Cambodian Genocide

It has been a long history for Cambodia, years and years of fighting, consistently different rulers taking over. But the worst story that Cambodian's have ever endured was the Pol Pot genocide that occurred about 32 years ago. If you think about it that is not that long ago, I was born just a few years after the horrid event ended. It is sickening to think that not that long ago masses of people were still being tortured and killed while the rest of the world did nothing to stop it.

Photo provided by Harald Hoyer

I had not even known of the genocide until I traveled to Cambodia last year and saw the killing fields myself. It's such a shock to see the horrible things people can do others, especially their own people. Today there is a monument that stands in the killing fields, an area that was used as an execution camp during the reign of Pol Pot with the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians). So many people we killed there, including mothers and babies by methods that are too torturous for me to even say.

Now there are huge grass covered sunken holes in the ground from where the executed were buried together and bodies eroded with corrosive chemicals. Today the remains of the bodies have been removed and hundreds of skulls line the shelves of the monument in order to remember those who suffered. Although the killing fields is one of the most popular sights of the Pol Pot genocide there are many other places in Cambodia where innocent people were murdered.

Photo provided by erik.w.davis

An average school in the capital of Phnom Penh was turned into a jail during his reign where they created tiny cells and torture chambers. Any and all former teachers, lawyers, doctors, monks, government officials, or anyone thought to be a threat were questioned and killed. Pol Pot evacuated all cities and forced the people to live and work to death on the farms, cutting all Cambodian's off from the outside world.

When traveling through Cambodia and before I had even seen the killing fields, I bought a book from a young Cambodian girl. The book is called "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung. The story is a true story told by Loung as a young girl and how she survived and escaped during Pol Pot's reign. This story really allows you to understand the horrors the people of Cambodia had to endure. I have never cried when reading a book before but you cannot help feeling for Loung and her family.

That was another thing that amazed me while traveling through Cambodia, after I read that book I couldn't believe how happy and nice all Cambodian's were after they suffer so much. I guess that is why they are happy people because no matter what else they suffer it cannot be as bad as what their ancestors endured.