Sophal Leng Stagg: “There has been no education on the genocide in Cambodian schools for 15 years – these kids don’t even believe their grandmothers’ stories anymore.”
Sophal Leng Stagg
believes she is among the luckiest of Khmer Rouge survivors. Despite her father
being a former police investigator for the Lon Nol regime, her parents and her
seven brothers and sisters all survived the Killing Fields. To her this is a
miracle since she has never met another family that “managed to stay intact.”
Sophal Leng Stagg
believes she is among the luckiest of Khmer Rouge survivors. Despite her father
being a former police investigator for the Lon Nol regime, her parents and her
seven brothers and sisters all survived the Killing Fields. To her this is a
miracle since she has never met another family that “managed to stay intact.”
The family immigrated to the US
in 1980 and in 1985, Stagg, pregnant with her first child, began to write her
book Hear Me Now, a platform she uses
to lecture in schools throughout the United States. The popularity of
the book led to the funding of the Southeast Asian Children’s Mercy Fund, which
she established with her American husband William Stagg. The foundation
provides assistance and training to poor families in the region and includes an
“adopt a family project” that has inspired many Americans to help. On a visit
to Cambodia
this month, Stagg spoke to the Post’s Tracey
Shelton about her childhood under the
KR, her teaching and her desire for the Khmer Rouge tribunal to get on with
trials and find the defendants guilty. She says: "They should be executed
right away."
What made you decide
to write the book?
My children. Once it was published it became a tool to
educate other American kids and to raise money to help the people of Cambodia –
I’m very proud of that.
You are very
passionate about the need for Khmer Rouge history to be incorporated into
Cambodian school curriculum. Why is this so important to you?
Writing the book and talking in the schools became a form of
healing for me. I want to pass that on to Khmer people. There has been no
education on the genocide in Cambodian schools for 15 years – these kids don’t
even believe their grandmothers’ stories anymore. I work very hard in the US to educate
American kids so the people that suffered are not forgotten. It makes me upset
that Khmer kids have forgotten. Education will open up dialogue between the
generations. Teach the children in school and the whole country can get
therapy.
What do you remember
about the KR period?
I was nine years old on April 17, 1975 when the KR took
over. I remember the soldiers riding on tanks and marching through the streets,
but my mother would not let me watch. A bullhorn announcement on every street
corner announced that we had to leave by nightfall because the Americans were
going to bomb the city. We were told to bring just enough clothes for three
days as once the city was cleared up we could return to our homes. I remember
my mother trying to go to the market for food supplies but the city was in
chaos. By 4pm the
announcements began to show intense force and anger. “You must leave now or we
will consider you the resistance and you will be shot.” There was only one road
to leave by. We were wedged in the crowd and everyone was pushing. Soldiers lined
the roadsides shooting into the air telling us to move faster but it was
impossible. There was a frightening sad fear in everyone. I looked back to see
the city on fire. By that time I had the sense that I would never return home.
How did your family
manage to survive?
My brother and father were military. As we walked my mother
whispered to us not to tell anyone what they did. She told me to say my father
was a taxi driver and to speak in lower class terms so no one would know I was
educated. She said if I did not adapt, if did not change, they were going to
kill my father. I understood enough to change my way faster than other people.
I don’t know how she got that information but this saved my family.
We walked to Kompong Cham. There were pro Khmer Rouge signs
on every house. The old people despised us! Even the children. They believed
the new people had exploited them. They blamed us for everything – their hard
lives, their fathers having to fight in the jungle – literally everything from
A-Z. Now they had privileges and power over the educated. It was so hard to
hold my tongue. The KR soldiers had taken all our valuables so they were
wearing our watches but they didn’t know how to read the time. So many times I
wanted to scream at them, “You’re a bunch of morons! I’m better than you.”
Last week you went to
the Khmer Rouge courts. Do you think the trials will bring some justice and
satisfaction to the victims?
I think the trials should be short. I’m all for the trials
but the most important thing is educating the kids. Money and time needs to go
into that. Enough money spent on this already. Everyone knows they are guilty.
They should be executed right away. If they were executed on national TV, maybe
that could provide some satisfaction.
What do you think
would happen if one of the defendants was found not guilty?
A riot. And I would be right there among them. The anger is
buried deep but it is there – the pain people suffered won’t go away. I thought
I was dealing with it just fine. Then I saw the courts – the money they are
spending, the way they treat the defendants – if I had fangs they would have
come out. It’s ludicrous! Where were international standards in the way they
treated us. We were treated like animals. A doctor each, three meals a day, Western
toilets at their request – they’re treated like royalty. It sends the wrong
message. Normal Cambodians that live outside that gate aren’t living that way.
How much of an impact
do you feel the Khmer Rouge reign has had on Cambodian society today?
Every place I look – in the eyes of every person – the KR
have left behind a trace. In everything I see the damage. What have they done
to their people? Crippled them. Instilled fear and dishonesty. The brave and
the educated are dead, and a lot died along with them. During my first trip
back in 2000, I asked my mother why did people always lie and cheat like this.
I felt like all the good people had died. They taught us to lie and cheat. We
were starving constantly. We were forced to become thieves, liars. It seems
like many Cambodian people lost themselves back then and they never got their
souls back. Like a dog, when you are pushed into a corner you bite back. The KR
instilled these things in people and now they are trapped. All this goodness
has been lost. Corruption and chaos are the legacy they have left behind.
How do you see the
future for Cambodia?
I think the government is trying to do the best they can
with what they have to work with. But how can you cap greed in a human being?
And Reconciliation?
The international community has put their money in the wrong
place – education is equally if not more important than the trials. Kids should
have been educated about what happened to their father. Now they need to be
educated about who killed their grandfather. Is it going to be, “they killed my
great grandfather” before you start educating these kids! By then it will be
too late. It will just be history for them.
Contact PhnomPenh Post for full article
Post Media Co LtdThe Elements Condominium, Level 7
Hun Sen Boulevard
Phum Tuol Roka III
Sangkat Chak Angre Krom, Khan Meanchey
12353 Phnom Penh
Cambodia
Telegram: 092 555 741
Email: [email protected]