Lasting Effects of the Khmer Rouge
Timothy McKenna

Leakhena Nou, Ph.D. led a discussion on Tuesday night on her findings of a stress study she compiled in Cambodia.  The Discussion “Social Stress and the Legacy of the Khmer Rouge” covered other topics including an upcoming study that Nou plans to conduct in Lowell and Lynn on stress factors of first generation Cambodians in relation to the Khmer Rouge.  Dr. Blake Kerr also screened his film “Angry Skies: A Cambodian Journey.”

Nou received her B.A. in Sociology from California State and holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from the University of Hawaii Manoa.  Nou was born in Cambodia and moved to the U.S. in 1972 at a very young age.  Going back to Cambodia in 1994 for the first time since she was three or four years old, Nou saw first hand how much her native land was in need of some serious help.

The Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979 and is responsible for an estimated 2.5 million Cambodian deaths from forced labor, execution, and torture.  No trial for the genocide has yet to be held, however, there is an ongoing attempt to bring the ones responsible who are still alive to justice. Although Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in April of 1998, many of his former generals and Khmer Rouge members are still in high-ranking positions of government and feared by survivors.

From 1997-2000, Nou conducted a data research study on Cambodian university students living in Cambodia and stress as it related to the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge.

Nou was in Phnom Penh on July 8, 1997 when the country erupted in civil war. Being a United States citizen, she had the option and insistence from her family to leave; however, she sneaked out of the airport to go back and help out and continue her research.

During her research, Nou found some similarities between American college students and Cambodian college students.  Both sets of students suffer stress due to financial difficulties and obligations as well as uncertainty about their futures.  Cambodian students however seemed to feel much more helpless about their futures than American students do.  One interesting difference in how Cambodian students help themselves deal with the stress is that they seek out commercial sex.  What makes this so interesting is that Cambodian students openly admit they seek prostitution, whereas in the United States it is illegal and most defiantly not admitted to by large amounts of college students.

Nou has temporarily joined the Institute for Asian American Studies, under the direction of Dr. Paul Watanabe, at UMass Boston as a visiting professor. Before this she served as Dean of the College of Social Sciences at the University of Cambodia and a visiting faculty member at the University of Illinois.

Nou is currently preparing a one-year study entitled “Psychosocial Adjustments of Khmer Refugees in Two Massachusetts Communities.”  This study will focus on subjects aged 25-65 years old.  Subjects may remain anonymous.  Anyone interested may contact Leakhena Nou at the Institute for Asian American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston.

When asked why she was doing this research, Nou replied that she wants to tell the story of her people; I’m “Trying to achieve the truth through social science.”

The other half of the evening was given to screening one hour of a documentary by Doctor Blake Kerr, MD. titled “The Angry Skies: A Cambodian Journey.”  Kerr is a human rights activist and publisher, as well as a medical doctor and father.

“The Angry Skies” is a term that Cambodians use in reference to the U.S. bombings in Cambodia during Vietnam as the Vietnamese were encroaching into Cambodia.  Among those interviewed in Kerr’s documentary is Tuol Sleng prison survivor Chum Mey.  Mey is one of seven to have survived the torture chambers at Tuol Sleng.  Khmer Rouge general Chuk Rin “placed a loaded pistol on the table,” Kerr states in the film. “He told me he'd kill me if I asked about the backpackers’ deaths, the Khmer Rouge revolution, or if anything bad came of the interview.” 

Kerr also interview a few top-level Khmer Rouge members who refused to be taped.  Unknown to them, Kerr had a small, secret hidden camera.  Pol Pot’s second in command or “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea and Teph Kunnal, Pol Pot’s secretary who, after Pol Pot’s death married his (Pol Pot’s) wife were among the high profile interviews.

Kerr hopes his film will raise awareness of the atrocities faced by the Cambodian people.  He also hopes that this film can be used in bringing those responsible to justice.  Kerr remarks that he has no plans to ever return to Cambodia because he’d probably be killed because of the strong lingering influence and power of the Khmer Rouge.