Phnom Penh
il 3 dicembre
In 1953 Prince Sihanouk led the country, a former French colony, to independence. From then on through the 1960’s, Cambodia was prosperous and self-sufficient, although an increasing division between the rich and the poor led to the development of nationalist factions, one of which was the Communist Khmer Rouge. As the Vietnam War spread to Cambodia when the United States bombed its borders to stop the North Vietnamese from entering, the Khmer Rouge gained support from the peasants and farmers whose villages were being bombed. In 1970, Sihanouk was overthrown by the pro-West and American supported Lon Nol who proved to be a weak leader, opening the way for the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, to seize control of Cambodia in April,1975 and rename the country Democratic Kampuchea.
The policies of the Khmer Rouge were shaped by the belief that the country should have a communal system with no private ownership and that everything should belong to the ruling organization. In addition, it was felt that Cambodian citizens had been tainted by too much exposure to western capitalist ideas; so began the persecution of the educated (doctors, lawyers, the military, and the police who had worked for the Lon Nol government) with anyone suspected of being a traitor to the cause “taken care of.” Schooling and religion were outlawed and people were placed in communes and required to partake of re-education programs.
Attempts at agricultural reform led to famine countrywide with an increased number of deaths by starvation and disease. The raping of young girls, military conscription of boys, and teenagers sent to work camps became commonplace; the soldiers of the Khmer Rouge took what they wanted and the government engaged in a policy of genocide as it sought to eliminate anyone suspected of not being a true follower. Entire families were killed to make sure that survivors and children of men already taken would not rise up in revenge. During a four year period from 1975-1979, the Khmer Rouge, in a systematic and brutal program of genocide, executed almost two million people.
It is rare to meet someone in Cambodia who did not lose friends or family during the regime of the Khmer Rouge. Peap, a young man I met who worked on the boat, shared his family’s story of hardship and death at the hands of the regime. In contrast, Sam, the driver of my tuk-tuk who took us to the market and on a city tour of Phnom Penh, said he didn’t blame the soldiers of the Khmer Rouge as they were following orders to save their own lives and those of their families. I will admit to being surprised at his comment; the sheer brutality of the regime bears testimony to the evil and greed that are a part of the human condition. What if soldiers refused to follow the orders of a totalitarian government when they were ordered to destroy and kill? What would the world look like then?
The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, seven miles outside of downtown Phnom Penh, was the scene of horrific violence as thousands of men, women, and children were brutally murdered by the Pol Pot regime. (This was not the only site of Killing Fields.) Victims were rounded up, often tortured first in prison, and then executed and buried in mass graves. My visit of the site was emotional, sobering, and even frightening. I share these photos in memory...
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is the former prison (S-21) where approximately 20,000 people were interrogated, tortured, and subsequently killed, either there or at the Killing Fields.
Bou Meng- one of the very few survivors at the prison
First They Killed My Father - A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
(suggested reading)
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