Thank you. Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you very much. I am deeply touched and humbled to be designated to receive the Truman-Reagan Freedom Award from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. I gratefully accept this award on behalf of the millions of survivors of the communist genocide in Cambodia, and especially my staff at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, who have worked tirelessly, day and night, for the last six years searching for the truth about the Cambodian genocide.

On December 17, 1993, Congress passed Public Law 103-199, and with President Clinton's signature, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation became a reality. I believe the educational mission of this foundation is very important, because most people do not know that most of the 20th century's worst genocides, in fact, have been carried out by communist regimes. Scores of millions of victims by Stalin, tens of millions by Mao, and the list of atrocities by Marxist-Leninist henchmen all across the world goes on and on. But we should also remember that in other terrible genocides, as in the cases of Hitler’s Holocaust and the very recent case of Rwanda’s Hutu Power Movement, other political systems have also generated the incomprehensible. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation not only educates about the past, but perhaps more importantly, can create awareness for the future, helping to build a determination among human beings that, working together, we can prevent the crime of genocide from happening.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation was created in a spirit of bi-partisanship, as exemplified by our honorable co-Chairmen, Senator McCain and Senator Kerrey, here tonight. Contrary to rumors during the late election campaign, I have found in my own work that bipartisanship in Washington does exist, and that it is indispensable when you seek to accomplish great ends. On that note, let me take a moment to thank three people in Washington who have helped my work, Deborah DeYoung of congressman Tony Hall's office, Jim Doran of Senator Jesse Helms' office, and Louisa Coan Greve of the bipartisan institute, "the National Endowment for Democracy." They, along with many others in Washington, have worked for years to bring about an end to the impunity of the Khmer Rouge.

But we have not yet achieved our goal, and we must not rest until we do. For although genocide is a crime beyond human comprehension, one that can destroy millions of lives, it is not a crime beyond human prevention. At our home in Texas, or here tonight in Washington, DC, everything seems so peaceful and normal. In places like this, it is impossible to imagine such a thing as genocide; impossible to believe it could ever happen here, that it could happen to you. But survivors of genocide know different. It CAN happen to you. It can happen anywhere.

Last year, I visited the War Documentation Center in Amsterdam, and I also went to see Anne Frank's house. Though I deal on a daily basis with the horror of genocide, I was totally shocked to see the things that happened 50 years ago also happened in Cambodia during my generation. This served to reinforce my determination that we all need to educate each other about genocide, about how to prevent it from happening, and about sharing this knowledge with the public. Everyone needs to realize that genocide is about human beings – about all of us!

That's why we must come together as human beings to prevent this highest and most heinous of all crimes, and try to prevent it everywhere. Peoples across the world have different cultures and speak different languages, but they all share one thing in common; they all want to live, and to raise their families in peace. Genocide destroys that basic common hope, sometimes for the many generations it takes to heal the social wounds, and sometimes, for some families, it destroys hope forever. We must end the crime of genocide.

Today -- this morning -- the President of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Jiang Zemin, is on a state visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia. China shares responsibility for what happened during the Khmer Rouge regime, and thus it bears a responsibility to help Cambodia to overcome its dark past. The Chinese now say they want to remain neutral among Cambodian political factions. The best way to do that is to support the Cambodian people, rather than any political party. And every survey that has ever been done on this topic shows that the overwhelming majority of the Cambodian people want a Khmer Rouge tribunal in conjunction with the United Nations. So tonight I make a sincere and honest appeal to the leaders of the People's Republic of China to think of Cambodia's future, and Cambodia's development. China itself is in the process of implementing a legal framework for the rule of law. They should know that the best way to help Cambodia do the same is to begin by ending impunity for violations of the law. And this must start with the Khmer Rouge who, in their zeal to make a perfect world, abolished all law, and then proceeded to violate every law of man and god.

Just as the Chinese President visits Cambodia, in neighboring Vietnam, tomorrow President Clinton and the First Lady begin a state visit aiming to reconcile with our former enemies. This is one of the most important roles the US can play in the world – not only to keep the peace, but also to make peace. As the strongest and richest nation that has ever existed, the United States has unique responsibilities. This does not mean that the United States should be the global policeman and always poke its nose into everybody's business, and it does not mean that the United States is always going to be able to stop every genocide from happening. But it does mean that when we have a chance to prevent genocide, we must try. President Ronald Reagan invoked the spirit of our founding fathers when he spoke of the United States as a "City on a Hill," a beacon of hope to all the peoples of the world. In this spirit, I think we have a responsibility to lead by our example, and there is no greater example than to work to extinguish the flames of hatred before they flare up and consume entire peoples.

These flames nearly destroyed Cambodia. The authors of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide never envisioned a situation where the leaders of a country would try to exterminate their own kind. But that's exactly what the Khmer Rouge did. Our research at the Documentation Center of Cambodia shows that of a population of approximately 8 million, about two million people died during the Khmer Rouge regime. In less than five years we have documented more than 20,000 mass grave pits all across the country, all containing victims of the Khmer Rouge. Although the Khmer Rouge say that they waged their revolution in the name of the poorest of Cambodia's farmers, astonishingly, the facts show that the majority of the people they killed were simple farmers, people who only wanted to tend their rice fields and raise their families in peace. The war in Cambodia is over, but peace has not yet come to the country. Peace requires more than the absence of armies in open combat. A peaceful society is a just society, and the Cambodian people have not yet found justice. Peace will not truly come to Cambodia until there is real justice for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime. People in Cambodia still have fear in their hearts, because every day they can see living freely all around them the same people who committed genocide against them. When we fail to prevent a genocide, as in Cambodia, we must bring the perpetrators to justice.

