. In return, Ieng Sary and his Khmer Rouge followers were granted official amnesty and live freely in Pailin.

	Lost relatives: Fifty-nine members of this Cambodian family, shown at a 1973 banquet in Phnom Penh, were slaughtered by Pol Pot. The photo was provided by a family member now living in Philadelphia who was one of the 23 who survived.

The law recently passed states the "most senior leaders" of the Khmer Rouge who are "most responsible for the crimes and serious violations" that occurred between April 17, 1975, and Jan. 7,1979, will be brought before the tribunal. The trial is to take place in Phnom Penh.

Every Cambodian refugee in Philadelphia can put a face and a story to those killed during those turbulent years. The Cambodian Association estimates that there are more than 25,000 Cambodians living in Philadelphia. According to Chea Meas, a case manager there, that is a "low estimate." The organization is still waiting for firmer numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, who used their headquarters as a base for their Outreach Program to get a more accurate count last year. A fear of government, any government, remains a steadfast mentality among many refugees, and many of them would rather not report how many people live in their household.

Pol Pot has left indelible scars on every Cambodian refugee. "You learn not to trust anyone," laments Hap. "You get into the habit of not speaking up because you have to protect yourself and your family," adds Heng Han. "If you were a professor, you had to hide your skills all the time."

Immigrating from such an oppressive society to Philadelphia can be quite traumatic.

The mission of the Cambodian Association, established in 1979, is to provide assistance for Cambodian immigrants fleeing from the war-torn country. Founded by Cambodian-Americans who had already escaped and settled here, it is Philadelphia’s oldest Cambodian organization.

Kim Hort Ou, co-founder and past president of the Cambodian Association, doesn’t think there can be a "fair tribunal if it takes place in Cambodia and the majority of the judges are Cambodian." Samuel Noh, also a co-founder, thinks a trial might happen in "10 to 15 years." He believes Hun Sen will purposely "delay the trial for as long as possible" until the leaders, all in their 70s, die off as Pol Pot did in 1998.

Dith Pran says this tribunal is just "one step" of many more that are needed. He says cautiously, "I’m excited but not too excited."

The trial is one of the first steps to punishing the Khmer Rouge leaders. Opinions about what the sentence should be vary. Kim Ung calls for execution. Chea Meas says imprisonment without all the amenities that elite prisoners receive. He doesn’t "want to see any more people get killed." He lost his father and younger sister to Pol Pot’s regime.

Is there hope for Cambodia? Samuel Noh is "pessimistic" about the future in Cambodia.

Hap is "glad to be in America today." So is Han, in spite of the fact that he used to have to carry a knife on his leg to protect himself from roving Italian gangs that used to jump him in the Italian Market when he was alone.

Even 22 years after the Killing Fields, Ung still has nightmares about that period in her life. She is haunted by the same dream over and over again. She imagines her husband has gone somewhere else and the government has told her to evacuate. She has to flee with her two youngest children and she’s scared that she can’t protect them.

She’s grateful for being in America because here "if you work hard, you get opportunities. Under the Khmer Rouge, you work hard and they take it all away from you."

Most Philadelphia Cambodians have hopes and dreams for the future, but nothing, not even a tribunal, will erase the horrible memories of Pol Pot’s regime.

As Hap sums it up, "The Khmer Rouge tribunal won’t change many things here, but we just want justice and peace for the families in pain."

part 1 | part 2