Khmer Rouge in Cambodia
Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge, «kuh MEHR ROOZH», was a Cambodian Communist movement.
The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. It sought to turn
Cambodia into a Communist state based on peasant society. Pol Pot led the
group for much of its existence. Over 11/2 million people were killed or died
of mistreatment under the Khmer Rouge.
Khmer is the name of the people of Cambodia. Rouge is the French word
for red. Red is often associated with Communism. A group of Cambodian
Communists founded the Khmer Rouge in the 1950's. In the 1960’s, Pol Pot
organized the group to fight Cambodia’s government. In 1975, Khmer Rouge
troops captured Phnom Penh, the nation’s capital. The Khmer Rouge took
control of Cambodia. The new government renamed the country Democratic
Kampuchea. Pol Pot served as the secretary-general of the Communist Party
of Kampuchea. In 1976, he became the country’s prime minister.
The Khmer Rouge sought to change the country into a classless state. It
abolished banks, currency, foreign trade, and private property. It outlawed
all religions. The regime forced millions of city dwellers to move to work
camps in the countryside. The Khmer Rouge enforced its rule by executions,
torture, and other forms of terror.
In 1979, Vietnamese troops and Cambodian groups opposed to the Khmer
Rouge captured Phnom Penh. Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge troops fled into the
jungles of northern Cambodia. Throughout the 1980's, the Khmer Rouge
carried on guerrilla warfare against the new government that the Vietnamese
had installed.
In 1989, Vietnam completed the withdrawal of its military forces from
Kampuchea. The country then resumed the name Cambodia. In 1990, the
Khmer Rouge took part in peace negotiations with the Vietnamese-backed
government and two non-Communist groups. In 1991, it signed a cease-fire
agreement. But some Khmer Rouge groups rejected the agreement and
continued fighting. The Khmer Rouge gradually weakened. Opposing factions
split from it. Many of its members defected to the government. In 1997, one
of the factions captured Pol Pot. He died in its custody in 1998. By 1999, the
Khmer Rouge movement came to an end. In 2004, Cambodia's National
Assembly approved the creation of a special international court to try
surviving Khmer Rouge leaders. The first Khmer Rouge leader to stand trial
was Kaing Guek Eav, who had run a prison where an estimated 17,000
people died. In 2010, he was convicted of war crimes, crimes against
humanity, murder, and torture. In 2012, he was sentenced to life in prison.
Source: http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar749751&st=khmer+rouge
Source :
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=khmer+rouge+chart&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1280&bih=909&tbm=isch&tbnid=iYB3mSfzfJekfM:&imgrefurl=http:
//khmernz.blogspot.com/2009/01/cambodias-first-khmer-rouge-trial-
to.html&docid=4bdqr1W3RXWa2M&imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kWKqQEHEdf0/SXTtvJoManI/AAAAAAAAUc4/XQmErmIG50I/s400/2.jpg
&w=350&h=232&ei=hn_LUMG7C6vNigLz4ICoDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=474&vpy=135&dur=8135&hovh=183&hovw=276&tx=166&ty=83&sig=
109284694692132231425&page=1&tbnh=144&tbnw=217&start=0&ndsp=34&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0,i:96
Read the article below OR click on this link and watch the
video of this interview :
http://www.euronews.com/2012/10/03/former-khmer-rouge-soldierfaces-up-to-past/
Former Khmer Rouge Soldier Faces Up to Past
Welcome to Kampong Thom, cradle of Pol Pot, the infamous Khmer Rouge leader.
We are here to meet Chin Meth, on her journey through history.
Enrolled by the Khmer Rouge at the age of 17, she has decided to be a witness against
a former Khmer Rouge leader on trial.
“When I come back to my native village, I feel sad because I’ve lost all I had here,” she
says.
Just like her village, Chin Meth still bears the marks of that painful era. “My mother was
dead. I was brought up by my aunt, and then I was called to be a Khmer Rouge soldier.
When I came home, all my relatives were dead. My uncle, my great-aunt, and the 20
friends who had been enrolled with me,” she says.
