Cambodian Genocide Memorial Park to be built in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- One of the nation's only memorials honoring the victims of the Cambodian Genocide will soon be built on a vacant, city-owned lot in Long Beach.

"I still have nightmares and I believe I have PTSD," survivor Bryant Sokphanarith Ben said.

During the Khmer Rouge communist takeover, Ben says thousands of Cambodians were sent to labor camps, while the middle class, government officials and their families were killed on the spot.

"Most of the people would be taken at night to be executed in the fields, the rice fields, the rice paddies of Cambodia in silence," Paline Soth said.

The Long Beach City Council recently approved converting the land into a memorial garden at 1501 E. Anaheim Street.

The victims of other historical crimes such as the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide will also be honored at the Cambodian Genocide Memorial Park.