Former U.N. ambassador who escaped Cambodia’s killing fields highlights Human Rights Day

By Arthur E. Foulkes
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Sichan Siv told an audience gathered Wednesday morning at Indiana State University about his harrowing escape from his native Cambodia in the 1970s.

Siv, a former U.S. representative to the United Nations, was the keynote speaker for the sixth annual Terre Haute Human Rights Day.

The event is organized by local human rights activists and supported by several academic departments at ISU as well as a number of local organizations.

Siv fled Cambodia in early 1976.

“It was hope that kept me alive for one year,” Siv said, speaking about the year he survived in Cambodia after the communist Khmer Rouge took control of the southeast Asian nation on April 17, 1975.

He told the audience of some 200 students, faculty and local citizens he never knew if he would be alive the following day when he went to sleep each night after a day of 18 hours of forced labor.

The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia until 1979 when they were toppled by a Vietnamese invasion. Under Khmer Rouge rule, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians were killed by execution, starvation or forced labor.

In April 1975, Siv and about 3 million other residents of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, were forced to evacuate the city by the newly installed Khmer Rouge leadership. Siv and his family eventually found themselves in a distant village where they were placed into forced labor, he said, adding he soon realized that, because he had worked previously for an American aid agency, CARE, he was a danger to the rest of his family. This knowledge led him to escape the forced labor camp, he said, riding a bicycle some 600 kilometers across country to near the border with Thailand, he said.

Once on his own, Siv told the audience, he was captured again by the Khmer Rouge and placed back into forced labor. All this time, Siv said he tried hard to conceal his education because the Khmer Rouge killed anyone suspected of being educated, a capitalist or political opponent.

“I threw away my glasses,” Siv said. Wearing glasses was taken as a sign of education, he said.

Siv escaped from the Khmer Rouge again by jumping from a moving lumber truck. He worked his way across country without food or water for three days until reaching Thailand, where he was arrested for illegally entering the country.

Eventually, Siv’s former colleagues with CARE helped him immigrate to the United States, where he started a new life shortly before July 4, 1976 – the U.S. bicentennial year. He picked apples, flipped hamburgers and drove a cab in New York City before being admitted to Columbia University on a scholarship. Taking an interest in politics, he eventually volunteered for the 1988 George H.W. Bush presidential campaign and was later asked by Bush’s transition team to work for the president, where his duties would eventually take him to the United Nations.

Sadly, he said, Siv learned his mother, sister, brother and their families were all murdered back in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge.

“Adapt and be adopted,” Siv said is his advice to his fellow U.S. immigrants. “Adapt to America and America will adopt you.”

The audience asked questions of Siv after his approximately 30-minute talk. In response to a question about illegal immigration in America, Siv said that is a very emotional subject for him personally, adding that the key word is “illegal.”

Siv was critical of the United Nations Human Rights Commission for admitting countries such as Iran, North Korea and Cuba, which he characterized as “bad and ugly.” He said he often walked out of commission meetings in protest when such countries gained membership.

“That’s a sad situation,” he said.

Siv added, however, he believes the United Nations is the best option currently available for international cooperation.

“There is nothing better at the moment,” he said, adding that the UN presently does some things well, such as its handling of HIV, aid for children and assistance for refugees.

Arthur Foulkes can be contacted at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.