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REVIEWS & COMMENTS:
The admirably talented Asrei
(aka, Theary SENG) succeeds
in combining her young
memory with the collective
memory of her relatives and
others. Her sincerity and
intellectual probity add to
her credit. This is a story
and a history lived by the
Khmer people through their
blood and flesh and for the
first time retold by them,
and not just through
intellectual analysis or
account. How can you
understand these Khmer Rouge
people, except listening to
the Cambodians themselves,
who reject their crimes with
visceral hatred? The Khmers
Rouges are the product of
the Cold War, of the class
struggle between the
westernized and travestied
urban population and the
authentically original Khmer
people of the countryside,
who are the exploited of the
urban exploiters, being the
leaches of the Khmer
Society, according to the
re-interpretation of the
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist
doctrine.
If the unprecedented
upcoming Khmer Rouge
tribunal (distinct from the
Nuremberg one) is to make
any sense (if only to
justify those millions of US
dollars spent), one must
also try once for all to
condemn the aberrations of
the French Revolution and
the period of the terror
conjugated with the Chinese
Cultural Revolution that
served as model to the Khmer
Rouge doctrinaires and
leadership, by passing
through the Marxist
dialectic and the French
communist party. But the
contradiction resides in the
fact that while they
rejected the capitalist
westernized doctrine, they
accepted the westernized
Marxist ideology which tried
to adapt, as did Mao Tse
Dung, in order to create a
typically Khmer Communist
model.
Theary has this crossed
culture experience that
enriched her: quoting St.
Augustine, a Christian
bishop of Hippone of 396
A.D., to redeem her mother
of a Buddhist culture, from
the violation of her
free-will, is for me
sublime, especially in those
circumstances of hell living
conditions, if not of "force
majeure". It sounds like the
Jesuit casuistic.
The untold misery started
when the Vietnam war spilled
over Cambodia, after the
March 18, 1970 coup d'Etat
that overthrew the Chief of
State, Prince NORODOM
Sihanouk. Both South
Vietnamese and North
Vietnamese soldiers resorted
to chicanery to decimate the
inhabitants of Svay Kravann
in Svay Rieng province, as
experienced by members of
the author's family. The
western reporters focused
only on the Vietnamese
misery for political, moral
and ideological
justification, but not on
the Khmers who suffered from
both North and South
Vietnamese soldiers. We have
to remember that many of the
leftist intellectuals in the
West, either journalists or
scholars and historians,
were supporting the
undignified Khmer Rouge
heroes, allied of their
North Vietnamese
counterparts, until 1976,
when the book of Father
Franηois Ponchaud:
"Cambodia: Year Zero",
reminiscent title of the
French Revolutionary utopian
dream, came out and told the
truth. Only Jean Lacouture,
the French journalist and
essayist, with his book "May
the Cambodian People
Survive" (Lacouture, Jean:
Survive le peuple
Cambodgien!, Seuil, Paris
1978) tried to beat his "mea
culpa", too late to save the
old and young victims of the
murderous revolution,
"killer of its own
children".
The repeated scansion of
"Life is but a breath" all
along the tale, as Asrei
tries to sound like a bard
singing the tragedy of the
Khmer People, recalled
throughout the notion of the
Buddhist impermanence, as
well as the call for wisdom
of the Middle Age Europe,
expressed by this Latin
sentence: "Memento Mori",
"Remember to die".
Initially, these accounts,
including that of Asrei's,
were denied by the leftist
and communist propagandists
as disinformation from the
US imperialists and their
stooges. All the atrocities
committed by the Khmer Rouge
were known, since 1973, when
they briefly captured
Kampong Cham and rounded up
the new people, mistreated
and killed them. However,
they were explained away as
American propaganda
machinery. Journalists and
other intellectuals must be
accountable for their own
naivete and their
responsibility of their
blind support of the Khmer
Rouge, as recounted recently
by Franηais Bizot's "Le
Portail" or "The Gate"
(La Table Ronde,
Paris 2000), concerning the
brainwashing that was the
fact of that period, in
which Jean Lacouture also
fell. Malcolm Caldwell
finally fell to the deathly
trap, when he threatened to
denounce the Khmer Rouge for
what he knew of the reality
in 1978.
