Searching for the truth Issues 28 - Documentation Center of Cambodia

A letter from Balang District
Brasat Baling, February 22, 2002
Dear Excellency,
On behalf of the territorial authorities and myself, I would like to express my sincere and heartfelt
admiration for your excellency’s and colleagues’ research achievements - both pictures and other evidence -
published for the people of Cambodia and abroad to understand the terrible and unutterable tragedy in
Cambodian history, committed by the leaders of Democratic Kampuchea. The pictures and documents in your
publication remind the people of what happened in the three years, eight months and twenty days of the regime.
It is especially valuable for the youths who were born after the Liberation Day, January 07 1979, who never
witnessed and experienced that era. Even though documents and pictures could not detail every activity of Pol
Pot’s regime, they can help national and international courts to try the leaders of the savage regime.
Your Excellency! Before the magazine Searching for the Truth of the Documentation Center of
Cambodia was first published, I always thought that it would not be possible to document and record the misery
and crimes committed in the Pol Pot regime, and that those activities would be hidden from history and would
not be believed by the younger generation or the world. But fortunately for our people, under your excellency’s
leadership, the magazine called Searching for the Truth uncovers and compiles all documents, pictures and other
evidence in detail, and is published and distributed to the public throughout the country. Of special value is the
fact that the magazine is distributed free of charge to the administrative authorities. Therefore, the public and
government officials can have a greater understanding and keep in mind what happened in the regime. I hope
that our innocent compatriots who were killed and the survivors who suffered from the regime will receive
justice when the tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge leaders is established in the future.
Your Excellency! Since your magazine came into existence, I and other civil servants in the districts,
along with the commune chiefs, are very interested in the documents and pictures produced in every issue of
the magazine. We are deeply moved by some of the photos and articles, which remind me of my parents and
other Cambodian people who were cruelly punished and killed in the bloodthirsty regime. Even though more
than twenty years have passed, I thought, everything seems to be new, unfinished, and fresh in view and mind.
Thanks to the magazine, double thanks to the leadership of the Cambodian People’s Party, who secured our lives
and liberated Cambodia’s people from the excruciating and barbaric tragedy of the inhuman and immoral regime.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Royal Government of Cambodia, led
by Samdech Hun Sen, for making efforts to try Pol Pot and those who were responsible for the massacre of the
Cambodian people in that era. We, government officials, armed forces, teachers, students and people in Brasat
Balang, would like to extend our full support to the process of bringing the Khmer Rouge leaders to the court
to find out whether we “Will we see fish when the water is clear ?”
Your Excellency! All of your information and pictures encouraged me to regard your valuable and
priceless documents of the history of Cambodia and the world as the documents complied for our nation’s
interest for the present and the future as well, not to cause division or take revenge for life in Cambodian society,
but to give light to Khmer children of future generations to obtain knowledge and take it into consideration. I
wish you and your colleagues prosperity and success in your noble job.
Prum Roatha
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