Race against time to save Khmer Rouge survivor testimonies
- Khmer Times
- Jun 11
- 3 min read
Khmer Times
June 13, 2025
By Taing Rinith
Synopsis: DC-Cam urges swift action to preserve survivor stories and provide the victims with health support. The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) has issued a call for greater efforts in documenting the stories and improving the health conditions of Khmer Rouge survivors, warning that time is running out as the ageing survivor population continues to dwindle.
Youk Chhang, Executive Director of DC-Cam, said in an interview this week that while justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime can never be fully realised, it is essential to preserve their voices and look after their well-being for national healing, historical accountability, and future development.
“Genocide and mass atrocities destroy people’s humanity,” Youk said. “DC-Cam wants to restore the humanity of all people—not only the victims but also those who perpetrated horrible acts.”
Since 2017, DC-Cam has expanded its work beyond documenting oral histories to include targeted health interventions aimed at improving the lives of survivors, particularly those in remote communities. These efforts include raising awareness of public health issues and improving access to basic medical care. Field research has also been conducted to assess the health conditions of survivors in areas that often fall outside the reach of traditional development initiatives.
According to Youk, the organisation’s CamboCorps volunteer initiative has reached nearly 50,000 survivors in recent years, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme has identified five of the most common illnesses affecting Khmer Rouge survivors: hypertension, heart disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary tuberculosis, and breast cancer.
“Several years later, when we returned to visit them, many of them were no longer with us,” Youk said. “It is not a curse but a concern for our nation that future generations will no longer have any survivors to inform them about Cambodia’s history.”
Youk emphasised the urgency of preserving survivors’ stories, not just for archival purposes, but as a form of justice and national healing.“We believe that it is furthering the work of justice for the survivors of the Khmer Rouge, though we knew from the beginning that the tragedy and injustice suffered by the Cambodian people under the Khmer Rouge regime were so great that nothing can truly replace or compensate them,” he said.
“But DC-Cam’s effort is one significant step forward in truly helping and supporting the survivors of genocide.”
The loss of survivors, Youk said, carries a profound implication for future generations, who may grow up without first-hand knowledge of the atrocities committed between 1975 and 1979, when nearly two million Cambodians perished under the brutal regime.
“I understand that there may be two types of people in the nation: survivors and those born after the 1990s,” he said. “The generation born after Cambodia’s troubled past will always be more open, trusting and optimistic about the future and engagement with the world than the former generations who still carry the weight of the past.”
DC-Cam, established in 1995, has long been at the forefront of efforts to document the Khmer Rouge period, providing critical evidence used in the trials at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and promoting education and reconciliation.
But Youk also sees hope and responsibility in the younger generations.“Their time to lead is here, and it is incumbent upon the older generations to mentor and remind them that the past is always prologue,” he added.
“But also give them the courage that the future is truly theirs to imagine, act upon, and own.”
Taing Rinith / Khmer Times
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