Our work at the Documentation Center of Cambodia involves collecting information about what the Khmer Rouge did during the Cambodian genocide. We acquire documents, study mass graves, take testimonies from victims and gather other kinds of information relating to war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity. Of course, the Khmer Rouge do not approve of our work, and they have ways of letting us know that they think we are like some kind of demons from hell. When that happens, I always remember the words of President Harry S. Truman, who said, "I never give them hell. I just tell truth and they think it's hell."

Nowadays the Khmer Rouge like to talk about forgetting the past. But when they had power, they did not want to forget the past; they remembered everyone from the past society, and tried to kill them all. The Khmer Rouge like to talk about "national reconciliation," but during the Khmer Rouge regime, they did not want to reconcile with anyone; it was obey, or die. The Khmer Rouge like to talk about how developing the economy is the only priority; well, the reason the economy is so underdeveloped is because the Khmer Rouge destroyed it instead of building it. The Khmer Rouge like to talk about how "stability" and "preserving the peace" are the most important things, when what they are really doing is threatening to resume their war in order to intimidate people from acting on their hunger for justice. So I think the Khmer Rouge do not speak honestly, they do not speak the truth from their hearts. Instead, they speak in code words, designed for their own interest, rather than for the interests of the nation as a whole.

For real peace, for real national reconciliation, for real development, and for real stability, Cambodia must confront the truth and find justice. This can only be done if those responsible for the genocide are brought before the court and are made to explain themselves, and defend their actions before the people, if they can. Only then can Cambodians put their terrible past behind them and begin to build a new future. The Khmer Rouge genocide regime has been defeated in war, but it has not yet been defeated by the law. Cambodia cannot become a nation with the rule of law until this happens. And without the rule of law, Cambodia will not develop into a peaceful and prosperous nation.

That is why I remain dedicated to the cause of finding genocide justice in Cambodia. It is not about revenge; it is about truth. It’s not about the past; it’s about today. Help me put the perpetrators of one of the worst communist genocides in history where they belong: in jail.

Thank you.  Youk Chhang, Director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

Youk Chhang

http://welcome.to./dccam

Mr. Youk Chhang is the Director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

Since its inception, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) has been at the forefront of documenting the myriad crimes and atrocities of the Khmer Rouge era. DC-Cam was founded after the U.S. Congress passed the Cambodian Genocide Justice Act in April 1994.  That legislation established the Office of Cambodian Genocide Investigation in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, which was charged with investigating the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge period, 1975-79.

In January 1995, a grant to Yale University was announced, enabling Yale's Cambodian Genocide Program (CGP) to conduct research, training and documentation relating to the Khmer Rouge regime. The specific roles of the CGP were to assemble evidence concerning the leadership of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) and to determine whether the DK regime committed international offenses such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.  The CGP was an academic program and was not equipped to conduct a legal proceeding against the Khmer Rouge leaders. It had three main objectives: (1) to prepare a documentation survey and index, (2) to undertake historiographical research, and (3) to provide legal training for Cambodians.

In pursuit of these objectives, the CGP founded DC-Cam as a field office in Phnom Penh in January 1995 under the leadership of its Program Officer, Mr. Youk Chhang. DC-Cam facilitated all of the CGP’s principal operations in Cambodia until the conclusion of CGP's original mandate in December 1996, conducting extensive research and documentation into the Khmer Rouge era.  In addition, in 1995 and 1996, DC-Cam hosted two very successful legal training courses with the CGP and Yale Law School's Schell Center for International Human Rights. DC-Cam and the CGP also hosted a major conference regarding the possibility of justice for the Khmer Rouge atrocities, which Prime Ministers Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Samdech Hun Sen attended.

DC-Cam became an independent Cambodian research institute on January 1, 1997 under the leadership of Mr. Youk Chhang, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge's "killing fields."

Since that time, it has continued its extensive research and documentation activities.  DC-Cam is not a for-profit, governmental or political organization, and we are not a judicial body. 

DC-Cam has two main objectives. The first objective is to record and preserve the history of the Khmer Rouge regime for future generations. The second goal is to compile and organize information that can serve as potential evidence in a future legal accounting for the crimes of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime.  These objectives represent our promotion of memory and justice, both of which are critical foundations for the rule of law and genuine national reconciliation in Cambodia.

Prior to the establishment of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in 1995, Mr. Youk Chhang managed and led political, human rights and democracy training programs in Cambodia on  democratic  institutions for the International  Republican  Institute (IRI).  He  was  also associated with the Electoral  Component  of  the  United Nations Transitional Administration in Cambodia (UNTAC).  From 1989 to 1992 Mr. Youk Chhang worked on crime prevention in the City of Dallas, Texas, USA.