Chin Meth’s life changed drastically in 1974, when she was recruited by the Khmer
Rouge along with all the other young people in her village.
She didn’t yet know she was about to serve a regime of terror which would lead to the
death of some two million Cambodians – around one fifth of the country’s population.
Chin Meth and her fellow female recruits were “re-educated” by the party to serve the
revolution.
“They trained us to be tough, not to think about our relatives, or our parents,” she says.
“We had to sacrifice everything, including our personal belongings.”
Chin Meth was then taught how to use weapons. On the battlefield, her female unit was
in charge of carrying ammunition, and evacuating the wounded.
When the Khmer Rouge moved on Phnom Penh in 1975, the women were in charge of
cleaning up the houses of those chased from their homes. “When I was cleaning up the
people’s belongings, I saw dead bodies in the houses,” she says.
Source:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Chin+Meth&hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1280&bih=909&tbm=isch&tbnid=vKbkqJGFVlKe2M:&imgrefurl=htt
p://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/livefeed-video-grab-shows-chin-meth-a-khmer-rouge-survivor-newsphoto/88916978&docid=A3V-ZvD9K82nIM&itg=1&imgurl=http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/88916978-livefeed-video-grab-showschin-meth-a-khmergettyimages.jpg%253Fv%253D1%2526c%253DIWSAsset%2526k%253D2%2526d%253DX7WJLa88Cweo9HktRLaNXrB38aLoUxE
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99&ei=47PLULmrD6qWjAKH8YCgAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=125&dur=3877&hovh=184&hovw=274&tx=130&ty=88&sig=10
9284694692132231425&page=1&tbnh=126&tbnw=188&start=0&ndsp=38&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:87
“The Khmer Rouge soldiers evacuated the town over three days. Everyone had to leave.
There were people who didn’t want to leave their belongings behind, and old people who
didn’t want to or couldn’t leave their homes. They were killed on the spot.”
She was then sent to work in the fields by the Khmer regime. Conditions were extremely
harsh. “At first, when we worked in the rice fields, we were well fed. But then we were
given only a bit of rice, mixed with tree roots, maize or swamp cabbage. My group
started to rebel.”
As a result, she was sent to Phnom Penh’s infamous Tuol Sleng prison, otherwise
known as S21. More than 12,000 people died in this former school that Pol Pot’s regime
turned into a prison camp.
“This picture was taken when I was arrested, I was 19,” she says, pointing out her
mugshot among hundreds of others on the wall.
“This is my friend from the same village as me, and this is another friend. This one was
the group leader. They’re all dead.”
“I was held captive here, there were three of us in here, for nearly a month,” she says,
pointing out a tiny cell.
“I could hear the sound of blows and screams coming from upstairs. That’s where I was
interrogated and tortured. I still have the scars.”
She survived the death camp and was sent to work in another camp, called S24, which
is now a prison. She spent two years there, along with women and children, half of
whom did not survive the working conditions.
“It was hell, worse than death. I worked the fields, I was tortured, I built dams, I dug
dykes. We pulled the cart instead of the oxen to plough the fields. My feet were full of
sores, my face was covered with skin disease. We were so thin that when we crouched,
our knees reached up over our heads,” she says.
When the Vietnamese invaded and took over Phnom Penh in 1979, the Khmer Rouge
forced her to flee to the mountains with them. She was captured by the Vietnamese a
year later, and then released.
After years of silence, Chin Meth decided to face up to the past by bearing witness at the
trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders.
The first opened in 2009. She was the first female survivor to testify against
Duch, former head of the S21 and S24 camps.
“It takes time to forget past sorrows,” she says. “I can’t forget. Even though the court has
condemned former Khmer Rouge leaders, until this day, I haven’t forgotten anything.”
For a while, Chin Meth lived in fear of reprisals from relatives of those who were put on
trial.
It is the price to pay, she says, to be rehabilitated as a member of the Cambodian
community, and help build a better future for her country.
