Chicagotalks » Lea Erwin

Decades Later, Cambodian Refugees in Illinois Still Face Difficult Odds

Lea Erwin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:18:05 +0000

Dec. 1, 2008 – She was 10 years old chopping wood with her father, and vividly remembers how difficult it was to lift the axe with her tiny twig-like arms and crash down on the log, slicing it into pieces.

"When I was small, I would follow my father everywhere: sawing logs, farming and gardening. It was hard work, but we would sell that wood to buy rice for our family," said Tey Mouen.

One day when she and her father returned to their family farm in Cambodia after a long day of work, they saw Khmer Rouge soldiers torturing her mother and brother. They tortured her mother because she would not tell them where Mouen and her father had gone.

Mouen said between sobs, "They were beating them to death with a stick."

Mouen said her father was a Cambodian soldier and the rebel Khmer soldiers saw him as a threat to their new regime and wanted him dead.

After this moment, her life was never the same.

Watch Lea Erwin's interview with Tey Mouen and Chhay Chheouth. Click here to watch on a larger screen.

Mouen, 44, is a Cambodian refugee and rarely speaks about the traumatic events she witnessed that day.

She now lives in Albany Park, Ill., in a largely Cambodian community. She has anxiety issues coupled with memory loss, mental and emotional problems due to traumatic memories from the past, but also current problems, such as diabetes. Thirty years after two million Cambodians were murdered in the Killing Fields, Cambodian refugees living in the U.S. still suffer.

After the Vietnam war ended in 1975 and U.S. troops began to leave, a communist force influenced by the teachings of Mao Tse Tung called the Khmer Rouge swept through the country and seized control of Cambodia.

Unlike the Holocaust, where most people know about the six million Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, the story of the two million Cambodians tortured, beaten, and murdered by the Khmer Rouge is not as publicized.

The Khmer Rouge ravaged Cambodia with intent of ridding the country of older generations and building a new and better country with no Cambodians. They forced city-dwellers to the countryside and killed anyone who might pose a threat to their ideals, such as intellectuals, religious leaders and professionals.

"It's never going to erase for us, we are never going to get over it; we pass it on to our children," said Kathy Reun, family strengthening coordinator at the Cambodian Association of Illinois, wrapping her arms around Mouen while she wept.

In 1978 and 1979, like thousands of other Cambodians, Mouen and her family fled to nearby Thailand, where they were among 350,000 refugees in camps.

For three years, Mouen lived with her father and brother in poverty-stricken conditions, eating rotten fish, sleeping on dirt beds and worrying about being raped by Thai soldiers.

After Thailand she was transferred to refugee camps in the Philippines, where she lived for one year until she was sponsored by an American who brought her to the U.S. to live with her stepsister in Chicago.

Mouen said she never wants to go back to Cambodia, not even to visit.

"It's too sad, even today I don't want to see the sadness of Cambodia. There is too much sorrow there," said Mouen.

During her time at the refugee camps, her father re-married and had three children, and later joined Mouen in Chicago. He died of natural causes in 2002.

Chhay Chheouth, 51, is a friend of Mouen's and a Cambodian refugee, and she recently found out she also has diabetes. She had a difficult time telling her story and often stopped amid tears.

Chheouth was 25 years old during the Killing Fields and also witnessed her family's murder. She said her mother, father and two older brothers were killed, leaving her the only one left.

Pregnant and scared, she went to a Thai refugee camp and lived there for four years. During that time she had two children and often went hungry, trying to feed them and herself.

"I was so skinny, my knee was bigger than my head," said Chheouth.

Though they survived the camps and moved to other countries, Cambodians continue to struggle with daily living, often confronted by language barriers, inadequate housing and lack of healthcare, said Ruen.

"Four out of 10 women in our women's group have diabetes," said Reun, who holds a weekly meeting for Cambodian women refugees, providing exercise and health education.

Ruen added that many of these refugees suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and lack of education about healthy living; this, accompanied by stress and depression, makes them more susceptible to diabetes.

Forty-five percent of Cambodians surveyed in a 2003 Connecticut health information survey self-reported that they had symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Department of Human Services.

Sarouen Souen, family health coordinator at the Cambodian Association of Illinois said, "It's really hard for them to seek counseling because of the language, because they don't want to share the experience. It's a flashback, and too much for them."

Today, Mouen lives by herself in Albany Park; her five children live with their father. The eldest boy, 24, serves in the U.S. military, her next eldest son is unemployed and uneducated at age 20. She also has one girl, 18, and two twin boys, 16.

"[Mouen's] rent is too high and her income doesn't match. She receives SSI [disability money from the government], but that is not enough for gas and rent," said Reun.

Ruen said 80 percent of Cambodians are uneducated and, unlike the Chinese, there are few Cambodian restaurants and stores to work at, so most work in factories.

Mouen worries mostly about her son in the military. She said he currently serves in Iraq and last year nearly died in a bomb explosion. He lost hearing in one ear and has permanent scars all over his body.

As Mouen worries about her son in Iraq, she mourns the family she lost in Cambodia.

"I will never forget what happened to my family, but I am happy to be here in the U.S.," said Mouen.

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Congress Works to Stall Real ID Act

Lea Erwin — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:05:38 +0000

Submitted on Tue, 05/06/2008 – 22:05.

The cost for the new national identification cards is expected to be $40 more than the standard driver’s licenses, but Secretary of State Jesse White‘s office says the federal government has yet to pay for the cost of the IDs.

