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The
following description is used with permission
from our RCTC Course Website:
http://www.cambodiarctc.project.mnscu.edu
WHAT
THE EXPERTS SAY:
The “Killing Fields” of Cambodia refers to the genocide
which took place in Cambodia after the takeover of power
by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime. They were in
power for four years—until 1979—when the Vietnamese,
who were engaged in an often violent border dispute
with the Khmer Rouge, finally invaded in force and seized
power from the Khmer Rouge.
The
genocide in Cambodia is unique. Out of a population
of approximately 7 million, about 2 million Cambodians
were systematically exterminated, starved, or worked
to death by the Khmer Rouge government (known to the
people as simply, “Angkar,” or “the organization”).
Over 25% of the Cambodian people died at the hands
of the “Angkar.” To put it in terms Americans will
understand, the American equivalent of the Cambodian
genocide would mean the death of 70 million Americans.
The
“Angkar’s” plan was an extreme form of Chairman Mao’s
ideal of state organization by totalitarian communes—in
addition to forcing the peasants into collective farms
with communal kitchens and barracks, Pol Pot's troops
also forcibly deported the entire urban population of
Cambodia into rural communes. In fact, the first act
of the Khmer Rouge upon taking power in Phnom Penh (a
city of about 2,000,000) was to depopulate the city,
forcing almost everyone out of the city, rounding the
city’s residents up like cattle and telling them that
they must leave for the “safety” of the countryside
for a couple of days because of anticipated American
bombing attacks.
But
it was Pol Pot’s intention to forcibly construct a “peasant
society” that would represent “the true Khmer values
of Cambodia’s glorious history,” when the Khmer empire
ruled most of Southeast Asia in the 12th
and 13th centuries. According to the famous
historian Paul Johnson, in the journal Modern Times:
There was to be "total social revolution." Everything
about the past was "anathema and must be destroyed."
It was necessary to "psychologically reconstruct
individual members of society." It entailed "stripping
away, through terror and other means, the traditional
bases, structures and forces which have shaped and guided
an individual's life" and then "rebuilding
him according to party doctrines by substituting a new
series of values." (quote taken from www.
markhumphrys.com/communism.asia.html)
The
bourgeoisie (urban middle class), non-Communist intellectuals,
better-off peasants—all shared the fate of numerous
other groups demonized by the Khmer Rouge, such as the
Vietnamese minority, anyone who could speak a foreign
language, teachers, monks, Muslims. Indeed, even those
who wore glasses or had a high forehead (evidence of
being smart) were targeted by the Khmer Rouge.
Families
were split up and spread to rural communes around the
country. In fact, children separated from their parents,
monks, village elders, and living in a society with
a complete moral breakdown, were often “brainwashed”
and indoctrinated with fanatical doctrines so that they
might be used by the Khmer Rouge to carry out their
ruthless killings. The work at the primitive, rural
communes was backbreaking and unrelenting. It was the
Khmer Rouge’s plan to grow rice to sell abroad for weapons,
thus leaving the commune-bound Cambodians precious little
to eat. Many starved to death, or died of sicknesses
related to malnutrition. Slackers were taken away and
bludgeoned to death (the soldiers did not want to waste
their bullets).
Really,
the killing rate in Cambodia is without parallel. The
Khmer Rouge strictly isolated Cambodia from the rest
of the world and then mixed executions, harsh labor,
and calculated famine to create a brutal prison-nation
where every person was an inmate.
It's
different from many other genocidal events," observes Adam Fifield, author of A Bles6sing Over Ashes, a new
book about a Killing Fields refugee coming of age in
America and Cambodia. "It was genocide driven not
by racial or religious hatred but by an ideology that
had been incubated so fervently that it became insanity."
(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/04/15/world/main184477.shtml )
The
actual “killing fields” (though there are many “killing
fields” spread throughout Cambodia) lies a few kilometers
outside of Phnom Penh. There, the Khmer Rouge would
force their victims to dig trenches or pits and then
line them up along the edge and bludgeon or bayonet
them to death. The bodies would fall into the pits
and dirt would be poured over the bodies, thus burying
them. Some of the victims, of course, would be still
alive when buried. There is a seven story marble building
which houses the bones and skulls of the victims excavated
so far. However, there are still so many people buried
there that haven't been excavated that when you walk
along the paths, the bones and clothing are coming to
the surface from erosion. It's very sobering. |
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