She will be called as a witness again at future trials. “It’s important to win the trials
against those who are still alive, so that Cambodians and the new generations know the
truth about what happened,” she says.
“And it will set an example for today’s leaders, so they don’t follow in the steps of
the Khmer Rouge.”
Many Cambodian still bear the weight of the past.
Source: http://www.euronews.com/2012/10/03/former-khmer-rouge-soldier-faces-up-to-past/
Click here to see a slide show about the rule of the Khmer
Rouge and those who were tried for crimes as a result.
There are some very disturbing images in this slide show,
so you are welcome to skip this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/17/khmer-rouge-trial-opens-i_n_167483.html
Click this link and play the six minute video called “The Last Words.” It’s
about Dith Pran and his experience during the Cambodian genocide. A
movie was made about Pran’s life and scenes from the movie are
included in this short piece.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/k/khmer_rouge/index.html
Cambodia's slow recovery from Khmer Rouge
MATTHEW SMEAL NOVEMBER 13, 2006
"I want to make my country safe
for my people," says
Cambodian Aki Ra. It’s a nice
sentiment but when the
story behind those words is
known, it takes on a
whole new meaning.
Cambodia is littered with
landmines. It is
estimated that between six
million and 11 million
mines are still active and in the
ground. Furthermore,
countless unexploded ordnance
(UXO) including bombs,
mortars, grenades and bullets
remains. Much of it was
originally connected to trip wires
and rigged as booby
traps.
It is estimated that 800 people
are killed or wounded as
a result of this ordnance in
Cambodia every year.
Put another way, two or three
people will step on a
landmine or walk through a trip
wire, every single day.
A living example of the continual plight affecting Cambodia is Sopphart, a man I met on
my recent trip to Cambodia. Sopphart comes from Poipet, in Cambodia’s north. One day,
while collecting firewood with his older brothers, Sopphart stepped on a mine that blew
off his foot.
Hearing the explosion, his brothers, who were a short
distance away, ran towards him to help. As they did, one of
them ran through a tripwire connected to a fragmentation
grenade. That grenade killed his brothers instantly and a
fragment from the grenade blinded Sopphart in one eye.
Within seconds, Sopphart had lost his foot, his eye and his
two brothers.
Like all Cambodians alive at the time, Aki Ra became part of
Pol Pot’s extreme communist experiment that tried to turn
Cambodia into a worker’s paradise. When the Khmer Rouge
seized power on 17 April 1975, the cities and towns were
evacuated and all residents, including Aki Ra and his family,
were moved into labour camps.
By the time he was five years old, the Khmer Rouge had killed
both of Aki Ra’s parents. Orphaned, he was conscripted into the Khmer Rouge. By age
ten, he was a soldier. The Khmer Rouge greatly exploited the innocence of children who,
in their eyes, were unspoiled by old ways and western ideas. “They had my innocence in
their hands and were able to warp it any way they chose,” Aki Ra said. “I came to accept
their ways more and more.”
The Vietnamese entered Cambodia in 1979 and
rapidly overthrew the Khmer Rouge. Strong
resistance was encountered in some areas, however,
and it wasn’t until 1983 that Aki Ra was captured.
Like the Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese were
desperate for soldiers and Aki Ra was subsequently
conscripted by the Vietnamese to fight the remaining
Khmer Rouge factions.
In 1989, the Vietnamese withdrew from Cambodia,
leaving the "cleanup operation" to the restored
Cambodian Army. Aki Ra entered his third fighting
force. Fortunately, Aki Ra was linked to United
Nations Peacekeepers who had come in to begin demining operations. “I worked with the UN for three
years until they left Cambodia. I decided that the best
step for me was to carry on working to clear the mines. However, I did not have the use
of the specialist equipment and had to make do with more simple tools which I have
mastered,” Aki Ra said.
Now in his mid thirties, Aki Ra has dedicated his
life to the removal of mines and UXO throughout
Cambodia. Having collected bits and pieces over the
years and with easy access to all manner of
weaponry and war relics, Aki Ra turned his growing
collection into a museum hoping to educate tourists
and locals alike about the horrors of landmines and
UXO.
