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Published: August 13th 2014
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During the genocide of Cambodia between 1.7-2.7 million people were killed by Pol Pot and his regime.
I’m going to start this blog backwards, the last words they said to me as I left the killing fields we’re “Tell your friends, tell your friends.” So that’s what I’m doing. I asked my guide how did Cambodians feel about tourists coming here, she said they wanted people to come here, they want the world to know what happened here and to make sure it never happens again.
When the Khmer Rouge (the equivalent of the Nazi Party) seized power in 1975, they began an unimaginable reign of terror. Everyone from the Capital Phnom Phen was forced out into the country to work for the regime, working all day, 12 months of the year without a break, they would receive a handful of rice each day. Pol Pot became paranoid and began the systematic slaughter of millions here. To this day no one knows the exact numbers, but estimates usually rage from 1.7-2.7 million people were killed. It’s believed one quarter of the population were killed. One of the biggest problems was Pol Pot didn’t want anyone to be smarter than
him, so he killed off all the intellectuals, to this day there is a shortage of academic human resources in the country.
There was not one killing field there were hundreds all over Cambodia the whole country became one massive killing field. The one I visited today is believed to be the largest; Choeung Ek. Having been to Auschwitz I thought this would be quite similar. Although there was a very solemn mood here, the staff here were smiling and telling jokes with each other (not in a disrespectful way, more on this later) The area is mostly a large number of holes in the ground, holes that were once mass graves, t's believed there are 126 in this area alone. All of the original buildings in the area were destroyed by the survivors. In the middle of the complex is a huge memorial, which displays the remains of about 8500 people. These were collected by people who survived the tragedy, they excavated the graves and put them on display as evidence of what happened here and to remind the world to never let it happen again. I did wonder how I would feel, if I died there and
my bones were put on display. Eventually I decided I would want them on display so people would know what happened. Many of the guides there learned English just so they could tell people what happened.
While in Seim Reap I went to the War museum there, I had a guide who lost a leg to a land mine. Once The Khmer Rouge was over thrown the effects of the war lasted for many years, and to this day there are still many on going issues the one of the biggest is land mines. There were a large number of land mines and mortar shells in the area. Villagers desperate for money would often collect live shells not knowing what they were in the hope they could sell them for money. So there needed to be a large campaign to warn people about the dangers of them. Princess Dianna visited Cambodia to raise awareness of the issues, this led to a large increase in international aid to the area. Most of the major cities and the surrounding areas have been cleared of mines however there may still be up to 6 million land mines in some parts of country.
In 1997 the International Campaign Against land Mines was awarded the noble peace prize, I can see why, so many innocent children lost limbs decades after the war ended. Here is there website,
http://www.icbl.org/en-gb/home.aspx Cambodia holds another sad record the record for the most amputees per capita. I asked my guide what did the people do to the soldiers of the Khmer Rouge, they said they let them go rather than hunting them down as there had been too many lives lost already. As late as 1997 Cambodia tried to bring the leaders of the regime to justice, its still an ongoing process, just last week two of them were convicted. I think what happened here was worse than what the Nazis did, for the most part the Nazis just took people to the Gas chambers (which was an horrific way to die) but The Khmer Rouge tortured people for months on end.
If you were an alien that landed here and walked round the streets of Cambodia you would never know of the horror of what happened here. For the most part people seem really happy, there are children playing in the streets and laughing, people stop and
talk to each other, despite being one of the poorest countries in the world and having one of the worst genocides in history, today most people seem to be surprisingly happy. I asked someone about this, he didn’t speak very good English I think what he was trying to say was that Cambodia needs to move forward in a positive way. In a country that has seem one of the greatest tragedies of all time, I believe it has also seem an amazing triumph of the human spirit.
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