In Lowell, Cambodians Expect More from Tribunal

Leakhena Nou assisting a KR victim (Photo: AP)

Pin Sisovann, VOA Khmer
Lowell, Massachusetts Wednesday, 18 August 2010

“From Victims to Witnesses” aimed to assure people that the surprises they may have experienced in Duch's case do not have to be repeated for the next trial."

Lowell, Mass., has one of the largest Cambodian populations in the US. Nearly 40,000 Cambodians live here, and many of them were also victims of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodians here have followed the Khmer Rouge tribunal with much interest, and on a recent Sunday, nearly 50 of them gathered to discuss more work of the UN-backed court.

They gathered at Middlesex Community College for a discussion called “From Victims to Witnesses,” which was put on by the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, where they learned updates from the Khmer Rouge tribunal and discussed the impact of the regime.

The aim of the discussion was to promote healing in a community that suffers from trauma and other psychological distresses even more than 35 years after the Khmer Rouge took power.

Fear, distress and mistrust are all problems faced by survivors of the Khmer Rouge, and the goal of the discussion was to promote healing through speaking out, whether in their own communities or as participants in the Khmer Rouge court.
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