Recording
Khmer Oral History Project: Interview with Chamreun Tan
The Khmer Oral History Project interview with Chamreun Tan records the life of a former Phnom Penh police officer who survived the Khmer Rouge years.[1] It was recorded in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1992 for the Khmer Oral History Project.[2]
About the recording
Chamreun Tan grew up mainly in Battambang City. He was working as a police officer in Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, when the Khmer Rouge came to power. Separated from his parents and siblings, he was sent to the village of Phum Chhouk to work for the Khmer Rouge until 1979. He married in 1981. He tried more than once to leave Cambodia and was sent back, and he lived in Thai refugee camps until he came to the United States in 1984. He held a variety of jobs in the United States, and at the time of the interview he was a financial worker for Ramsey County.[1]
The collection
On June 9, 1990, the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee held a mock trial of the Khmer Rouge leadership for genocide at the Minnesota State Capitol. Members of Minnesota's Khmer (Cambodian) community served as witnesses and told of their own lives in 1975 to 1979, years in which, by the project's estimate, the Khmer Rouge-led government killed 1.7 million people. A panel of Minnesota public officials, sitting as an "International Court of Justice," found Pol Pot and his agents guilty of genocide.[2]
The mock trial led to the Khmer Oral History Project. Its 15 interviews, recorded on videotape in July and August 1992, cover the genocide years, the refugee camps and emigration to the United States. Together they run 16 hours and 24 minutes. Each interview has a transcript in English, and in Khmer where needed, for a total of 414 pages in English and 81 pages in Khmer.[2]
Credits
Chamreun Tan is the narrator. The project gives its interviewers only as "various," and none is named for this interview. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights holds the copyright.[1][2]
Access
- Minnesota Historical Society collections: Interview with Chamreun Tan
- No item number, access restriction or online recording is published.[1]