Senator Ricardo Lara has announced he will present a Senate Resolution to designate April 13th to April 17th as Genocide Memorial Week.
Lara, who represents the 33rd District, including Long Beach, will make the presentation on the Senate floor on April 16.
“This April marks 40 years of a tragic event in human history: the fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia to the communist regime known as the Khmer Rouge,” said Lara, who represents Long Beach, the city with the largest Cambodian population in the country, in a letter dated April 3.
“In one of the bloodiest genocides of the 20th century, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge executed, tortured, starved, and subjected nearly 2 million Cambodians to inhumane conditions and disease between 1975 and 1979,” the letter continues. “As a result, approximately 100,000 Cambodian refugees fled their homeland and relocated to the United States.”
If the resolution passes, Cambodian Genocide will be memorialized throughout the state for the week of April 13th through April 17th. Californians will be able to participate in activities and programs designed to educate about genocide, according to Lara’s proposal.
Lara will also commemorate Cambodian Genocide by attending the Cambodian Music Festival on April 17 from 5:00PM to 8:00PM at the Expo Art Center, located at 4321 Atlantic Avenue.
Long Beach is home to approximately 19,998 residents of Cambodian descent, the second-largest population of Cambodian immigrants outside of Southeast Asia, accounting for approximately 4% of the city’s total population. Many refugees escaping the genocide in Cambodia settled around Long Beach’s Anaheim Street corridor in the late 70s, in what is now officially recognized as Cambodia Town.