By FRANCE 24
Thirty years after the Khmer Rouge genocide, survivors try to forget. In the psychiatric ward of a municipal hospital, Dr. Ka Sunbaunat’s office has become a precious place of refuge for those who were in their 20s during the Pol Pot regime.
A morning in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, 30 years after the Khmer Rouge genocide. We are in the psychiatric ward of a municipal hospital and it is crowded. Most of the patients were in their 20s during the Pol Pot regime. Himself a survivor, Dr. Ka Sunbaunat is the first psychiatrist to address the killing fields syndrome. His patients number in the thousands. They all bear heavy psychological scars.
A civil war, bombings, masacres and purges that cost the lives of one quarter of the population - 1.7 million victims. For a generation of survivors, it is impossible to forget. For some of them, Dr. Ka Sunbaunat’s office has become a precious place of refuge. Like for Theary: "It was three days after I gave birth to my first son…Angkar, the Khmer Rouge brought in some people…And then, they killed them all in front of us…To make an example…To teach us to obey… It s the reason why, since then, I see a man who runs very fast…He escapes into the ricefields….Then there is another man…With black clothes…He shoots him in the back…Then he falls…This image always stays in my head… "
Theary is able to describe her nightmares but most of the patients cannot. For the doctor, silence is a key contributor of the violence that undermines Cambodian society today. And for a cure, he relies on mysticism: "Here you have a kind of palm tree leaf. It is this kind of thing that can take away their despair and anxiety" he says. A handful of Khmer Rouge leaders are about to go on trial in an international tribunal. The killing fields syndrome shows just how deep the trauma of the genocide is.
A morning in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, 30 years after the Khmer Rouge genocide. We are in the psychiatric ward of a municipal hospital and it is crowded. Most of the patients were in their 20s during the Pol Pot regime. Himself a survivor, Dr. Ka Sunbaunat is the first psychiatrist to address the killing fields syndrome. His patients number in the thousands. They all bear heavy psychological scars.
A civil war, bombings, masacres and purges that cost the lives of one quarter of the population - 1.7 million victims. For a generation of survivors, it is impossible to forget. For some of them, Dr. Ka Sunbaunat’s office has become a precious place of refuge. Like for Theary: "It was three days after I gave birth to my first son…Angkar, the Khmer Rouge brought in some people…And then, they killed them all in front of us…To make an example…To teach us to obey… It s the reason why, since then, I see a man who runs very fast…He escapes into the ricefields….Then there is another man…With black clothes…He shoots him in the back…Then he falls…This image always stays in my head… "
Theary is able to describe her nightmares but most of the patients cannot. For the doctor, silence is a key contributor of the violence that undermines Cambodian society today. And for a cure, he relies on mysticism: "Here you have a kind of palm tree leaf. It is this kind of thing that can take away their despair and anxiety" he says. A handful of Khmer Rouge leaders are about to go on trial in an international tribunal. The killing fields syndrome shows just how deep the trauma of the genocide is.
3 comments:
AH HUN XEN AND AH HOK LUNDY CRIMINAL ACTIONS THAT KEEP THE HOUNTING ALIVE!
USE YOUR STUPID BRAIN UN!!!!!!!
What is most tragic is that Khmer people was never get out of genocide since the time of pol pot. And the true causes which led to that genocide against Khmer people is something taboo or criminal to talk about. You cant talk about it without being accused of all kind of crimes, real or imagined by those whose hands soiled with Khmer blood.
The Vietnamese did chasing pol pot but the genocide was not end at the fall or dead of pol pot. The genocide did continue with or without pol pot with another tools at another level. The reconciliation policy of concession imposed by international community is a crime for the victims because it profited only by the criminals to get away of their crimes. The symbolic trial of Khmer rouge organized by the actual government and international community is to the image of that policy wanted by the criminals and its filiations. This is why not much victims are concerned by it but foreigners and the criminals themselves because the victims have no confidence on this kind of trial at all.
It seems to me that Khmer people didn’t only butcher by Khmer rouge, physically, mentally and morally, but also by those who supported, maintained Khmer rouge in power till today,. There also those who butcher the victims with their plume and with their sadist and ill bloody thinking and these late ones are not less cruel or criminals than those who persecute Khmer people physically. Khmer people is like dead corps attacking by all kind of organic micros and other kind of animals that enjoy feeding of dead corps or blood.
I’m wondering which one is the most insupportable or most traumatic for the victims? - Being killed or being unjustly and constantly ill persecute by others? Will the true history about the killing field will be restored one day? This is the most important question and things which are fundamental for the victims to heal and conciliate with their past.
the human emotional injury take a long time to heal, and on its own terms as well. all anybody can do is show support and understanding, and let time heals all those who went through and suffered under one of the world's most atrocious regime, the pol pot's KR regime. may god continue to heal and bless all khmer people from this tragic.
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