history on cambodia

since alex and i had a pretty uneventful day of travel today, and we have a heavy day or two coming up next, i thought there was a good bit of information everyone should know. our next two journeys will consist of the tuol sleng museum and the killing fields, both pieces of history from the khmer rouge regime. this post won't be easy to read, as i'm not going to omit anything and have specifically picked difficult excerpts. alex bought a book on s-21 and i bought "first they killed my father," a memoir from a five year old who went through the four-year devastation.

s-21 was an institution in which over 14,000 men, women and children were killed over four years. it was an interrogation prison, but not quite, as only seven men who were ever taken there came out alive. it was known as the place where "truckloads of people go in, but never come out." it was a highly secret operation, with few documents kept. the location was originally a high school, became s-21, and is now the site of the tuol sleng genocide museum. there will be more to come on this after the visit.

the first part of this post will be strictly history.

the second will be direct excerpts from the book, much harder to read.

don't look at the second part unless you're ready.

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part one.


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cambodia did not receive independent status from france until 1953. at this time, prince sihanouk led cambodia under the new government, called the lon nol government, and the country became self-sufficient. but with capitalist ideas and the cities being cities and the country being very spread apart, many people began to blame a corrupt government for the poverty. essentially, the rich were getting richer and the poor were staying very poor in the countryside. many groups came about to demand reform, one being the khmer rouge.

they began an armed battle against the government. all of this was happening simultaneously to the war with the us against vietnam. in fact, the us bombed parts of the cambodian borders to destroy north vietnamese bases, killing many innocent cambodians. since the lon nol government was also backed heavily by the united states, this gave reason for the country citizens to hate the lon nol government even more. this helped the khmer rouge gain much support, and without knowing what exactly they were backing, farmers joined the reform. after the vietnam war ended, the khmer rouge easily defeated the lon nol government.

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so what was the new goal? to turn cambodia into a one hundred percent self-sufficient country with no crime, no deceit, no western influence, and full equality. one individual cannot have what the rest does not, making even bartering a crime. the society was to be turned completely agrarian, with its citizens working to make their own food on a constant basis.

so on april 17, 1975, the khmer rouge succeeded in taking over phnom penh, the country's capital. they evacuated all of its citizens, claiming that anyone who lived in a city was corrupt due to the conveniences it offered and the greater possibility that these people came from money. everyone was forced into the countryside. on their way out of the city, many of them got in line to register for new jobs, especially those who worked for the lon nol government. loung ung, author of first they killed my father, writes :

"a man told me the noise last night was the khmer rouge soldiers opening fire on all the people who registered for work. they killed every one of them."

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families with government background had to claim new identities for as long as possible for the chance to live. the killings shifted from government workers to former civil servants, monks, doctors, nurses, artists, teachers, and bright students. even people with glasses were killed, as this was a sign of intelligence. anyone who was educated or had the power or even the willpower to rise against the new government was executed.

along with this, the angkar, as the new government was called, abolished markets, schools, universities, and objects such as watches, clocks, eight-track players, televisions, and even money.

the khmer rouge saw science, technology, and anything mechanical as evil. owning cars and electronics created class division, which was not acceptable. imports were also evil because they allowed a physical and cultural invasion from foreign countries into cambodia. all of these goods were abolished.

the time is often referred to as year zero.

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the government referred to illiterate farmers and peasants who supported the khmer rouge revolution as model citizens. this is because they have never left their villages to experience western life, which is said to be corrupt due to the capitalist idea of the haves and have-nots. these citizens were to teach the new arrivals from the city how to work hard and have pride in their country.

children were no longer allowed to attend school because information was considered useless. they were instead put to work at all ages. the khmer rouge came up with new vocabulary words designed to bring more equality to society.

everyone was to wear the same black clothes, ridding themselves "of the corrupt western creation of vanity."

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part two.


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the day that the khmer rouge took over the city of phnom penh, this is what citizens were told:

"take as little as you can, you will not need your city belongings. the city must be clean and empty. no one can stay here. the us will bomb the city, you must leave and stay in the country for a few days. you will be able to return in three days."

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"in the khmer rouge agrarian society, only good workers are valuable, all others are expendable. thus, new people must work extremely hard to prove they are worth more alive than dead [...] if people step on [a landmine] and their arms or legs are blown off, they are no longer of any value to the angkar. the soldiers shoot them to finish the job. in the new pure agrarian society, there is no place for disabled people."

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religion was abolished, which is partially why the temples were destroyed. the soldiers "roamed the country searching for monks and forced them to convert to the angkar. those monks who refused were murdered or made to work in minefields. to escape extermination, many monks grew their hair and went into hiding in the jungle. others killed themselves in mass suicides."

