Mr. President. many Cambodian refugee children who have found a haven in the United States are learning to take a new interest in life through art classes in their schools. These are children who have seen their loved ones killed and their homes destroyed. children who have miraculously survived bomb explosions within feet of their hiding places. children who have been forced to work in labor gangs. building roads and dams and hauling heavy rocks. children who have grown into fearful and defensive adolescents through long years of tragedy and horror. Now that they are in the United States. these children and young people are learning to breathe more easily. Slowly. they are learning to smile. to laugh. to speak without fear. and to trust other people. Evidence of this slow adjustment to a free and peaceful society can be found in these childrens artwork. Newly arrived refugee children paint and sculpt the instruments of death and destruction: tanks. guns. airplanes. hand grenades. A refugee child in Boston. Mass.. recently presented his teacher with a precisely sculpted hand grenade. complete with a removable pin. The teacher tried to explain to the child that if he did not hollow out the inside of the clay grenade. it would explode when It was fired in the kiln. She did not understand why the class of refugee children burst into laughter. As the Cambodian children become more accustomed to peace and safety. they begin to paint and model dragons. oxen. snakes. frogs. and other mythical and real animals from Asia. They reach a point at which they can move beyond the memories of death and begin to draw upon what memories they have of a coherent and ordered world.