Bloody Cambodian genocide focus of Fulbright scholar’s research

Cole will study Khmer Rouge Tribunal

By Stephanie Guzman

Special to the Acorn

 

OVERSEAS—Camarillo resident Kym Cole, a Fulbright scholarship winner, will return to Cambodia in September to study the country’s ongoing recovery from the genocide committed by the ruling party, the Khmer Rouge, in the 1970s.  

Kym Cole stepped into the former Khmer Rouge security prison camp in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and saw the bloodstains on the floor.

The prison camp, known as S-21, has been turned into the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a monument to the more than 12,000 prisoners who were killed there over 30 years ago.

The Camarillo native visited the former prison camp in 2008 as part of a study abroad program through the University of Virginia.

The camp was one of 158 run by the communist Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979—a four-year genocide during which a reported 1.2 million Cambodians and foreigners were killed by the government.

“ I didn’t know anything about (the genocide) and didn’t understand how this was not widely known,” said Cole, 23, who has been to Cambodia three times.

“I was really outraged that it wasn’t being addressed.”

The anthropologist earned a Fulbright scholars in April and will return to Cambodia in the fall to conduct a 10-month, in-depth study on how the country’s leadership has changed since the genocide more than three decades ago.

Cole will focus on how the country is rebuilding in the wake of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal—a series of trials held by the Cambodians and the United Nations to seek prosecution of those responsible for the genocide. “I’d like to be able to somehow contribute to the process of reconciliation, even if it’s just in a small way,” Cole said.

World traveler

The daughter of Susan and Neal Cole has traveled throughout the world.

“I feel extremely stifled if I stay in the States,” she said. “(Travel is) a necessity for me.”

Cole’s mother said the family traveled often when Kym was a child, mostly cruises to places such as Alaska and the Caribbean.

Her daughter also traveled to Africa and China on mission trips as a student at Oaks Christian High School.

Kym Cole fell in love with Cambodia during her sophomore year in college, when she spent a semester at sea and first visited the country.

“The (Cambodian) people are really friendly and love seeing foreign faces. I like Cambodia because it’s much less ordered and it’s very free, and every day is a little bit of adventure.”

Cole graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 with a degree in anthropology and a minor in English.

Her second visit to Cambodia came in 2010, when she worked as a summer intern with Bophana, a Cambodian company dedicated to recovering film, pictures and recordings that were lost or damaged during the Khmer Rouge’s time in power.

Her most recent trip to Cambodia was in January to work as a public affairs intern for the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. For three months she worked on a digital archive, which has yet to be made public.

The U.N. wanted her to stay with the internship longer, but the daily tasks wore on her and she wanted to travel instead, a decision her mother supported.

“This is a great time in her life to take advantage of opportunities because once she’s locked into a job or marriage, it’s more difficult,” Susan Cole said.

Kym Cole traveled with money earned from several academic awards to visit friends in India, Thailand and Myanmar. She is now in Camarillo with her parents and will leave for Cambodia in September.

“This project will be a lot of work,” she said. “But I’m excited to be doing my own individual research and hope something good will happen from it.”