A Change of Guard

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Wednesday 22 April 2015

Onetime Cambodian child soldier searches for answers in documentary

Onetime Cambodian child soldier Sayon Soeun is shown at 17, where he lived in Middletown after being adopted at age 14. Abducted at 6, Soeun lost his family, childhood and education to the Khmer Rouge’s brutal campaign of child kidnappings, torture and murder. Courtesy photo
Sayon Soeun, 46, today lives in Lowell, Massachusetts, with his family. His harrowing story will be recounted in the documentary, “Lost Child: Sayon’s Journey” April 28 on CPTV. Courtesy photo
MIDDLETOWN >> Sayon Soeun was never a typical Middletown teen. The former Cambodian child soldier was pulled from a brutal world marked by unspeakable atrocities.
His journey included transition to an orphanage in a refugee camp, then adoption by an American family in Middletown in 1983 at age 14.
After 25 years, Soeun shares a powerful powerful story that unfolds during one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.
This story of recovery and redemption is told in an award-winning documentary, “Lost Child: Sayon’s Journey,” to air at 11 p.m. April 28 on CPTV. His sister-in-law Sopheap Theam, whose family escaped the Khmer Rouge genocide and emigrated to Connecticut, co-produced the film and traveled to Cambodia with Soeun.
Soeun narrates the tale that takes viewers inside Pol Pot’s children’s army, offering a riveting tale of survival during the Cambodian genocide in the late 1970s after he was forced to carry out the brutal dictates of the Pol Pot-led Maoist regime.
Soeun’s testimony cries out against the exploitation of children recruited to fight adult wars. Abducted at age 6, Soeun lost his family, his childhood and education to the Khmer Rouge’s brutal campaign of child kidnappings, torture and murder.
As the film’s narrator, Soeun is faced with a haunted past during Cambodia’s darkest hour — the genocide claimed an estimated 1.7 million people. For the first time, Soeun talks about the horrors he witnessed and his struggles as he came of age.

The film documents the journey back to his homeland, where Soeun meets five men and a woman that say they are his siblings based on photographs of him they had seen. Unsure of their identity, Sayon spoke with each at length and became confused, as each story was significantly different, including descriptions of his parents.
“Throughout this process, I was going through positive and negative moments,” said Soeun on Tuesday. “I had flashbacks, memories regarding what took place in regime.”
“It was also painful seeing the lives of children and survivors in Cambodia directly,” said Theam, a former Bristol resident and a University of Connecticut graduate. “I was so fortunate to have survived to live a life in America.”
All around the crew during the shoot, even while sightseeing, evidence of the genocide was everywhere, Theam said.
Since both his parents had passed away, Soeun needed solid, factual evidence for his own clarity and resolution, he said.
“Can anyone agree to something?” asked Soeun. “I am seeking information about who I am and what I have done. I have nothing. No new information to tell me who I really am. It’s depressing.”
Asking people to take a DNA test spurred a variety of responses.
“A few outright refused, they believed they are sure and they would be rather disown me than do this,” said Soeun. “Others seemed open and agreed.”
The DNA tests confirmed a family relationship. The news may have answered one question, but there were so many others.
He still felt confused about new information, that five older siblings were also army members, some with higher ranks, he said. “My family also suffered under the Khmer Rouge leadership, and here I am, meeting people who have, and may still, harbor strong loyalty to Pol Pot’s regime,” said Theam.
“They may be (Sayon’s) family, they may not.”
Everyone seems pleasant enough, thought Theam. “How could all this have happened 40 years ago?”
Since the film’s release, and multiple showings around his home in Lowell, Massachusetts, where an estimated 35,000 Cambodians reside, Soeun has lost some friends and gained new ones.
“One individual born in camp learned to hate everyone involved in the genocide, but since he saw my movie, he feels different about me,” said Soeun. “He realized I was not just a perpetrator, I was also the victim. He had change of heart.”
Sometimes he loses friends now that his story is out there when people feel he’s part of the regime, said Soeun, executive director of Light of Cambodian Children, a nonprofit seeking to improve the lives of children and immigrant families.
“Every time I see the film, I tear up at the exact same place,” said Theam. “It’s that moment of closure and redemption that Sayon experiences, after having suffered so much and harboring much hatred inside of him.”
“Looking back, we did this movie to let people know there needs to be more accountability for world leaders committing atrocities or recruiting child soldiers,” said Soeun. “My vision. My story is only one of a bigger issue worldwide.”
Soeun will continue to share his story to educate people and to influence policy makers that a worldwide initiative is needed to protect child soldiers, perhaps by granting them immunity from prosecution and by holding leaders accountable, and charge them for their brutal actions.
“I recently saw ISIS using this, and so who will be accountable for that?”
“Lost Child: Sayon’s Journey” will air at 11 p.m. April 28 on CPTV.
For information, see lostchildthefilm.org or cptv.org.

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