Cambodian People Commemorate Day of Remembrance

A traditional Buddhist ceremony was held yesterday morning at Choeung Ek killing field, some 15 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh capital city, to wish for peace for the sole of victims who died during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979.

H.E. Sim Ka, member of the Senate, H.E. Kep Chuktema, Governor of Phnom Penh and many other members of the Parliament and government as well as more than 1,000 Cambodian people and students were present at the annual ceremony.

May 20 is a historical day of Cambodia which marked and incurved in the heart of Cambodian people the barbarous atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime against its own people, according to the oration read by a professor of the Royal University of Fine Arts.

The oration also laid stress on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT), especially the completion of case 001 concerning Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, former Toul Sleng (S-21) prison chief, being charged of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

The participants to the ceremony expressed their support to the KRT’s process and they wished the KRT to speed up and finish its works with case 002 so as to maintain stability, safety, peace and happiness for all the Cambodian people.

For his part, Phnom Penh Governor H.E. Kep Chuktema expressed the royal government’s strong will to bring the senior Khmer Rouge leaders to trial. “But, we have also to maintain national conciliation and peace for the Cambodian people,” he said.

A stage of drama was performed to recall the past atrocities and food offering to 270 Buddhist monks was made afterward.

The Choeung Ek killing field, where some 20 thousands of victims had been buried, is located in the southwestern outskirt of Phnom Penh. Most of the victims were sent from the S-21 prison known as the Museum of Genocide.

Sourced: AKP