Cambodia & the Khmer Rouge: The quest for memory and hope in Stung Treng

The landscape of Stung Treng province in northern Cambodia, peaceful with its converging rivers and lush vegetation, defies imagination when compared to the darkness that once enveloped it.

Kong Yin, survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime

Where birds sing in the morning and children run through rice fields, unspeakable horrors once took place. The Khmer Rouge regime left behind more than scars in the ground: its deepest traces reside in the memories that survivors who continue to live in this region carry silently.

The Stung Treng Documentation Centre: guardian of memory

Founded by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), the Stung Treng Documentation Centre is both a witness and a messenger, committed not only to gathering historical evidence, but also to ensuring that the voices of the Khmer Rouge survivors resonate across generations. Here, history is a living subject, preserved not in sterile archives but in the oral testimonies of those who survived and remember.

Oral history in action

Time is an enemy that gradually erases the living memory of genocide. As survivors age and communities modernise, memories are at risk of being forgotten. To combat this trend, the DC-Cam oral history project sends young volunteers, often the grandchildren of survivors, to villages to listen to and record their testimonies.

They collect stories told in trembling voices: tales of forced labour, starvation and sometimes inexplicable luck that meant the difference between life and death.

The project, which took root in the district of Borei O'Svay Sen Chey, is methodical in its urgency.

For months, volunteers have conducted medical screenings, facilitated forums and created safe spaces where older people can speak out. By collecting these oral testimonies, they are doing more than simply documenting: they are providing a link, relief and even unexpected moments of healing.

Preserving justice through testimony

The ghosts of Cambodia's past are not confined to the forests and fields. Survivors suffer not only from traumatic memories, but also from the marginalisation common to older people and people with disabilities, often a direct consequence of the deprivation they endured under the Pol Pot regime.

DC-Cam's mission goes beyond remembrance to achieve justice and practical assistance.

Health and social services forums: These clinics and meetings in Stung Treng provide essential medical care, offer counselling and help with administrative formalities, recognising that justice cannot be complete without support for the well-being of survivors.

Community development projects: The Documentation Centre works in partnership with local leaders, organises commemorative events and invests in education, transforming sites of atrocities into places of reflection, resilience and, gradually, hope.

‘They cannot erase us’: survivors speak out

The Stung Treng oral history project has collected hundreds of testimonies, each weaving a unique story, both poignant and hopeful. Survivors recount, sometimes for the first time, how they were torn from their homes, how they saw soldiers dressed in sarongs, and how they lived through years of suspicion and deprivation.

Yet their stories do not end with suffering.

An elderly woman recalls the seemingly endless ‘seasons of famine’ when even weeds found under the huts were used for food. A man who was a ten-year-old boy in 1978 calmly describes how he lost his brothers and sisters and escaped execution by going unnoticed, small and silent. The survivors do not only talk about their losses, but also about what endurance has taught them: "They wanted to wipe us out, but we are still here. We are here to tell what we saw."

Passing the torch: youth, memory and reconciliation

This project has the crucial effect of bringing together older and younger generations of Cambodians. Young volunteers, often university students from urban centres, travel to remote hamlets, forging bonds despite the often deep divide between their experiences. Witnessing, listening and recording is a source of healing for both sides. Survivors finally feel recognised and valued, while young people learn resilience, tolerance and vigilance in the face of cruelty.

This intergenerational exchange is at the heart of the Centre's philosophy. By building a bridge between generations, young Cambodians not only inherit a past that must serve as a warning, but also gain the tools – empathy and understanding – needed to build a more just and inclusive society.

When memory meets the future

The work of the Stung Treng Documentation Centre is not limited to cataloguing the past; it shapes Cambodia's future. In the garden planted where mass graves once marked the ground, schoolchildren play. In the community rooms, the voices of survivors mingle with the questions of young people, and trees stand as living monuments between what was lost and what has been reclaimed.

Each carefully preserved testimony becomes a beacon. Cambodia pins its hopes on these stories: that remembrance will prevent history from repeating itself and that, on the ruins of atrocities, a brighter and more compassionate future can flourish.

For the countless survivors of Stung Treng, memory is not a burden but a gift, a promise that the world has not forgotten, that the lessons learned from Cambodia's suffering will not fade with time. As memory becomes history and trauma transforms into lessons, Stung Treng is no longer just a place of sadness, but also a symbol of healing and hope.