In April 2007, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) and Barack Obama (D-Ill) passed a joint resolution along with 19 other states to halt the Real ID program until the federal government finds a way to reimburse the states for the cost.

“States are responsible for putting together driving licenses, and they are expensive. The cost would have to be a decision the states would have to end up making,” said Tom Ferrone, legislative correspondent for Durbin.

The estimated cost to states nationwide would be $4 billion to meet the federal government’s standards for the new IDs, and Illinois will have to pay an estimated $150 million over five years, of which the federal government has not offered any money, said Dave Druker, press secretary for White’s office.

“We are caught between a rock and a hard place, and we have no resources from the government,” said Druker.

In an effort to save time and money, the Secretary of State’s Office plans to make the national ID card separate from the driver’s license, Druker said. In order for people to board planes, he explained, they will need to purchase both forms of IDs and U.S. citizens will only be eligible for the card, but there is still the option to purchase passports.

“Nine million people in Illinois are drivers, and four million have state IDs; instead of making one card everyone would have to get, we would give them the option to use a passport,” said Druker.

But senators and governors across the country say the cost of the Real ID program is not the only problem; it poses a privacy and civil liberties threat as well.

Congress passed the Real ID Act in May 2005 to fight terrorism and ensure better security for airlines. It stemmed from the 9/11 Commission, which concluded that terrorists used different state and federal identification cards to enter the country.

The purpose of the bill is to board planes as well as get into federal buildings and nuclear power plants, but it passed as a bill to help the troops in Iraq said Ed Yohnka, director of communications and public policy for the American Civil Liberties Union.

“It creates a one-stop shopping system for identity thieves across the country,” said Yohnka.

The Real ID Act requires the deadline for states to comply by May 11, 2008, but all 50 states have filed for an extension, and most including Illinois have been granted. The expected date for national ID rollout is no later than Jan. 1, 2010, according to the Department of Homeland Security Web site.

Yohnka said the National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislators and the U.S. House of Representatives will be urging Congress in the coming months for an appropriation of $1 billion for the Real ID program.

“I don’t talk to anybody who actually expects Real ID to be implemented ever; it was ill-considered and ill-conceived, and no practical cost factors were taken into consideration,” said Yohnka.

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Lawmakers Work to Stall Real ID Act

Lea Erwin — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:05:38 +0000

Submitted on Tue, 05/06/2008 – 22:05.

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Possible Prison Closing Outrages Community

Lea Erwin — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:16:50 +0000

Submitted on Tue, 03/25/2008 – 20:16.

Community members in Crest Hill are outraged at Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s plan to close a portion of Statesville prison, but one senator says the prison will not close if the Department of Corrections chooses not to comply with legislative act.

“It’s incredulous that the department thinks they don’t have to comply with the act,” said state Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi (D-Crest Hill).

Sen. Wilhelmi said the Department of Corrections did not consult with him or community members before making their decision to close down a portion of the Statesville Correctional Facility, at a cost of 406 jobs.

“They want to slip this through and it’s not going to happen. There will be a full blown hearing if it does,” said Wilhelmi.

The Department of Corrections remains undecided on where they stand with the act.

“As of last week we took the position to not comply with the statute, but now we are reviewing it,” said Januari Smith, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Smith said they were undecided because the 406 jobs will not be eliminated, but will be relocated.

“There will be possible positions available at Pontiac, Dewitt and Menard,” said Derek Schnapp, spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Corrections. New staff will also be added to Thomson Correctional Center, which will fully open this year and have an additional 365 new positions.

Schnapp said the decision to close Statesville would cost less than the cost to renovate, estimated at $58 million. He also said the closing will provide the funding needed to continue opening the new Thomson Correctional Center, located near the Illinois and Iowa border.

The proposed State Facilities Closure Act requires the department file a report that details how the closing might economically affect the community’s infrastructure. It also requires it to comply with the recommendations from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, a bipartisan committee that reviews the report and either votes in favor of the closing or opposes it.

The residents in Crest Hill say they oppose the decision and the Department of Corrections did not include them or consult with them.

City Administrator John Tomasoski said Statesville is their largest employer, and the Crest Hill City Council passed a resolution opposing the closing.

“There can be negative publicity, having a prison in your community. But you develop a relationship with it and part of its revenue and identity and now it’s being taken away,” said Tomasoski.

Anders Lindall , public affairs director for the American Federation of State, County Employees Council 31, said his union strongly opposes any action to close Statesville and the issue is undocumented.

“The Governor’s budget, speech and budget book have no mention of Statesville closing,” said Lindall. “This is coming from words, not budget or local legislation.”

Wilhelmi says the decision was not bounced off him and there are many reasons so many people oppose it.

For one thing, the community has spent millions of dollars in renovations for Statesville in on electrical, sewage, water, doors and locks, said Wilhelmi.

“We can’t recapitalize the money that is already spent. The closing would impact 406 employees, but in reality that means 1,000 people, if you include their families, churches and schools,” said Wilhelmi.

He continued to say that not only would the families of the 406 employees need to move to accommodate various jobs but the families of the 1,500 inmates will also have to travel two hours or more to the nearest facility, which will be in either Vandalia, Maynard, or Pontiac.

“The next step is me sitting down with the governor’s office. Those discussions are going to continue,” said Wilhelmi.

The next COGFA meeting is scheduled for April 17th and will serve as a deadline for the department of corrections and their decision to either comply or not.

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