Royal Treatment
April 10th, in Long Beach, on Sunday evening down the street from Poly Burgers along New York Avenue, a backyard gathering of Cambodian Americans surrounded a ten-by-ten blue top pop-up tent just in case the gigantic gray clouds were called to drop their payload of raindrops. A secondary location was selected out of necessity and security based on a preceding event.
The Long Beach Fire Department was called to the scene of an early morning third-alarm emergency at the Royal Buffet by an off-duty fire fighter. Sixty-four brave firefighters battled the blaze for forty-five minutes before the fire hoses bursting water and fire retardant extinguished the inferno. Royal Buffet employees were surprised to find the sprawling damage eliminating what would have been a normal day of work.
The flames rising higher than a basketball hoop inside the Royal Buffet’s attic present an ironic twist to those who were going to attend a preplanned meeting with two attorneys representing a Cambodian family against the Hun Sen government of Cambodia. Originally posted on Facebook, the world’s largest social network, the invitation to attend the Royal Buffet meeting was left open for the world audience to openly see and accept. Whether or not it was a warning, it wasn’t enough to stop the pursuit of the truth and justice through pioneering legal interpretations of the US Anti-Terrorism Act.
Roughly a year ago, Chamroeun Nahy approached Sklar because he was beaten up in Cambodia. Chamroeun wanted to know what he could do about it. During the first leg of research Sklar conducted he looked at the criminal provisions of US Anti-Terrorism law. The criminal case was filed, but the Federal Bureau of Investigations knocked down the case because it wasn’t real terrorism. The FBI didn’t buy it. A second case arose with Meach Sovannara. It forced Sklar to looked through the US Anti-Terrorism laws more carefully. He saw the civil provisions as potential winners for filing new cases. Congress passed a law to protect US citizens abroad who are victimized by acts of terrorism. Although they weren’t thinking about human rights issues in Cambodia the language of the law covers the problem Chamroeun Nahy experienced. Sklar realized there was more too the law the FBI was not seeing on the civil side and they needed to use it. In Sklar’s new vision, the Justice for Victims of Iranian Terrorism Act (2015-2016) has the same potential as being used as a basis for human rights on a much broader scale than they have in the past. Meach’s case could be the first case similar to how the Alien Torts Statute was used in the groundbreaking Filartiga v. Pena-Irala case in 1980.
Hun Sen’s first born son, Manet is the first Cambodian to have graduated from West Point Academy. He is the current lieutenant general for the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. On Saturday night, April 9th, Manet had attended a dinner at Little La Lune restaurant on the east corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Cherry Avenue. In French, la lune means moon. In the middle of a Cambodian protest a process server notified the Long Beach Police Department of his mission to serve Manet while they monitored the protest against Manet. The process server was violently tossed into the air by Manet’s bodyguards to thwart the dangerous mission to serve the legal paperwork to their leader. The LBPD intervened as they became aware of the skirmish. As the process server gained consciousness there were concerns he might be paralyzed. He was immediately rushed in an ambulance to St. Mary’s hospital. The medical staff determined he sustained severe head and spinal cord injuries as they took care of him inside the intensive care unit wing of the hospital.
Meanwhile at the secondary meeting place multi-generational families were in attendance seated at stationary plastic chairs, folding chairs and purple painted picnic tables. There were no empty seats. It was my first exposure and actuation for the story. This is what I saw.
Like an acclaimed university professor, rising up from a stool just outside a converted garage with an affixed sign ‘Green Village’, Morton Sklar held a Nestle water bottle and a florescent collection of notes written on 6 x 8 inch note cards, he spoke about the wellbeing of U.S. citizen Meach Sovannara among the other prisoners in Cambodia. His words were carefully chosen and delivered like flowers handed to a beloved one. There are peculiar aspects of these Cambodian community meetings that are a bit strange. The guest speakers are far removed from the audience. It made Sklar hesitate and anxious. The way it should be is how Sklar is photographed. He went around the speaker’s table in the back and moved out into the people where he could deal with them more directly. Morton recalled going to meetings with the Falun Gong (Law Wheel Practice) people in China because their spirit infused you. Even though Morton doesn’t practice Falun Gong, the whole concept affected him so that he felt at peace. He knew he was doing the right thing.
A single green plastic bin sat on a blue tarp below the pop-up tent with ‘Donations’ written with a Sharpie marker across the side. California has the largest Cambodian population out of the five US states where Cambodians reside. Cash donations were pulled out of purses and wallets and handled over to the purple table top where many hands counted the contributions. The positive commotion bustled until the total amount was verified in thick Cambodian sentences. Although far away from the mainland of Cambodia the people here at the grassroots assembly create a ‘do’ nation for justice against the brutal tactics of Hun Sen’s government.
During the briefing as Morton and Nazareth Haysbert answered questions about the federal case they filed on behalf of Meach Sovannara and his family on Friday, April 8th the sun blazed light through the puffy assortment of billowing clouds as it lowered like a sure chariot. The sunlight shined rectangular shapes on their suits and distinctly painted Cambodian faces like living golden statues placed by green plants and exterior structures. The dialog flowing from the forum was an important step in securing human rights for Meach Sovannara and all Cambodian people. It’s a royal treatment they deserve while living under political repression, horrific mistreatment and the wake of Pol Pot’s genocidal policies during the late 70s.
In 1965, Jim Thomas, an African-American gentleman who graduated from Yale Law School with Morton Sklar both decided to live as roommates in historic district of Georgetown, Washington D.C. Although the lease was in Sklar’s name, every month Thomas insisted on sending a personal check to the landlord to show not only he was an African-American male living in Georgetown, but also in an integrated apartment with his best friend. For Sklar this friendship would prove to be the key to open the door to a job working in the Department of Justice.
Morton Sklar was sent to Selma, Alabama to go around to the surrounding small towns and counties to speak with the people who were leading the voting registration drives to try to get black people to vote. The DOJ sent Sklar instead of Jim Thomas because of the danger in the Alabama. On assignment, safety was his main concern for the black people who were would vote for the first time in their lives. On one particular occasion, Morton walked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to a rally site in a tiny town. Black people stood still in silence in a downpour so they could see and listen to the words from the most compelling leader of the Civil Rights movement. “It was extraordinary to see what the people were willing to go through for these dramatic moments,” said Sklar.
While in a tiny town Sklar met the leader of the voter registration drive. He was an 85-year-old black man. Totally blind. Sklar introduced himself. He told him what he was doing there while the man touched Sklar’s face. The blind black man said, “I don’t really know who you are, I can’t tell who you are. As far as I know you could be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but I’m going to tell you what we’re doing here and what I’m trying to accomplish because the one thing I have to do before I die is vote. If I don’t get to vote before I die I don’t consider myself an American. I’m going to have to do it before I die and I don’t care who knows it or what happens to me.”
Sklar couldn’t stop thinking about the inspiring interaction he had with the leader of the voter registration drive. The blind leader’s attitude affected in what he said and what he did guided Sklar’s life when difficult things were going on. It was a key experience in his life that turns you into what you are.
Scrub forward on life’s timeline. Some of the people at Sunday’s Cambodian meeting ask Sklar a serious question. “When we file the case are we going to be okay? Should we be worried about what happens?” Remembering what the blind leader told Sklar, he said, “Yes, but you need to carry forward because no matter how difficult it is, if you’re going to accomplish anything, to make Cambodia what you want to become…you have to act without fear.”
The Cambodian people are like the blind leader of the voter registration drive because they are caught in the firing line. They are trying to rescue their wellbeing. The reality of Hun Sen’s repressive government is their willingness to reach into the United States to cause harm.