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Published: January 14th 2009
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The first thing that you notice when you enter into Cambodia is the “Khmer smile”. Everyone is very friendly and smiles all the time. It immediately puts you in a good mood! It also makes you wonder how such a friendly nation could have had such a violent past. To write about the country and to read about how it is now you need to understand some of the countries history.
In Ancient times Cambodians where fierce warriors and this lead to the expansion the Khmer empire the centre of which was Angkor Wat. Gradually the Khmer empire crumbled and the country was harassed and fought over by the Thais and the Vietnamese who saw the country as part of their strategic advantage in the region.
In the 1860's Cambodia was ruled by a king who was installed by the Thai government called King Norodom. Far from being the good puppet he sought protection from France, to stop the Thais and Vietnamese imposing their will over the country as such Cambodia was established as a French protectorate. This continued until WW2 when the country was invaded by the Japanese. After WW2 Cambodia was set up as an independent state with a
constitutional monarchy.
The close proximity of the Vietnam war and the use of Cambodia as a part of the Ho Chi Min trail, lead to division in the country and soon the monarchy was overthrown by a pro western general. This is a major turning point in Cambodia's history as the General Lon Nol allowed the US to conduct bombing raids on the country. These raids and the Vietnamese influence lead to the formation of the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge were a communist group who took up and armed struggle in order to “liberate” the country. Continued bombing and involvement of other foreign powers such as China and Nth Vietnam saw the Khmer rouge increase in number and strength.
In 1975 the Khmer rouge overthrew the government in Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge had seen their ranks swell in number a fact which is largely attributed to the increased bombing by the US. When the Khmer Rouge took over the changed the name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea the Khmer rouge were lead by Pol Pot and were heavily backed by China. Following their take over of the country they marched the entire population into the countryside
to work on rural development projects, abandoning cities as they were seen as centralised bases of greed. They attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century. They discarded Western medicine, destroyed temples, libraries, and anything considered western. Money was abandoned and the economy fell back onto a largely bartering model Any person with trained skills, doctors, lawyers, teachers, members of the former administration and army were targeted and murdered. It is estimated that over a million Cambodians, out of a total population of 8 million, died from executions, overwork, starvation and disease. While possibly another million fled the country.
In a demonstration of their ridiculousness the Khmer Rouge then started to attack Vietnam who was vastly superior. As a result the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia stripping the Khmer Rouge of power and put an end to the genocide in the resulting ten year war. The UN took control and this leads us to the state of Cambodia today where the former Khmer Rouge run one of the most corrupt countries on earth which is home to some of the best kindest people in the world.
Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and used to be
Killing fields
Clothes of the victims can still be seen on the ground at these killing fields one of the most dangerous cities on earth, in the past people would have impromptu fireworks displays often involving their AK-47's as the chief firework launcher. Nowadays Phnom Penh isn't as dangerous but it isn't that nice either. We spent most of our time there visiting various sites such as the Royal Palace and the national Museum. On the outskirts of town there is a place called the killing fields. In this area the Khmer rouge had a prison camp. People were brought here from Phnom Penh by trucks, when they arrived they were either put into one of the prisons or they were killed immediately. The Khmer rouge told the soldiers working here not to waste their precious bullets and as a result many of the people taken here were bludgeoned to death with sticks and axe handles. Today the area is a memorial to the over 8000 people who were killed and buried in mass graves at the site.
As a memorial to the victims they have erected a huge Buddhist building which contains over 8000 skulls. The building is nearly 20 metres high and is a chilling reminder of what happened here. Whilst walking around the site
the site of victims clothes half buried in the ground is very chilling. A local school is located next to the site and the sounds from all of the kids playing serves as a reminder that although the past is terribly disturbing there is an optimistic future for the Cambodian people.
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