Profile of Theary C. Seng

Theary C. Seng is an American-Cambodian attorney and activist now
living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She was born in Phnom Penh in 1971 and
lived under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979. In 1980, she and
her family immigrated to the United States. In 2004, she chose to
return to Cambodia permanently.

In Cambodia, Theary founded the Center for Justice and Reconciliation,
a non-profit organization that seeks justice for the victims of the
Khmer Rouge. She is also a founding director of CIVICUS: Center for
Cambodian Civic Education, an organization designed to teach Cambodian
citizens about civil rights, law, and government. She lobbies and
speaks often about the major social issues in Cambodia which include
human rights, poverty, education, land grabbing, government
corruption, and human trafficking.

The Khmer Rouge regime was responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million
Cambodians, almost twenty percent of the population of the country at
the time. The Khmer Rouge army gained control of Cambodia in 1975. The
Khmer Rouge forced all of the residents of the cities to evacuate to
the countryside, to become slave labor in collectivist villages. The
Khmer Rouge arbitrarily killed anyone they didn't like, including the
systemic executing of everyone who was educated or had foreign
influences.

Theary Seng and her family witnessed the full extent of the horror.
While she and her family were evacuating Phnom Penh, Theary's father
decided to make a trip back to the city to get more food. He was never
seen again. Sometime later, Theary, her mother and a brother were
imprisoned for several months, where, one morning, brother and sister
woke-up to discover that while they were sleeping, their mother had
been taken away to be killed. Throughout the entire period, in both
the collectives and the prison, families and individuals were being
taken away and killed on a regular basis. Food, clothing, housing, and
medical care were scarce. Everywhere, people were tortured, worked,
and starved to death. Theary Seng's extended family of grandmother,
aunts, uncles, cousins, and brothers became refugees in their own
country. At first they tried to seek refuge in Vietnam, but that
proved too risky. They along with groups of other refugees decided to
escape into Thailand. But Thai soldiers forced them at gunpoint to
march back into Cambodia on a narrow path through a valley that was
heavily mined. If anyone refused, was too tired, or lagged behind, the
Thai soldiers simply shot them on the spot.

In 1979, Theary and her surviving extended family members were able to
successfully cross the Thai border at another location and arrive at a
refugee camp. After a year, they were accepted as refugees in the
United States. Theary went on to graduate from Georgetown University
in 1995, from the University of Michigan Law School in 2000, and is a
member of the bar in New York State.

In 2005, Theary published a memoir titled, Daughter of the Killing
Fields, incorporating historical sources, her own childhood memories
and feelings, as well as the recollections of her family and others.
As a young refugee in the United States, Theary became a Christian,
and she attributes her sense of social obligation--of a need to give
back--to her Cambodian past, combined with her Christian faith. As a
law student and a lawyer Theary had gone back to Cambodia several
times as a volunteer to assist with various human rights projects. In
2004, she moved to Cambodia permanently, with the initial intention of
working on labor issues. But eventually the scope of her attention
shifted and expanded to seeking justice for the survivors of the Khmer
Rouge. She has been an influential public figure in the efforts to
bring the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge to trial. Moreover,
Theary frequently writes and speaks about what is needed for the
Cambodian nation to recover from that evil regime. She has published
articles regularly in Cambodia Daily, the Phnom Penh Post, and
Ki-Media, She is also the co-host of a Cambodian T.V. show called,
Youth Leadership Challenge.

After the Khmer Rouge had killed her parents her parents, Theary
became the beneficiary of the unconditional love of her extended
family of grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and her four brothers.
After many years of healing of healing in the U.S., she was able to
emerge from the experience with her humanity and her emotional health
intact. Unfortunately that has not been the case for numerous other
survivors. The Khmer Rouge years have scarred the psyche of millions
of Cambodians and left them with a legacy of domestic violence,
post-traumatic stress disorder, hyper-vigilance, and social
dysfunction that permeates their society.

In an interview, Theary said, "My work here is not to do anything big
but to be a common citizen back in my homeland where I suffered a lot,
and now I'm taking that suffering and shaping it into hope, and trying
to work with individuals who have not had the time and space to heal
that I've had."

Besides the killings and abuse, the Khmer Rouge destroyed all of the
commercial and education institutions in the country, leaving it as
the poorest country in the world. In Daughter of the Killing Fields,
she said: "I continue to mourn the loss of lives due to the Khmer
Rouge. Today, I also mourn the loss of human potential. How many Khmer
Mozarts, Einsteins and da Vincis will never be realized because there
are no infrastructures to encourage and absorb a Khmer child's
potential? I mourn when I meet a little girl on the street begging. I
see my face in her face. The only difference between us is in our
opportunities. At one point in my life, an opportunity existed which
led to other opportunities that nurtured and encouraged my budding
potential. In this little girl's situation, in light of the current
infrastructure and framework, the odds are stacked against her."

Theary Seng's own childhood story was a victory of hope over
persecution, suffering and evil. Theary could have chosen to remain
in the United States and pursue a career as an attorney, while living
a life of comfort and affluence. Instead, she has chosen to work to
inspire hope in her fellow Cambodians, to lead them to a vision of
justice, human dignity, and triumph over adversity.

A Profile of Theary Seng, Cambodian Human Rights Activist
http://blog.nominetwork.org/2010/10/profile-of-theary-c-seng-cambodian.html
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2010
by Stephen M. Bauer