“Youth would gain more knowledge about the suffering of Cambodians in the Khmer Rouge regime, as we learn that during the Khmer Rouge regime, it was very sad, people were starving, having less food and less sleep, overwork and prosecution, wives lose their husbands, their mothers lose their children and all people lived separately from their family.” Said Ms. Met Sophea, a leader of the Kohsotin youth delegation.
Sophea added that the youth also learn more about the sacrifices of the Royal Government of Cambodia to save the country from the genocidal regime and the legacy of the trial of former senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), June 15, 2023, organized a study tour for 150 students and youth from Koh Sotin high school, Kohsotin district, Kampong Cham province to learn and remember the tragedy, the national liberation from the genocidal regime, and the trial of crimes committed during that brutal regime.
During today's study tour, the group went to visit Win Win Memorial, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Choeung Ek Genocide Center, and got a presentation by an official from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal on the achievements of the trial on the former senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Sophea added that after visiting and listening the stories to each historical sites, she felt very sad. For Sophea, who born after the Khmer Rouge regime, she did not want to see such a regime happen again in Cambodia, and she suggest all young people to help each other to remember and always remember the tragedy.
Sophea praised and appreciated the win-win policy of the Royal Government of Cambodia, which led the country to bring peace and social stability. She also thanks the ECCC for organizing the program so that youth could understand, visit the crime scenes left over from the Khmer Rouge regime and see the development in Phnom Penh today.
The ECCC organizes weekly study tour programs for students, youth, and the public to promote remembrance and participation in preventing the atrocities such the Khmer Rouge regime.
From 2009 to 2023, more than half a million national and international public participated in the outreach study tour program under the coordination by the Public Affairs Section of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
