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Published: April 8th 2010
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If I like it or not, when it comes to the Killing Fields of Cambodia I have to remember the History of my own country Germany.
Some people compare Pol Pot with Hitler and the Khmer Rouge with the Nazis.
So are the Killing Fields the Auschwitz of the East ?
And does this explain anything ?
The difference between a Nazi-Concentration Camp and the Killing Fields lies probably only in the way how the genocide was organized. In an industrialized country like Nazi-Germany the genocide looks different than in an underdeveloped country like Cambodia, where they did everything to save munition and where children were killed by smashing there head against a tree (see Photos in my last blog). Of course each Genocide has it's own character but in everyone once probably normal people turned into men eating monster.
And each Genocide leaves us - as normal thinking and feeling human being- speechless and head-shaking behind.
Easily we come to one old question : "How is something like this possible ?" But there is no one who can give us any answer and no matter how many books you read about it.
At the end we keep wondering how much violence people are able to commit.
The Khmer Rouge were in power for only about 4 years (3 years, 8 month and 20 days), but during this time 25%!t(MISSING)o 30%!o(MISSING)f the Cambodian population was killed. Compare this to the population of your own country. Except for the supporters of the Khmer Rouge, probably every other family can complain about the lost of one or more of their members.
Many of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge were privileged and had studied in Paris. But later when they were in power it was dangerous even to wear glasses or to be able to speak a foreign language. People had to hide any knowledge, just to prevent to be regarded as intellectual. Many people were killed just for this attribute. Everything that looked like Education was destroyed.
Once again: "How is something like this possible ?" Of course neither I have any answer but I know no one is born as a mass murderer. And I also know, for committing a genocide you need the support of many people.
Not everyone was a victim.
There were also many Cambodians who supported the Khmer Rouge. Those who give now - to a German very familiar- answers: "We didn't know anything" or "Not everything was bad with Pol Pot".
Today the victims and the killers or their supporters live sometimes in the same neighbourhood or even in the same street. Just imagine to see the murder of maybe your daughter every day in front of your house.
How awful !
But we should not forget, the violence did not start with the takeover of power by the Khmer Rouge 1975.
Cambodia was far away from being a paradies before the Khmer Rouge took over the power. The nightmare started already with the overthrow of the government by General Lon Nol 1970. During his reign many people were killed and many more were put in some kind of Concentration Camp. He was al the time strongly supported by the US-Government. Before this, the Khmer Rouge were only a small group with very limited influence but the terror of the Lon Nol Government and the US-Bombing of huge areas of the Countryside of Cambodia drove many people in the arms of
the Khmer Rouge. With the increasing US-bombing the Khmer Rouge became stronger and stronger.
At the end many Cambodian people were so desperate that they even welcomed the victory of the Khmer Rouge. But when the Khmer Rouge took over the power in Phnom Penh they behaved from the beginning as if they were occupying the capital of a foreign country and treated the inhabitants as enemies.
The suffering went on.
1979 the invasion of the Vietnames army in Cambodia put an end to the nightmare. Cambodia was liberated (yes I use the word "liberated" ). But unfortunately the war was still not over yet.
With the support from China and the hidden support from the Thai-Army the Khmer Rouge could fight a Guerilla war against the new established Government in Phnom Penh. During all this time the US-Government, the UNO and many other western countries regarded the Khmer Rouge as the true Government of Cambodia. Even when the world knew everything about the Killing Fields, they did not change there attitude. This was the age of the cold war, China and the US-Government did everything to harm Vietnam and the Soviet Union.
What a shame !
Altogether the nightmare lasted for about 30 years, that means that whole Generations grow up with the experience that violence and a violent death is something totally normal. But also after all these experience Cambodia is now a very safe country and always worth a visit.
Recommended reading:
"To the End of Hell- One Woman's Struggle to survive the Cambodias's Khmer Rouge" by Denise Affonco
in German :
"Der Deich der Witwen - Eine Frau in der Hoelle der Roten Khmer"
by Denise Affonco (first published in french)
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