Organization
Khmer Conscience
Khmer Conscience is a Cambodian American nonprofit founded in San Jose, California, in 1986 by the activist Hann So.[1] It published a newsletter of the same name that circulated widely among Cambodians abroad from 1987 to 1993.[1]
History
Before 1986, Hann So had organized demonstrations, rallies, meetings and conferences to inform Cambodians and the wider American public about the situation in Cambodia. In 1986 he founded Khmer Conscience to carry on that public education. The group organized conferences and symposia on conditions in Cambodia and on the plight of refugees.[1]
The newsletter Khmer Conscience began with the same educational aim. It was an open, non-partisan forum for contributors. Vora Huy Kanthoul was a member of its original editorial board.[1] As of 2014 the organization's mailing address was a post office box in San Jose.[2][3]
Archive
Hann So kept the papers that came to him through years of this work. His collection, the Hann So Collection on Cambodia, is held at the South/Southeast Asian Studies Reference Library of the University of California, Berkeley. It covers 1979 to 1993 in English, French and Khmer, with a focus on Cambodian American support for the forces opposing the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia in the years before the Paris Peace Accords. It is especially strong on the development of Khmer Conscience, and it holds the newsletter itself.[1]