Cal State Long Beach professor leading campaign to continue Khmer Rouge trials.
05/28/2011
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)
Those who want to petition the ECCC to continue investigate can do so online at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cambodiansurvivorsseekjustice/
LONG BEACH — The four older Cambodian women walked along Anaheim Street and greeted passersby and talked with a sense of purpose to shop owners.
Refugee women survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide, are not typically known for such forthright and outward displays, but here they were united and strong.
The four women, accompanied by local activist and Cal State Long Beach professor
Leakhena Nou, were out to rally support among the immigrant community and pass out petitions to urge a tribunal court in their home country to press forward with prosecutions of alleged perpetrators of atrocities.
The effort by the women, whose names are being withheld for their protection, comes in the wake of growing indications that the United Nations-backed court will close down after its upcoming trial slated to begin in late June.
While two cases are pending with five unnamed defendants, progress has
stalled in the face of Cambodian government opposition.
But that hasn’t stopped the U.S. women from insisting on being heard.
“These women embodied the quest for justice,” Nou said. “They know the court may reject them but they wanted to to fight the fight, not only for a symbolic purpose but for future generations.”