The next day, some 20 Cambodians attended the meeting at the Association office that started at 10:15AM. Mr. Kem thanked the participants for taking off on Saturday to attend the meeting and turned the session over to the guests. Prof. Tith, WCC Chairman described the struggle that he undertook, first alone for more than 20 years and since 1995 with WCC to defend Cambodians interests in Washington, DC and in Tokyo. He vividly described the complexity of the problems and the many fronts that he has been facing to advance true Cambodians causes. He emphasized that not only foreigners were abusive of Cambodia, but some Cambodian leaders did too for their own greed, blind ambition, vanity and sometimes pure ignorance. The State Department policy originated by then Ambassador Charles Twining after the Paris Accords and endorsed by current Ambassador to Phnom Pen, Mr. Kenneth Quinn called for an appeasement with Hun Sen. Ambassador Quinn even went further to calling Hun Sen a ``reformed democrat" and had not changed his attitude despite the July 5th coup d'etat and subsequent killings as documented by the Human Rights Office of the UN. Worse, he continued to adopt ``business as usual" policy and to consider Hun Sen as the strongman against the wish of the Congress. However, thanks to true friends of Cambodia in the Congress, NGO, academic world and the press a consensus has emerged that such policy was against the interests of the Cambodian people. There were some 10 Senators and 20 Congressmen who supported Cambodia and went out of their way to try to stop the State Department from harming Cambodia further. Cambodian-Americans could help them and their country of birth by contacting their own representatives in their states to effectively support those who are fighting for Cambodia on the front line.

Prof. Tith then asked Mr. PekThov Tan to explain to the audience WCC origin, role and mechanism that it has found to be effective in working with and receiving strong support from the Hon. Benjamin A. Gilman, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee. The latter described the commitment of Cambodian-Americans of Rockland County, upstate New York and how they organized themselves to support their representatives, especially Mr. Gilman during his elections. They let Mr. Gilman know that they Voted for him and stayed in touch with him by inviting him to their annual functions such as meetings, anniversaries, new years, etc... They got involved in his campaigns, attended his fund raising events and maintained close contacts with his staff both in the district and in Washington, DC (They worked with some 10 assistants of Mr. Gilman to keep Cambodian interests at the forefront of their day to day work!). In 1994 they organized WCC with the support of Cambodians from other states into a not-for-profit, public funded and tax-exempt organization.

Last year they brought their third convention to Washington, DC to get The endorsement of key players in the Congress, NGO's, academics and the press in their quest for better future for Cambodia. Tan also supported Prof. Tith's statement that Cambodians should organized themselves into a more efficient advocacy group and to request their representatives to helping Cambodia. WCC planned to open 11 chapters in the US, thus getting to know some 100-150 Congressmen and 25-30 Senators, or 25-30% of the people representatives to be effective. Afterward, it would go overseas to open chapters at least in Australia, Japan, Canada , France and the UK for worldwide coordination.

The meeting concluded at 1:15PM. After lunch, the hosts brought Prof. Tith to the airport to continue his trip to Minneapolis. Tan left before lunch to try to catch an earlier flight to there too (but did not succeed!).

Conclusion: There were many questions raised to clarify Prof. Tith's activities in DC, especially his fight with the State Department Policy and other NGO's that defended the status quo in Cambodia. Most participants had Strong community experience and through that work had some contacts with their representatives. However, they did not seem to have the full understanding that they could capitalize on what they had to push for more support for Cambodia. They heard what WCC had achieved and needed to move forward but it had not fully sunk in their mind yet. They clearly needed time to study the documents and more clarifications before moving forward in concert with WCC.

Dr. Khu thanked the audience, asked the participants to observe silence In memory of all Khmer heroes and introduced Prof. Tith with a short biography before inviting him to explain his struggle to defend Cambodia. Prof. Tith described in detail the different fronts that he had to fight, not because most people did not understand what Cambodians really wanted, but because of missed perception that Cambodians would accept anything that they would impose, and also because some Cambodian leaders would go along for their own personal benefits. It was hard for foreigners to understand Cambodia if Cambodians did not hold their leaders accountable and were too eager to forgive and forget for the sake of false reconciliation with impunity. It was up to all Cambodians to change all that or perish! He mentioned the different appearances on TV such as CNN, CBS, BBC and the Japanese Television, on radio with the National Public Radio and interviews with major newspapers both in the US and Japan to set the tone with stricter neutrality for clear demands to directly benefit Cambodia.

Regarding the Vietnamese issues, Prof. Tith strongly urged the audience to be very careful, otherwise Cambodians would be viewed as racist. He asked the audience to focus on the problems and clearly set priorities in view of the limited resources available but not be emotional. Until such time as Cambodians could become the masters of their country, it would be ludicrous to think of stopping the Vietnamese low intensity invasion. The current Hun Sen/CPP administration was created by and still is deeply under the Vietnamese control. And with pervasive corruption at all level of the government there is no way to stop the Vietnamese from entering illegally into Cambodia. Just look at the United States with its efficient legal and judicial system, an honest government and an up to date electronic surveillance system, there are still plenty of illegal immigrants from south of the borders. Moreover, the Khmer Rouge had used such tactic to exploit Cambodian emotion and if one Failed into such trap, those would be taxed as Khmer Rouge or their sympathizers, therefore undermining their ability to fighting the Vietnamese. He told the audience that he spoke in length with Mr. Son Sann and had convinced him not to invoke such issue in the future. It is imperative to just focus on the rule of law, respect of human right and democracy that the US and the world could easily understand and support.

Dr. Khu then introduced PekThov Tan who stressed the support that Cambodian communities in the US could bring to maintain Cambodian interests at the forefront of the Congress and the Administration, thus helping those true friends of Cambodia and the efforts of Prof. Tith in pushing for a real solution. He reminded the audience that as Cambodian-Americans, they all could exercise their rights to promote democracy anywhere in the world, including Cambodia and that was perfectly all right. The US appreciate such effort of their citizens, but would only tolerate them when they supported political parties of another country. Their representatives and staff also would appreciate their involvements in their elections and discussions on Cambodia for their understanding and supports when needed.

The meeting concluded at 11PM but participants stayed on until mid-night to further questioned the guests. They were enthusiastic with the results achieved so far and were deeply moved with the struggle that Prof. Tith undertook and committed as ``Lawyer" to defend Cambodia despite all adversities in the nation capital.

The next morning, Dr. Khu and friends brought members of the Moral Re-armament group to discuss Cambodian issues with Prof. Tith at 9AM. The Latter took that opportunity to clarify many misconceptions that the group had wrongly assumed in their efforts to help solving the Cambodian conflicts. Dr. Morrison and his colleagues were appreciative of the clarifications and Promised to work with Prof. Tith in the future.

That meeting adjourned at 12:30PM. Dr. Khu and friends treated their Guests with Cambodian lunch at Pailin Restaurant before they were brought to the airport for their return flights.

Conclusion: Like in Chicago, the audience was pro-active. Their deep understanding of the problems was obvious in their questions and support of Prof. Tith's advise regarding the Vietnamese issues. Some participants were reluctant to keep those issues as lower priorities because of past experience and misconception, but saw the merit of the strategy. They also challenged the illegality of political actions in the US because it was not safe to do so inside Cambodia and nothing had happened to them yet. However, due to Dr. Khu's leadership skill, members were ready to shortly set up a WCC chapter there.