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"pa believes the war will last for a long time and this makes the very act of living sad for him. every day we hear tales of other families who cannot see the end to their terror and thus commit suicide. we live knowing we are in danger of being discovered at any moment."

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"i have heard many stories about other villages where people have eaten human flesh. there was a story about a woman in a village nearby who turned to cannibalism. they say she was a good woman, not the monster the soldiers portray her to be. she was so hungry that when her husband died from eating poisonous food, she ate his flesh and fed it to her children. she did not know that the poison in his body would kill her and the children as well."

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on keav, loung's oldest sister, who died from dysentery:

"when she finally did speak, she kept asking for pa. "ma, where's pa? ma, go get pa, i know i am going to die, and i want to see him one last time." this was her last wish, to see the family and be near them after she's gone. she said she is tired and wants to sleep but will wait for pa to get there. she is so weak she cannot raise her hand to wave the flies away from her face. she is so dirty. they didn't even clean her mess up until i got there. they just let her lie there in her sickness and dirty sheets. no one is taking care of my daughter."

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on taking away loung's father, as soldiers told her he would return in the morning, but he and his wife knew he was going to be executed for being a former lon nol government worker:

"'my beautiful girl', he says to me as his lips quiver in a small smile, 'i have to go away with these two men for a while.' he walks slowly to chou and takes geak, the youngest, from her arms, looking into her face, he cradles her and gently rocks her back and forth before bending and gathering chou into his arms also. his head high and his chest puffed out like a small man, kim walks over to pa and stands quietly next to him. letting go of chou and geak, pa stoops down and lays both hands on kim's shoulders. kim's face crumbles, but pa's face is rigid and calm. 'look after your sister, your mother and yourself,' he says."

i wave to him, hoping he will turn around and wave back. he never does. ma sits in the corner of the room crying. i have seen pa leave the house many times in phnom penh, but i have never seen her this upset. in my heart i know the truth, but by mind cannot accept the reality of what this all means."

"the soldier pushes on pa's shoulders, making him kneel like the others. tears stream out of my eyes as i whisper thanks to the gods that the soldier has blindfolded pa. he is spared from having to see the executions of many others. 'don't cry pa, i know you're afraid,' i want to tell him. " i feel his body tense up, his heart race, and see tear flowing from under his blindfold. pa fights the urge to scream as he hears the hammer crack the skull next to him, smashing into it. the body falls on top of the others with a thump. other fathers around pa cry and beg for mercy, but to no avail. one by one, each man is silenced by the hammer."

"i can still hear the faint noise of ma's muffled cries outside, but i do not feel her pain. i do not feel anything at all."

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on an attack from the khmer rouge:

"by early morning it is quiet again. i can almost feel the shelter expand with air as everyone lets out a sigh of relief. then, without warning, the whistle of rockets flying near us hits our shelter. the blast almost knocks the air out from my lungs. i reach for pithy's arm, but jerk my hand back as my palm touches something wet and sticky on her. my stomach churns. i turn to see pity lying facedown on the ground, quiet and motionless, the top of her skull is caved in. pity's mom screams for her, then grabs her into her arms. i wipe her blood on my pant legs. in a panic, i run."

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"there are stories of bodies of men found with their chests cut open and their livers missing. the khmer rouge soldiers believe that eating the livers of their enemy will give them strength and power."

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on her mother and younger sister:

"she wraps her arms even righter around geak and squeezes her eyes shut, praying for mercy [...] the soldier reaches down and grabs geak's shoulders. the two of them scream a loud shrill scream that echoes through the air, but the soldiers do not stop and pull geak from her grasp as they cling to one another, yelling to each other not to let go. the soldier tears them apart until only the tip of their fingers hold them together, then that chain too is broken. all villagers cryt and beg and start to get up off their knees. suddenly, the rattling sounds of the rifles go off and bullets pierce through their bodies, silencing the screams.

geak runs over to ma's slumped-over body with her face in the mud. geak is only six years old, too young to understand what just happened. she calls ma and shakes her shoulders. she touches ma's cheeks and ears, and grabs her hair to try to lift her face out of the mud, but she is not strong enough. while rubbing her eyes, she wipes ma's blood all over her own face. she pounds her fists on ma's back, trying to wake her up, but ma is gone. holding onto ma, geak screams and screams, not stopping to take any air. one soldier's face darkens as he lifts his rifle. seconds later, geak too is silenced."

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end part two.


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i know that this post was a lot, and maybe even too extreme. but if i'm going to post on the museum and the killing fields, and if you all are going to read it, you should know some of the background information that alex and i do-- including the gruesome narratives. knowing what the khmer rouge did is one thing, but understanding it from the perspective of someone who lived it is another and tore both of us apart when we read the book.

this is the history of the country in which we're staying. it's obviously much different now, but it's the truth and devastation that they live with, and for anyone over 35, it's their memories.

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Y rae. racho. d.