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4.15.2009

khmer rouge survivors and 'silent suffering'

Since February, a United Nations-backed tribunal in the Phnom Penh has been trying the first of five Khmer Rouge leaders charged with crimes against humanity, for the brutal experiment in communism that took at least 1.7 million Cambodian lives between 1975 and 1979 -- one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

Three decades later, for many survivors of the "killing fields," the experience remains a painful, traumatic memory. The Los Angeles Times has a story on an outreach effort in Southern California to help survivors of the Khmer Rouge era deal with their emotional suffering: Khmer Rouge survivors give voice to their 'silent suffering'.