The faces in our logos are people
who have lived through, and survived, human rights abuses. If there had been
an organization like High Road, mobilizing the voices of people throughout
the country to call for a major change in US policy, the abuses they suffered
and witnessed might have been avoided.
Maly “Sally” Khlot – Cambodia
Sally was born in January
of 1972 near Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She was 3 years old when the Khmer
Rouge came to power in 1975.
In April
of 1977, Khmer Rouge soldiers occupied Sally’s village in force and heavily armed.
Sally, being held with other children in a pig stall, watched as most
of the men were severely beaten or shot. Her father was beaten until
the soldiers believed he was dead. Sally’s mother and sister were
beaten and raped before being trucked away and never seen again.
Sally suffered second and
third degree burns over much of her body when the pig stall she was being
held in was torched by the Khmer Rouge when they left the area. Most
of the other children died in the fire.
Sally and
her father spent several months, traveling only at night, escaping Cambodia
into
Thailand.
Sally’s father died soon after they arrived at a refugee camp.
Sally was adopted, months later, through the Lutheran Church, by a family
in Minnesota.
Sally now resides in Minneapolis,
Minnesota with her husband and three children.
Kenan Tufekcic - Bosnia
Kenan was
a young boy in a city named Visegrad, in the eastern part of Bosnia,
on the
border with
Serbia. In 1992, Serbians brutally attacked his city. Most of the city’s
inhabitants fled to the forests before being enticed to return with a
promise of peace and safety from the occupying Serbs.
When the
citizens returned, Serbian soldiers took every male between the ages
of 20 to
65 away for “questioning,” including
Kenan’s father. They were never seen again.
Kenan helplessly
watched as the women in his family were brutalized, raped and degraded
by the
Serbian soldiers. Three of his family members were gang raped; one surviving
family member is still suffering from extreme PTSD. Kenan was also forced
to watch as his cousin was gang raped by several Serbian men who, when
they
finished, inserted a beer bottle into her vagina and broke it. She died
from a massive infection.
Kenan escaped from his city,
disguised as a girl, thanks to the quick thinking of a female family
member who pulled a dress and a head scarf onto him when the local women
were being rounded up for shipment to a concentration camp.
Kenan now resides in Salt
Lake City, Utah with his wife and one daughter.
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