Collection
Khmer Oral History Project
The Khmer Oral History Project is a set of 15 videotaped interviews with Cambodian refugees who resettled in Minnesota.[1] The Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul holds the collection.[1]
History
On June 9, 1990, the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee held a mock trial of the Khmer Rouge leadership for the crime of genocide at the Minnesota State Capitol.[1] Members of Minnesota's Khmer community served as witnesses and told of their own lives in the years 1975 to 1979, when, by the society's estimate, the Khmer Rouge-led government of Cambodia killed 1.7 million people.[1] A panel of Minnesota public officials sat as the "International Court of Justice" and found Pol Pot and his agents guilty of genocide.[1][2]
The mock trial led to the Khmer Oral History Project. In July and August 1992, various interviewers recorded members of the Khmer community on videotape in St. Paul.[1] The committee is now The Advocates for Human Rights.[2] The project forms part of a larger effort to record immigrant history in Minnesota.[3]
Overview
The narrators speak about life in Cambodia before 1975, separation from family and forced labor under the Khmer Rouge, years in Thai refugee camps, and resettlement and working life in Minnesota.[1] Each interview has a transcript in English and, where it applies, in Khmer.[1]
Material coverage
The 15 interviews run to 16 hours and 24 minutes in all. The transcripts fill 414 pages in English and 81 pages in Khmer.[1]
Significance
A video of the mock trial and some of the project's recordings were entered into the evidentiary record of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.[2]
Catalog and access
Each interview has its own record page in the society's collections search, with a summary of the narrator's account. The published records give no item numbers and no access restrictions.[1][4] The Minnesota Historical Society gives the copyright holder as Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights in St. Paul.[1] The Advocates for Human Rights states that it holds the copyright itself.[2]
Interviews
- Loeung Bun
- Thaly Chhour
- Samphoun Em
- Monoram Hang
- Khon Kong
- Choup Lat
- Lar Munstock
- Henry Nelson
- Sova Niev
- Y Nor
- Sok Yorm and Phorm Phuong
- Seng Prom
- Channy Som
- Chamreun Tan
- Yoeuth Yan