The Khmer Rouge did not only
kill, but in their concept
of class struggle, they
debased the individual human
dignity with all kinds of
vexation measures. In
contrast, the description of
her maternal family, during
the golden age of the
Sangkum Reastr Niyum time of
Prince Sihanouk, is a
condemnation of the criminal
dichotomy of the Free and
Communist World, which
Cambodia had tried to steer
away and finally fell into
the trap of it by 1970. It
was an era when people can
still progress individually
and in a family, with mutual
assistance. Poor students
could get a scholarship to
go and study in Paris, as in
the case of Hao's younger
brother Βn. The story of the
economic ascension of this
family is also that of the
progress of the country,
since in 1970, before
Cambodia fell into the trap
of the Vietnam War; the
World Bank annual report had
put Cambodia a bit ahead of
Thailand. The opportunity
for a modest family to go
abroad and study is no more
of actuality, unless they
can have the opportunity to
go further in higher
education, especially when
education was not free as
stipulated by the
Constitution and became very
expensive; then as now,
private universities are
nearly more numerous than
the state-run ones.
The candid acknowledgement
of the shock between the two
different cultures by young
Theary was also an exercise
of purification and exorcism
against the complex of
inferiority, generally
suffered by former colonized
citizens vis-ΰ-vis the West,
by adjusting the balance to
its real value. Like
chameleons, we tend to adapt
ourselves to our new
environment, if not aping
everything that is beyond
our cultural background.
Great lessons to be learnt!
For once, please the Great
Nations of the West deign to
humbly listen to this small
voice of the trampled ones.
SON Soubert,
Former Deputy Speaker of the
National Assembly,
Member of the Constitutional
Council of the Kingdom of
Cambodia.
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"ASREI, Daughter of
the Killing Fields,
is a heart rending
and gut wrenching
account of the
living hell into
which Cambodia was
transformed by Pol
Pot and the Khmer
Rouge during the
years when they
tried by brute force
to transform this
gentle land into a
classless and
communist utopia. It
is one young woman's
story of how she and
her family tried to
survive the
mendacious and
murderous policies
of a regime which
was pitiless in its
efforts to extirpate
all remnants of the
"ancien regime" and
to eliminate anyone
who dared to
maintain even a
semblance of
individuality.
Orphaned by the
Khmer Rouge, who
killed both her
parents while she
was still a child,
the fact that Theary
Seng and so many
members of her
extended family
survived the killing
fields is a modern
miracle.
But it is also an
unforgettable
tribute to the
triumph of the human
spirit, the life
force which refuses
to surrender to
death, and the
unquenchable
yearning of a young
girl to breathe
free. In Theary
Seng's odyssey from
an orphaned waif
whose life hung on
minute balances over
which she had no
control, to the
successful and
accomplished
graduate of an
American Law School,
lies one of the
great tales of
survival and success
in the long history
of man's inhumanity
to man. Read it and
weep for her people.
But read it also to
rejoice in her
triumph."
- Stephen
Solarz,
Former US
Congressman
(D-NY)
"A Srei Daughter of
the Killing Fields
paints an incredibly
painful picture of
the brutal depravity
of the Khmer Rouge
contrasted with a
Cambodian family's
phenomenal will to
live and
determination to
survive."
- Ellen
Sauerbrey,
US Ambassador to
the UN
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"Theary's story
represents the harsh
truth of the
Cambodian people's
struggles and
triumphs that we,
the world, must not
forget and must pass
on to future
generations forever.
