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Published: March 28th 2007
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Genocide. In a Utopian society, this word would be solely a collection of vowels and consenants forming a ficticious word. Unfortunately, our world is anything but Utopian and the people of Cambodia are far too aware of this sense of idealism.
Americans had spent the early 70's (and $7 Billion) secretly bombing Cambodia for their involvement in the Viet Nam war. As if the thousands that were killed were not enough for an already impoverished country, from 1975-1979, a group called the Khmer Rouge, overthrew the government in Cambodia and reaked terror on all citizens within firing distance. The capital city of Phnom Penh became home to vicious murders and heinous atrocities. All citizens had to leave the city immediately, with only the clothes on their backs and the food that they could carry with them. The money they carried with them was used as toilet paper, as currency became irrelevent to the Khmer Rouge. There were massive lines of people evacuating the city, walking dozens of miles each day with small children in 40 degree heat. They had to clear various check points. Anybody who was found to be associated with the previous government administration was murdered immediately.
Those who had a formal education, teachers, accountants and even students also became useless to the Pol Pot Regime (the leader of the Khmer Rouge) and were executed. These executions would take place on the side of the road in front of the victims families, who were witnessing their inevitable demise as well. Dressed in black shirts and pants, with black rubber sandals, the Khmer Rouge posessed the physical attributes of humans, but their acts were anything but.
Those who were lucky enough to evacuate the city of Phnom Pen and find a home in villages were subject to hours and hours of hard manual labour in the scorching hot sun and faced starvation on a daily basis. Living in complete fear, they were forced to keep their eyes and head down and their mouths closed. Making eye contact with a Khmer Rouge soldier was reason enough to be killed. Most were seperated from their families and although never lost complete hope that they would see them and hold them again, had to learn to assume and accept the worst. Each day was a struggle for their own survival. Those who were not seperated from their loved ones, were
not allowed to show any type of affection for one another, as holding your spouses hand, or even sharing a warm glance of affection with them was reason enough to have be executed. Children were no exception. The only difference with them is that they were spared 1 hour a day of manual labor, only to be mentally tortured with severe brainwashing and propaganda. At the tender age of 5, children were old enough to be trained how to hold a gun and how to kill.
Surprisingly, rice production increased dramatically over the 4 years that the Khmer Rouge were in power, however the people did not see any of this and many starved to death. The Khmer Rouge were selling the rice to the Chinese for more guns and other weapons. Over the 4 years of hell in Cambodia, over 1.7 million people out of 7 million were murdered or starved to death.
On the outskirts of Cambodias largest city is a place called the Killing Fields. The name speaks for itself as it is a place where there are a number of mass graves and remains of those who were murdered during those 4 years of
torture. Pickup trucks would bring dozens of people here and have them kneel at the opening of mass graves that had already been dug and which were already partially filled with other victims, some of whom were family, friends and strangers. The one thing that all victims shared in common was the fact that they were all Cambodian.
What I saw on my visit to the Killing Fields, was like nothing I'd ever seen or felt before. No Hollywood movie had portrayed such a horrendous site before, or been able to evoke such overwhelming emotions of sadness and helplessness out of me.
Upon first entry into the fields, there is a large temple that is home to thousands of human skulls. These skulls are sorted into age and sex categories. A large percentage of the skulls are cracked in. These are the skulls of the unfortunate victims who were executed when the Khmer Rouge were trying to save money and opted to beat in their skulls with objects rather than waste a bullet on one of their own peoples death. While there, I could not help but to think of the book that I had just read. The
book is called "First they Killed My Father" (I highly recommend it to anybody who is interested to learn any more) and is the story told by a survivor of the Genocide who was only 5 years old in 1975 and lived an upper class life in Phnom Pen, with her happy and loving family before her life became a living nightmare. She describes the horrific scenes that she would witness over the years, that no adult should ever witness, let alone a small child. She talks about the strong bond with her family and how they attempt to remain together for as long as possible. The tragic story continues to describe how they are slowly taken away from each other, one by one without being able to even say good-bye. Alone, she is forced to show love for those who have ruined her life and killed much of her family, otherwise, she too will be killed.
She described mass graves such as the one that I stood before and I could not help but to think if her own fathers last breaths were taken here, or if one of the thousands of skulls or bones that remained belonged
to him. While I had never met this girl, my emotions were so amplified that I felt this incredible feeling of HATE inside my blood. It is a feeling that I feel fortunate to have never felt before, but could not mistake it for anything else. It was a hate towards Pol Pot (the leader of the Khmer Rouge) and all those who ruthlessly killed and tortured others. The most unfortunate thing about this, is that the UN has been unable to find those responsible for these atrocities accountable. The Camodian Gov't continues to stall in finding those in the Pol Pot Administration who have been on trial for years, accountable, making it very difficult for the scars of Cambodians to heal today.
That day (and the days that followed), I felt horrible about how such a wonderful country could go through such a horrific period of time, less than 30 years ago while the rest of the world stood by and watched. While I hoped to find solace in the thought that something of this magnitude could never occur today, I knew that I was thinking in a Utopian state of mind, as it occurs as we speak
in the beautiful land of Africa.
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