RESEARCH FOR FUTURE PUBLICATION

 

 

Research and Monograph on Cambodia's Minorities. Ethnic tensions lay just under the surface in Cambodia, as the 2003 riots at the Thai embassy and businesses, and recent tensions in the Muslim community over Wahhabi Islam factions' attempts to "convert" the traditional Cham Muslim populations have demonstrated. We are proposing a two-year

 

project that will examine the history of Cambodia's diverse ethnic communities, their treatment under the Khmer Rouge regime (the Vietnamese and Muslims in particular were treated brutally), and their status today.  It will explore ethnic identity, ethnic relations, and the legal-political treatment of minorities in Cambodia, including the Cham, Thai, Vietnamese, Laotians, Chinese, Burmese, and Hill Tribes.

 

Funding is being provided by the Swedish Government and USAID.

List of Interviews by Ethnic Group

 


 

The Human Rights Violation of the Chinese in the Khmer Rouge: 1975-1979

Chan Sambath

 

(complete, unpublished)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 
 

History of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum:

A Memorial Site

Yin Nean

 

This is monograph focuses on the transformation of Toul Sleng

from a torture center to genocide museum and a site of conscience. It presents a chronological survey of S-21 through the various political periods since the arrival of the Vietnamese in Phnom Penh.

 


 

Dak Nong-Mondul Kiri Comparative Education

Truong Huyen Chi and Dany Long

 

This is a comparative research of critical ethnography of education in multi-ethnic highlands of Cambodia and Vietnam. It focuses on the effects of globalization on

education in the Hmong communities in both Countries and how that education shapes

the younger generations in the communities.

 

 

Transcending Citizenship: Nation-Making through Experiences of Vietnamese-Cambodian and Cambodian-Vietnamese Living in the Two Countries in the 1970s

Dany Long

 

Vietnamese ethnics were expelled from Cambodia in the

early 1970s during the Khmer Republic regime. Along with their Cambodian spouses and a few Cambodians, they settled in Vietnam. This paper focuses on their experiences as they moved between the two countries, including experiences during the war, migration and treatment by local Vietnamese and Vietnamese government. 

 


 

Family Tracing and Reconciliation: Restoring Families of A Nation
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
--Voltaire


Long Dany

 

 

426 pages in Khmer

 

 

 

 

 

From 1970 to mid-1990s Cambodia was in armed conflicts. The country has only recently been  peaceful in the past ten years when democratic processes are taking hold. For this process to have a stronger foothold in Cambodian society, Cambodia needs to address the most fundamental need of its society—it is the need to find and reconcile with their lost relatives who were separated mostly since the Khmer Rouge regime evacuated cities on April 17, 1975. During the Khmer Rouge regime of three years, eight months and twenty days, almost two million Cambodian people of all creeds, political orientation and ethnicities perished due to summary execution, malnutrition, starvation and forced labors. Families were separated and put into labor units. At the end of the Khmer Rouge regime in January 1979, people walked back to their homes of 1975 hoping that they would meet their family members. However only a few families were able to reconcile with their lost relatives during that time. With a minimal death rate of up to one in seven, most people arrived homes alone, facing the prospect of rebuilding life without the comfort of their families. For Cambodian people to move on and to help them bring closure to the past, helping them to locate their lost loved ones is vital, whether dead or alive. The most important piece of information that survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime would like to know is the certainty of the fate of their loved ones. This project aims to reconcile family members through the publication of a Family Tracing book that lists all the names of people who disappeared or died during the Khmer Rouge regime, utilizing DC-Cam’s extensive biographical database and other archival holdings. The book in effect would create a log book of democracy in which voices of the victims are expressed and heard. The most fundamental violation of human rights during the Khmer Rouge regime was the destruction of human lives. This project aims to address this issue by highlighting individual stories of the dead and disappeared. In effect it raises their voices and creates a platform on which Khmer Rouge victims are presented.  One can also call the book as the book of the disappeared.

 

There were three instances in which people were separated. The war between the 1970 and 1975 effectively divided Cambodia between the “liberated area” controlled by the Khmer Rouge and areas controlled by the Khmer Republic led by General Lon Nol. Families and relatives were separated. In some instances brothers fought on either side of the war. They were unable to reconcile even when the war was over in 1975. Second, families were torn apart when the Khmer Rouge finally took over Cambodia in April 1975. This time deliberate policies were set up to make sure that family institution was destroyed. Various work brigades were created to replace previous social units. Marriages were organized en mass by Angkar (the phantom Khmer Rouge leadership). Children were put in child units and taught that their parents were Angkar. People made efforts both during the Khmer Rouge regime and after to locate their lost relatives, but their efforts have been futile. Third, as the Khmer Rouge was overthrown by the Vietnamese, a large portion of the population moved along with the retreating Khmer Rouge to the west and the Thai border, instead of returning home. Some were able to move to a third countries. Others repatriated in the early 1990s. As a result of these historical instances, today up to 300,000 Cambodians are living in the US and up to a million are scattered around the world. 

 

Cambodian people are still looking for their lost relatives, and knowing the fate of their lost loved ones is an important element for them to reconcile with their past. It can also help them cope with the effect of post-traumatic stress disorders that is thought to be widespread among Cambodian population who underwent the trauma of war and genocide. This project aims to fulfil the need above by publishing a biographical record of genocide victims (which include people in the Khmer Rouge rank and file) generated from DC-Cam’s biographical, bibliographical, photographic and geographical databases. Each record of victim includes their biographical information and available information relating to them. The project aims to publish three thousand books, then distribute them free of charges to 1621 commune offices all over the country and major Cambodian communities overseas, create community forums and gathering inputs from villagers to address shortcomings and receive feedbacks.

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Monographs

 

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Translations in Khmer

 

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Outreach Publication  

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List of Publications