As a side issue, Aki Ra and his wife Hourt act as
guardians to many landmine victims, who stay with
them at their home and museum in Siem Reap. Incidentally, one of those children is
Sopphart. A fund was established in early 2006 to ensure the children in Aki Ra and
Hourt’s care will have a chance at a university education if they choose. The fund has
been so successful that a second phase has begun to benefit other landmine victims.
Aki Ra’s work is becoming well known throughout Cambodia. When landmines or UXO
are found, villagers send word to him and Aki Ra simply travels to the village, goes to
where the mine was detonated and finds and disarms all the others. Having spent so
much of his early life laying landmines, and with his UN experience, Aki Ra knows
instinctively the patterns they were laid in, and thus where to look. On a good day, Aki
Ra will find 100 to 200 mines.
The sheer volume of landmines in Cambodia, and
the devastation they have brought Cambodia, is
mind-boggling. Aki Ra’s dedication to the removal
of every mine and unexploded ordnance is in a
realm beyond admirable. Through sheer
determination he hopes to make his country safe
for its people. While he cannot possibly hope to do
it alone, it is people such as Aki Ra who give cause
to hope that one day Cambodia will be able to put
the reign of Khmer Rouge behind it, and look to a
brighter future.
Post Script: In early 2005 Aki Ra
accidentally inhaled dynamite, bringing
him close to death and leaving him with
severe health problems. It has done little to slow him down but rather
strengthened his resolve to make his country safe. More can be found out
about Aki Ra at his website:www.akiramineaction.com.
Source: http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=1953
Click this link to see a slideshow onthe Cambodia
Landmine Museum :
http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/history.html
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Land-mines: A deadly inheritance
Naturally curious, children are likely to
pick up strange objects, such as the
infamous toy-like 'butterfly' mines that
Soviet forces spread by the millions in
Afghanistan.
Land-mines represent "an insidious and
persistent danger" to children affected by
war, says a new United Nations report on
the impact of armed conflict on children, by
Graça Machel, the UN Secretary-General's
Expert on the Impact of Armed Conflict on
Children.
Children are particularly vulnerable to landmines in a number of ways. If they are too
young to read or are illiterate, signs posted
to warn them of the presence of mines are
useless. Also, children are far more likely to
die from their mine injuries than are adults.
Of those maimed children who survive, few
will receive prostheses that keep up with the
continued growth of their stunted limbs.
The report calls on governments and the
international community to design mine
awareness programmes and physical
rehabilitation programmes with children's
needs in mind. The report urges that
humanitarian mine clearance be made a
standard part of peace agreements. Above
all, it calls on governments to enact
immediate legislation banning the
production, use, trade and stockpiling of
land-mines and to support the campaign for
a worldwide ban. Some 41 nations are now
on record as being in favour of the
permanent elimination of land-mines.
Photo: The civil war in Nicaragua was
over before he was born, but it cost 10year-old Marvin his leg all the same.
Landmines are "indiscriminate weapons
triggered by innocents and unsuspecting
passers-by", says the Machel report. It
recommends that countries and companies
profiting from landmines sales be required
to help pay for mine clearance. ©
"Land-mines are uniquely savage in the
history of modern conventional warfare not
only because of their appalling individual
impact, but also their long-term social and
economic destruction," says Ms. Machel.
Children in at least 68 countries are today
threatened by what may be the most toxic
pollution facing mankind — the
contamination by mines of the land they
live on. Over 110 million land-mines of
various types — plus millions more
unexploded bombs, shells and grenades —
remain hidden around the world, waiting to
be triggered by the innocent and
unsuspecting, the report says. So common
are mines in Cambodia that they are now
used for fishing, to protect private property
and even to settle private disputes.
Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia have
suffered 85 per cent of the world's landmine casualties. Overall, African children
live on the most mine-plagued continent,
with an estimated 37 million mines
embedded in the soil of at least 19 countries.
