Its
impossible to escape the legacy of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It is
an extremely dark and disturbing history, which reminds of us how
cruel humans can be to their fellow humans. In general Cambodians are
an extremely friendly and hospitable people who are rarely seen
without a smile on their face, which makes the Khmer Rouge era more
confusing.
The
Khmer Rouge regime came to power in 1975 after the Lon Nol regime,
which overthrew the post-colonial monarchical government of Sihanouk.
Sihanouk was quite a popular king so his overthrow in a military coup
by Lon Nol, was not popularly supported and Sihanouk took exile in
China. A lot of the Khmer Rouge leadership were educated in France
and this was where they were introduced to communism. On their return
they joined the Communist Party of Cambodia, nicknamed the Khmer
Rouge, which was aiming to seize power through a Maoist revolution
and a rurally led guerilla war.
Their
power base was among poor rural peasants and they held their own in
some rural areas, but never really threatened the central power base
of the government. However this mostly changed in 1973 when Sihanouk
seen the Khmer Rouge as his best route back to power, and probably
because Chinese persuasion, he felt that he could control the Khmer
Rouge when they took power. Thus he broadcasted a message over the
radio where he encouraged Cambodians to join the revolution and fight
for the Khmer Rouge.
Acting
on this message people began flooding into the ranks of the Khmer
Rouge and they went on an offensive against the government. Another
major recruiting tool for the Khmer Rouge was the heavy bombing of
eastern Cambodia by the American army, who were attempting to disrupt
supply lines to Viet Cong fighting in southern Vietnam. However, the
bombing largely failed and only served to heap massive destruction on
a poor, rural and innocent population. Recently released American
military files show that America dropped over 2.7 million tons worth
of explosives on Cambodian territory. To put that in perspective, the
Allies dropped just over 2 million tons worth of explosives in ALL of
world war two!! The Khmer Rouge had a strong anti-imperialist and
anti-western ideology, and thus became increasing popular after
Cambodians seen their fellow citizens coldly butchered by the
American army.
Initially
when the Khmer Rouge conquered Phnom Penh and seized power people
were celebrating in streets, primarily because it was the end of the
long bloody civil war. But soon the Khmer Rouge turned on the
citizens, particularly educated urban people. First it evacuated
everyone from Phnom Penh, telling them that the Americans were going
bomb the city and they would go back in a couple of days when it was
safe. In reality everyone was sent to work and ‘education camps’.
While here everyone was stripped of their clothes and everyone had to
wear identical pajama like clothes. They were forced to work
incredibly long hours doing agricultural work, particularly in rice
fields. However they were fed very little and most died from hunger,
exhaustion, or disease or all three.
They
were informed that it was now Year 0 and all the history that
preceded this day didn’t matter and they were building a new more
equal society, when in fact it was a type of social engineering. In
order to do this the leadership decided to kill all formally educated
Cambodians. So all doctors, teachers, artists etc. were executed,
even if you spoke English or French, or had glasses it was enough to
raise the suspicion of the Khmer Rouge organization, and this always
meant death. The Khmer Rouge taught that love was unnecessary and
separated couples, they performed forced marriages only so people
could produce children for the revolution. The Khmer Rouge knew
children could be more easily indoctrinated and controlled, and thus
used them to spy on their parents and torture prisoners.
Two of
the darkest places under the Khmer Rouge were the Killing Fields and
S-21 prison. The Killing Fields was where thousands upon thousands of
Cambodians were brought to be brutally murdered and dumped into mass
graves, most just beaten to death with blunt instruments. Having
visited S-21 I can attest to its disturbing and revolting past. Here
over 21,000 people were locked up in the most inhuman conditions
imaginable and tortured with the most brutal of instruments. Some
died under the torture and others were randomly transported to fields
and beaten to death. The conditions were so bad in S-21 that they
placed barbered wire over the front of the three story buildings so
that people could not jump from the top and commit suicide. Of the
over 21,000 men, woman and children that entered S-21 only 7 survived
and only 2 are still alive today.
I met
one of these survivors on my visit, his name is Bou Meng. He
originally joined the Khmer Rouge because of King Sihanouk's radio
message. He soon became disenfranchised with the Khmer Rouge after
the took power but kept his head down and worked hard at odd jobs in
order to survive. One day Bou Meng, his wife and two children were
rounded up and thrown into S-21. He never seen his wife and children
again, and it is believed they were brutally murdered soon after
entering. He was placed in the disgusting and inhumane prison, and
tortured so much he lost consciousness many times and nearly died.
This was all done to try force him to sign ludicrous confessions that
he worked for the CIA and KGB to try overthrow the Khmer Rouge. In
reality he was just working in a engineering school and as an artist.
One day
he was dragged into the office of Duch, the man who ran S-21 and has
just received a life sentence for his crimes, and asked to draw a
painting of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader. Bou Meng was a very
talented artist but he was told that if he didn’t draw the picture
well enough he would be killed. He done a good job and after this he
was moved to better living quarters and was kept alive so he could
continue to draw iconic pictures of the Khmer Rouge leaders. He
stayed there long enough so that when the Vietnamese attacked Phnom
Penh to overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime he was transported away with
guards and could soon escape. Today he earns very little on a state
pension and travels to S-21 nearly every day to tell his story to
visitors and sell his autobiography, as well as to visit the photo of
his wife in the museum and kiss and touch it.
Bou
Meng’s story is harrowing but not uncommon. During the Khmer Rouge
regime 2 million people died from murder, starvation, exhaustion, and
preventable diseases, and this was one-quarter of the population.
Every family experienced massive tragedy and some had to go through
harrowing experiences to survive. This has created a massive loss of
trust between Cambodian people and many psychological problems within
the population which has never been treated.
All
this happened while the west sat back and done nothing. It took the
intervention of the Vietnamese to overthrow the despicable Khmer
Rouge, both because of their crimes and no doubt for their own
benefit. The Khmer Rouge were not totally defeated and fled to
countryside to continue a civil war until the 1990s. While they
continued to attack and murder people, western countries used their
influence in the UN to insure the disposed Khmer Rouge leadership
maintained Cambodia’s seat in the UN and not the new government
installed by the Vietnamese. While one can appreciate the Vietnamese
for their intervention they continued to colonalise Cambodian for 10
years until 1989, but keeping the UN seat for the Khmer Rouge is a
ludicrous act.
Most of
Cambodia’s population is under 25 and haven’t lived under the
demented Khmer Rouge regime, but the legacy of a lack of trust as
well as the reality that most of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge were
never brought to trial still hurts. In Ireland we talk a lot about An
Gorta Mor and the legacy it left. That genocide (not a famine as
there was enough food in the country) killed 1 million and forced 1
million to emigrate, also one quarter of our population. But this
happened over 160 years ago and under a brutal colonial regime so it
is easy to explain. For Cambodians it is extremely difficult for them
to explain how their fellow Cambodians, who were overwhelmingly the
same ethnicity, who had the same religion and who spoke the same
language decided to brutally exterminate about one quarter of their
population just over 30 years ago. Most crimes against humanity occur
by whipping up a hatred of other ethnic or linguistic groups,
nationalities and/or religious groups. While obviously still a brutal
act its explanation as radical racism/sectarianism can give
some sort of closure after peace and reconciliation programmes. Cambodians can't get this type of closure and no such peace and reconciliation programmes were initiated.
Thanks
for reading.
Eric
