The Truth Can Heal Suffering
THE TRUTH CAN HEAL SUFFERING
Vannak Huy
Graduate Student in Global Affairs
Rutgers University
February 22, 2005
As I was growing up, I heard my family members describe the difficulties they faced during the Khmer Rouge regime. I had no directed knowledge of this period. During the Khmer Rouge regime, I lost my elder bother, my grandfather and more than thirty relatives. My mother always shed tears when she recalls this bitter past. That the life she ever met.
Since graduating in June 2000 from the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I have dedicated myself to building a peaceful society in my country, which continues to suffer from the effects of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.
During the period of Khmer Rouge rule, from April 17, 1975 to January 6, 1979, approximately two million Cambodian people died of starvation, forced labor, illness and execution. Through my study at Rutgers University, I have concluded that true peace and reconciliation in Cambodia will require that we as a nation come to terms with the past.
While I was at the documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) and now at the Center for Global Change and Governance of Rutgers University, I have developed my academic skills to better help with this process, focusing on the global and local dynamics of truth and reconciliation.
I have read hundreds of Khmer Rouge documents and met victims and perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge across Cambodia. My work has given me an opportunity to learn much about the Khmer Rouge regime. Moreover, I have written many articles about my meetings with victims and perpetrators hoping that people in my country may understand about the past. Only by doing so can we begin to eliminate the bitterness, hatred and intolerance that are the legacy of decades of civil war.
Providing a means by which survivors may learn what happened to their lost loved ones is one way to help heal their sense of being held hostage by the past. When the survivors know the historical truth of the regime and that justice is being sought for what happened to their families, they would be able to forgive and be free to move on with a sense that law finally governs the nation they belong to.
-End-
Vannak Huy
Graduate Student in Global Affairs
Rutgers University
February 22, 2005
As I was growing up, I heard my family members describe the difficulties they faced during the Khmer Rouge regime. I had no directed knowledge of this period. During the Khmer Rouge regime, I lost my elder bother, my grandfather and more than thirty relatives. My mother always shed tears when she recalls this bitter past. That the life she ever met.
Since graduating in June 2000 from the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I have dedicated myself to building a peaceful society in my country, which continues to suffer from the effects of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.
During the period of Khmer Rouge rule, from April 17, 1975 to January 6, 1979, approximately two million Cambodian people died of starvation, forced labor, illness and execution. Through my study at Rutgers University, I have concluded that true peace and reconciliation in Cambodia will require that we as a nation come to terms with the past.
While I was at the documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) and now at the Center for Global Change and Governance of Rutgers University, I have developed my academic skills to better help with this process, focusing on the global and local dynamics of truth and reconciliation.
I have read hundreds of Khmer Rouge documents and met victims and perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge across Cambodia. My work has given me an opportunity to learn much about the Khmer Rouge regime. Moreover, I have written many articles about my meetings with victims and perpetrators hoping that people in my country may understand about the past. Only by doing so can we begin to eliminate the bitterness, hatred and intolerance that are the legacy of decades of civil war.
Providing a means by which survivors may learn what happened to their lost loved ones is one way to help heal their sense of being held hostage by the past. When the survivors know the historical truth of the regime and that justice is being sought for what happened to their families, they would be able to forgive and be free to move on with a sense that law finally governs the nation they belong to.
-End-
posted by Vannvinida @ 10:58 AM
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