Angola alone has an estimated 10 million
land-mines and an amputee population of
70,000, of whom 8,000 are children. Since
May 1995 children have made up about half
the victims of the 50,000-100,000 antipersonnel mines laid in Rwanda.
Once laid, a mine may remain active for up
to 50 years. Unless vigorous action is taken,
mines placed today will still be killing and
maiming people well into the middle of the
next century. In just one district of Viet
Nam 300 children have died, 42 have lost
one or more limbs, and 16 have been
blinded as a result of land-mines laid during
the Viet Nam war. As one Khmer Rouge
general put it, a land-mine is the most
excellent of soldiers, for it is "ever
courageous, never sleeps, never misses."
Land-mines pose particular dangers for
children. Naturally curious, children are
likely to pick up strange objects, such as the
infamous toy-like 'butterfly' mines that
Soviet forces spread by the millions in
Afghanistan. In northern Iraq, Kurdish
children have used round mines as wheels
for toy trucks, while in Cambodia, children
use B40 anti-personnel mines to play
'boules', notes the report.
Land-mines also have more catastrophic
effects on children, whose small bodies
succumb more readily to the horrific
injuries mines inflict. In Cambodia, an
average of 20 per cent of children injured by
mines and unexploded ordnance die from
their injuries. Children who manage to
survive explosions are likely to be more
seriously injured than adults, and often
permanently disabled. Because a child's
bones grow faster than the surrounding
tissue, a wound may require repeated
amputation and a new artificial limb as
often as every six months — although the
prosthesis is not likely to be available.
Moreover, competing demands for scarce
medical services also mean that children
injured by mines seldom receive the care
they deserve. Only 10-20 per cent of
children disabled by mines in El Salvador
receive any rehabilitative therapy.
Land-mines also strike insidiously at a wartorn country's reconstruction and
development. The widespread practice of
mining agricultural land has led to
malnutrition, even to famine and starvation.
Mines laid along roads and tracks prevent
the safe repatriation of refugees and impede
the delivery of aid. Cambodian farmland has
been so severely contaminated by mines, for
example, that only 2,435 families were able
to take up allocations of land out of the
85,000 originally scheduled.
"Clearing a field of mines gives life back to a
local community," says Ms. Machel. "It
gives people the chance to grow their own
crops rather than rely on international
assistance. In short, it restores human
dignity and promotes human security."
Protecting children from land-mines calls
for a major international commitment to
large-scale mine clearance and the
development of child-oriented programmes
for mine awareness and physical
rehabilitation, the report states. It is
essential for children in high-risk areas to
receive more innovative education in mine
awareness by utilizing, for example, childto-child approaches, role-playing and the
use of survivors as educators.
Greater attention must be assigned to
training local mine clearance teams and to
adapting one-size-fits-all international
techniques to local needs, the report urges.
Mine removal is a lengthy and expensive
business. Weapons that cost as little as $3
each to manufacture can cost up to $1,000
to remove. Land-mines can be blithely
spread at rates of over 1,000 per minute,
but it may take a skilled expert an entire day
just to clear by hand 20-50 square metres of
mine-contaminated land.
Few war-torn nations are able to mount
such programmes alone. The UN has
established a voluntary trust fund through
which countries can share the burden of
mine clearance. To date, countries have
pledged $22 million towards the UN goal of
$75 million. The report recommends that
"countries and companies that have profited
from the sale of mines should be especially
required to contribute to funds designated
for humanitarian mine clearance and mine
awareness programmes. Measures to reduce
the proliferation and trade of land-mines,
such as consumer boycotts, should be
explored."
While it may take decades to clear away
most of the land-mines that contaminate
the earth, a start has been made. The first
organized UN de-mining operation began in
Afghanistan in 1990 with a single 24-man
local team, supported by expatriate
advisers. Today, the programme employs
some 3,000 Afghan de-miners on 48
clearance crews, along with 16 mine
awareness teams.
Source: http://www.unicef.org/graca/mines.htm