This inspiring book
should be used for
educational purposes
in classrooms
throughout the
civilized world . It
is an excellent,
moving story about
her life in the
killing fields era
that describes how
this young girl
endured the horrors
of the Khmer Rouge
atrocities,
hopelessness of the
refugee camps in
Thailand, and
confusion of
relocation to the
United States. She
grew strong from her
hardship, thrived in
her adopted country,
and ultimately
became a lawyer and
activist for world
recognition of the
ongoing needs of the
Cambodian people. I
personally recommend
very strongly that
everyone must read
this book. It is a
testimony to the
strength of the
human spirit."
-Dith Pran,
life portrayed in
Academy Award
winner: The Killing
Fields
Daughter of the
Killing Fields is a
journey of hope, an
inspiring tale of a
little girl who grew
up witnessing untold
horrors under the
Communist Khmer
Rouge regime and the
courageous,
self-possessed young
woman she became,
returning to her
native Cambodia and
snatching the chance
to face the man she
partly blames for
the murders of her
parents and an
estimated 1.5
million other
Cambodians during
the nation's
four-year genocide.
Author Theary Seng's
story is equal parts
suffering and
redemption, a
heartrending account
of what it means to
be a survivor.
- Putsata
Reang,
Khmer-American
author, Deadly
Secrets
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"I have spent many
years working and
living in Cambodia
and I thought I
understood the human
tragedy of the
"killing fields".
Many of my very
close friends in
that wonderful
country went through
the brutality of the
Khmer Rouge regime
but only now do I
fully understand, as
much as an outsider
can, the sickening,
depravity of the KR
criminals as they
tortured and killed
their own neighbors
and countrymen. My
eyes were opened by
Theary Seng's
breathtaking, first
hand account of her
experience of the
human carnage that
took place before
her very eyes.
Theary's meticulous
reporting of
brutality toward her
own family and
millions of other
Cambodians has had a
tremendous effect on
me. I have a deeper
committment to the
cause of a free,
democratic Cambodia
with respect for law
and human rights
that every human
being should enjoy.
Unfortunately in
Cambodia today
former Khmer Rouge
leaders still run
the government and
the killing and
disrepect for human
rights continue. I
pray that one day
Cambodia will be a
free country. Only
then can the souls
of the killing
fields corpses rest
in peace."
- Ron Abney,
victim of
1997 Easter Sunday
Massacre while
serving as IRI
in-Country Director
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"A Srei is an
absorbing account of
the trauma of life
under the Khmer
Rouge, provided us
by a sensitive and
perceptive survivor.
It adds considerably
to our knowledge of
the details of daily
existence in a
region of Cambodia
from which news was
simply not flowing
into the outside
world during that
gruesome period.
Academics will
appreciate the many
ingsights it
provides into the
difficult dynamic of
interaction among KR
cadres and the "base
people" from whose
midst they largely
hailed, on the one
hand, and those
suddenly and
unwillingly thrust
among them, the "new
people", on the
other. Themes such
as distrust,
vindictiveness,
vengeance,
capriciousness, and
anger are used to
describe the actions
of the KR, while
their innocent
victims, without
understanding what
was happening,
simply tried to stay
alive. The author
portrays events as
she and her family
lived them during
the KR period and
its chaotic
aftermath with
accuracy and
insight. A Srei is a
valuable
contribution to the
growing volume of
information
concerning a
terrible time in one
small but lovely
country's recent,
tragic history."
- Charles H.
Twining,
Former U.S.
Ambassador to
Cambodia
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"Theary Seng has
written a poignant
tale of her family's
life under the Khmer
Rouge. Her book
recounts a tragedy
but it is also a
brilliant testimony
to the spirit of
those Cambodians who
survived the brutal
Khmer Rouge rule and
went on to build
lives in a new land.
Theary Seng's book
joins the front
ranks of the
touching personal
histories that are
now emerging from
the Cambodians who
suffered so
grievously under Pol
Pot."
Frederick Z.
Brown,
Associate
Director, SAIS
Southeast Asia
Studies, Johns
Hopkins
University
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