Remembering The Khmer Rouge

On April 17th, 1975 the city of Phnom Penh celebrated the arrival of the Khmer Rouge. Their arrival heralded the end of a brutal civil war. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pots (birth name Saloth Sar), would rule the country of Cambodia for a brief four years.

Believing in a communist agrarian ideal stylized “Angkar”, the Khmer Rouge would devastate the country of Cambodia and kill roughly 20% of the population. Cities were evacuated, intellectuals, doctors, teachers, business men and women, anyone suspected of harboring anti “Angkar” thoughts was put to death. Democratic Kampuchea, as the Khmer Rouge called it, represents one of the bloodiest, most violent, and cruel periods of human history.

Allow me to compare some numbers. During the Holocaust, roughly 6 million Jews (and other minority groups) were killed, roughly 2/3 of the Jewish population in Europe. During Stalin’s reign in Soviet Russia historians estimate that 700,000 people died due to “purges”. During the Reign of Terror estimates range from 16,00 to 40,000 people died. While the Holocaust still dramatically overshadows the Khmer Rouge’s genocide killed an estimated 1.4 to 2.2 million people ¼ to 1/5 of the population, roughly half from execution and half from starvation and disease.

In 1979 the Vietnamese ended the rule of the Khmer Rouge and established the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge fled to the countryside and maintained a government until 1993. The world community recognized the Khmer Rouge, not the newly established government. The Khmer Rouge continued to hold a seat in the United Nations until 1993 when the world community officially recognized the new government after nation wide elections.

As of this writing, only one of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge has been punished for their crimes against humanity. “Duch” the head of the infamous S.21 or Tuol Sleng Prison Camp has been convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and a plethora of other equally vicious acts. He is the only leader to have expressed any remorse for his actions. Pol Pots died in 1998 while under house arrest before being convicted of any crimes. The remaining five leaders currently indicted by the ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia) have all plead not guilty.

Over the past few days I have visited both Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek (the killing fields outside Phnom Penh). Similar to the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge kept detailed photographic and written records of all the prisoners who stayed at Tuol Sleng. These images, as well as victim testimonies (what few survived, out of ~17,00 to 20,000 prisoners 7 survived) bear witness to the horrible crimes that happened.

Choeung Ek memorializes the victims of the Khmer Rouge. A massive pagoda displays the skulls and bones of the victims for the public to venerate and view. A “killing tree” still stands where guards bludgeoned infants to death by swinging them into a tree by their feet. Mass graves containing roughly 9000 bodies have been found, exhumed, and displayed. It remains as a grisly reminder to the actions that took place during those years.

Going forward it is easy to dismiss all of these as the atrocities as a bygone, but that simply is not the case. Millions die every year in Africa due to similar barbarity, The Sudan in past years, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and other nations come to mind. The government of North Korea is eerily reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge (mass starvation, totalitarian and autocratic rule, no freedom of speech). I have no answer or solution, but would like to call to witness what we so easily forget.