Cambodia History

Images of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime that inflicted mass suffering and death in Cambodia during the 1970s have made their way to Long Beach, home of the largest Cambodian community outside Southeast Asia. The 17 prints are intended to give exposure to the artists as well as promote Cambodian culture in the United States, said Mon Duch, director of the Arts of Apsara Gallery and Cultural Center, where the images will be on display through Aug. 15.

"This," said Pen Phalla, standing in a schoolyard where the grass was neatly clipped and songbirds darted among tall palms, "is where they killed the intelligentsia. You know--teachers, doctors, the educated, people like that. "Sometimes they beat them to death with shovels and hoes to save bullets. Or cut their throats. It just depended." She stepped into a classroom that had been partitioned into cells. "That's blood on the floor," she said. "The bed's original.

For Irvine resident Sim Heng, reports of the death of Pol Pot stirred mixed emotions Thursday. "I feel like he died and didn't get to pay for his crime," she said. "I lost my whole family, and I feel that he got off easy. I'm the only one left." Pol Pot's regime is blamed for the deaths of more than a million people in Cambodia in the 1970s. Among those who died from execution, torture, starvation or illness were every member of 32-year-old Heng's immediate family.

Their dreams and reputations spent, Khmer Rouge leaders have turned this malaria-racked frontier town into a retirement community where old friends reminisce and need offer no apologies for their murderous reign of terror.