Heritage site
Paris memorial to the victims of the Khmer Rouge
The Paris memorial to the victims of the Khmer Rouge is a glass stele in Parc de Choisy, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, France.[1] Inaugurated on April 17, 2018, it honors all victims of the Khmer Rouge regime.[2]
History
The Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. The FIDH and the City of Paris put the number of people who died by January 1979 at between 1.7 and 2 million, nearly a third of Cambodia's population.[1][3] The memorial came about at the initiative of Cambodian associations representing victims of the regime, with the support of the FIDH and the Haut Conseil des Asiatiques de France (HCAF).[1][4]
Earlier efforts by the association of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime (VGKR) did not succeed. The HCAF took up the project again in 2016 and brought together Cambodian associations in France, the VGKR, the FIDH and the town hall of the 13th arrondissement.[5] A press release of September 2017 dates the revival of the project to 2017.[6] The Council of Paris approved the memorial and its place in the park on September 27, 2017.[5][6]
More than 90 percent of the cost came from private sources, through crowdfunding and fundraising events.[5] The September 2017 press release named individual donations and the Ministry of Francophonie as the sources of that funding, and fundraising was still going on at the time.[6] The HCAF paid for the construction of the stele. The City of Paris maintains it under a partnership agreement for the use of public land.[1][4][3]
The French art-glass firm Siebering made the stele in the fall of 2017. It was set in place in October 2017 and kept covered in a wooden case until the inauguration.[5] The HCAF chose April 17, 2018, the 43rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge taking power, as the date.[5] The City of Paris gave the start time of the ceremony as 9:00 a.m., and the FIDH gave it as 9:15 a.m.[1][3] A symposium followed at the town hall of the 13th arrondissement. It covered the origins and rise of the Khmer Rouge regime and the prosecution of its crimes against humanity.[1][4][3]
On April 13, 2026, the HCAF held a commemorative ceremony at the memorial. Cambodia's ambassador to France, Luy David, the mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, the mayor of the 13th arrondissement, Jérôme Coumet, and members of the Cambodian diaspora attended.[7]
Architecture and layout
The architect Didier Cosnefroy designed the memorial as a stele of clear laminated glass.[5] The inauguration file gives its size as 1.80 meters (5.9 feet) high and 0.80 meters (2.6 feet) wide. The September 2017 press release gave the planned height as 1.75 meters (5.7 feet).[5][6] The stele stands near the Tree of Liberty, to the right of the main entrance of the park, among a wider group of memorial sites.[5][2]
Art and inscriptions
An engraved image, the work of a Franco-Cambodian artist, shows city families in flight and a typical Khmer monument.[5][6] The scene recalls the fall of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, when residents were forced out of the city. A woman walks ahead with a child by the hand, carrying a load on her head.[2] The inscription, in French and Cambodian, dedicates the stele to the memory of all victims of the crimes against humanity committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.[5]
Significance and conservation
The memorial gives French people of Cambodian origin, including the refugees France took in and their descendants, a place to gather and honor the dead.[1][4][3] The 13th arrondissement is home to a large Franco-Cambodian community.[5][6] Reporting on the 2026 ceremony, Cambodia's national news agency called the memorial a place of "psychological repair" for survivors and their families.[7]
Its organizers said Paris would be the first European capital to host such a memorial.[6] The HCAF called it the first in the world, apart from a memorial raised quietly in Phnom Penh and later moved.[5] The City of Paris called it the first place of memory in Europe for the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime.[3]
Visiting
The memorial stands in Parc de Choisy on Avenue de Choisy, behind the Lycée Claude Monet and a short walk from the town hall of the 13th arrondissement.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 FIDH
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Mémoire 2000, Journal d'Octobre 2018 : Parc de Choisy, Parc de mémoire (2018-11-29)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 City of Paris press office, La Ville de Paris inaugure une stèle en hommage aux victimes du régime khmer rouge (2018-04-17)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 La Croix
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 actu-presse, Dossier d'inauguration du mémorial aux victimes des KR
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 defensesansfrontiere, Communiqué de presse Mémorial 27 sept 2017
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Agence Kampuchea Presse, Une cérémonie organisée à Paris pour rendre hommage aux victimes des Khmers rouges (2026-04-14)