In Cambodia's 'civil wars' there were also brothers and sisters fighting on opposite side of the conflict. Just as they are now divided over perceived differences and over their limited and engineered political visions that can rightly be said to deny much desired national unity and thus offering further scope for outsiders to manipulate their affairs.
The fundamental issue as to who is innocent and who is guilty is for the court and historical facts to establish beyond reasonable doubt.
It would be both misleading and unjust to blanket all S21 prisoners as 'Khmer Rouge' and therefore deserving of their tragic fate at that prison.
How a revolutionary movement came into being; from being commonly held feelings and sentiments in the hearts and minds of men and women to a politically organised and orchestrated nationwide body of what we call a party is an outcome of a combination of interconnected circumstances and events, that is, it is a product of a highly complicated historical process. We know that totalitarian-authoritarian rule or system of governing by its essential nature tends to give way to paranoia and a feeling of being surrounded by enemies, all of whom are real enough since every identified enemy of the dictator is first of all pictured in this paranoic mindset.
What went on at Toul Sleng can be said to mirror what took place in the rest of the country during Democratic Kampuchea period: S21 was a prison within a prison; it is a microcosm of the entire KR nightmare endured in the main by innocent Khmer people.
At S21 there were women and infants among the victims. The women (some were pregnant) would be repeatedly raped several times over by the guards before they were tracked off to Chheung Ek for execution. The infants would be taken away seperately to minimise any alarm caused along the way. Secrecy and deception was the KR's supreme trademark.
A young girl who was barely 19 years of age was among the victims at the prison. She was accused of being a CIA agent and after having been tortured confessed to the charge. However, she could not write her confession down being illiterate so her interrogator decided to write on her behalf.
These scenes would have been familiar throughout Cambodia at the time including the Eastern Zone under So Phim and KR cadres now in prominent positions within the CPP hierarchy.
In Cambodia's 'civil wars' there were also brothers and sisters fighting on opposite side of the conflict. Just as they are now divided over perceived differences and over their limited and engineered political visions that can rightly be said to deny much desired national unity and thus offering further scope for outsiders to manipulate their affairs.
MP
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2 comments:
Thank you, MP. I agree with you. Many KR cadre victims including their infants were innocent. They were no lesser victims than the non-KR cadre victims. Thus, some comments in this from applauding Him Huy's deeds were beyond my comprehension.
Hundred thousands of the Easterners were sent to die in the Pursat and Battambang, because Pol Pot was gone madly insane after he was survived from assassinations.
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