Documentation Center of Cambodia

 

Genocide Education in Cambodia

Public Education Forum in Wat Leu, Srah Russey Commune,

Stung Treng District, Stung Treng Province, Cambodia

April 24, 2011

Photo by: Socheat Nhean

                On April 24, 2011, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)'s Genocide Education Project conducted a public education forum in Srah Russei Commune, Stung Treng District, Stung Treng Province. The forum was conducted at a compound of Srah Keo Mony Voan pagoda. The participants attending the forum were approximately 200 who were villagers, students and teachers.

 

                Stung Treng is about 400 Kilometers from Phnom Penh and 40 kilometers south of the Lao border. It is located on a high sandy bank overlooking the Mekong River, where it is joined by the Se Kong River. The population of the province is about 25,000 or about 30 percent of the provincial population, which is a mix of Khmer and Lao peoples. There was much communist guerrilla activity in Stung Treng during Cambodia's recent past. During the Khmer Rouge regime, some parts of Stung Treng were in Northeast Zone and some parts were in the Preah Vihear region.

               

                The public education forum discussed the experiences of the people's lives under the KR and also encouraged the younger and the older generations to discuss the importance of genocide education and survivors to share their real life experiences under the KR. The project's team members distributed copies of the textbook "A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)" and discussed one chapter from it. Other materials for distribution included the magazine Searching for the Truth and booklets on Khmer Rouge tribunal Cases 001 and 002. During the forum, one of the team members taught a chapter from DK history book.