Press-Telegram
Posted: 03/08/2012
LONG BEACH - A Long Beach group creating a Khmer Genocide Resource and Study Center will meet Saturday to show a video and discuss plans for a national documentary.
Working with a grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, and under the auspices of Cal State Long Beach, the group plans to collaborate with universities and Cambodian communities nationwide to develop the center.
Although there is no physical site yet, the plan is to create an online archive of documents and video and oral testimony of survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime and other resources.
At Saturday's event, a video of testimony by refugee survivors filmed by an affiliated group in Oregon will be shown. Also the group says it hopes to unveil its new website, Twitter and Facebook pages.
With refugee survivors beginning to age and die, organizers say it is crucial to preserve the history, which so far has little documentation, before it is forgotten.
In the mid-1970s, upwards of 2 million Cambodians died from mass executions, starvation and malnutrition and deprivation under the brutal regime of Pol Pot. Many of the survivors now live in Long Beach, which has the largest Cambodian population in the United States.
Local organizers hope not only to document the experiences of local genocide survivors, but those of refugees throughout the country.
Donald Schwartz, a Fulbright specialist and retired professor at Cal State Long Beach, and John Phalen, president of Pacific Directions who has worked with the Cambodian refugee community since resettlement began in the 1970s, are helping guide the project. Cambodian leaders include Lamarin Pan and Peter Chhun.
The meeting is at 6 p.m. Saturday at Sophy's Restaurant, 3240 E. Pacific Coast Highway. For more information, call 818-640-6191.
greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-714-2093
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