BY ARNALDO MUSA
Periodico26 (Cuba)
The name Pol Pot is related to genocide and massacres. The youngest generations perhaps haven’t heard of the systematic murder of between 1.7 and 4 million Cambodians (half of the population) between 1975 until 1979.
The time of permanent violence began in 1970 with the US military intervention and support for corrupt governments and extended until 1989. During this time education for children and teenagers was suspended, public health was virtually non-existent and Cambodia took over the top of the list of the poorest countries in the Far East.
Nowadays, with the beginning of the trial of the most notorious killers in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, the matter returns to the forefront 30 years after the fall of Pol Pot and 20 since the defeat of the opposition bands that tried to retake or seize power without popular consent.
The Khmer Rouge Genocide Tribunal began its sessions with the trial of Kaing Guek Eau, director of the Tuol Sleng jail in the capital (today the Genocide Museum), where 16,000 innocent people were tortured to death.
This year the trials will also begin against Khieu Samphan, ex President of the State Presidium of Democratic Kampuchea; Leng Sary, ex-foreign minister; Leng Thirit, ex-minister of Social Affairs, and the late Nuon Chia, second in command under Pol Pot. Some tried to elude responsibility blaming the crimes on the leader, giving him full responsibility for the excesses of the regime; but they couldn’t free themselves from history, the most implacable judge.
SOMETHING TO NEVER FORGET
Pol Pot and his circle of power were not revolutionaries. They imposed a regime based on isolation and the eradication of urban populations, conceiving only in a peasant country.
They went to such an extent that since its victory in 1975 the regime prohibited all types of modernity in the country. The cities were emptied by force and the Cambodians obliged to move to work camps. The population of Phom Penh fell from two million to 25,000 in just three days.
Money was banned and the central bank disappeared. Motor vehicles were also eliminated and religion was prohibited. Communications with the outside world were cut off, postal service ceased and schools and hospitals were closed.
People that wore glasses and those that spoke a foreign language or had a higher education, were interned for "reeducation." The majority were killed by a regime that considered neighboring Vietnam as its main enemy, attacking it repeatedly and killing many of its citizens.
NOT JUST THE POL POT REGIME
Analysts, including US linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, believe that not only should the living Khmer Rouge leaders be tried by the International Court, but also the US secretary of state at the time, Henry Kissinger, and other authors of the US bombardment of Cambodia, —which killed more than 600,000 civilians—, as well as their support of the criminals after Vietnam and Cambodian patriots managed to expel them from power in 1979.
For years, the United States and Great Britain supported Pol Pot in exile in Thailand, managing to keep alive a counterrevolution and mercenary groups, principally in the border areas. During this period, Washington and London supported the representation of the genocidal Cambodians at the United Nations.
Later they unsuccessfully tried to manipulate the efforts to form the tribunal that would judge the criminals. In that context, Vietnam demanded severe punishment for those who led the genocide and today’s Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said: "Nobody should escape justice. The Khmer Rouge must be brought before the Tribunal. But those that supported them should also be there."
The time of permanent violence began in 1970 with the US military intervention and support for corrupt governments and extended until 1989. During this time education for children and teenagers was suspended, public health was virtually non-existent and Cambodia took over the top of the list of the poorest countries in the Far East.
Nowadays, with the beginning of the trial of the most notorious killers in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, the matter returns to the forefront 30 years after the fall of Pol Pot and 20 since the defeat of the opposition bands that tried to retake or seize power without popular consent.
The Khmer Rouge Genocide Tribunal began its sessions with the trial of Kaing Guek Eau, director of the Tuol Sleng jail in the capital (today the Genocide Museum), where 16,000 innocent people were tortured to death.
This year the trials will also begin against Khieu Samphan, ex President of the State Presidium of Democratic Kampuchea; Leng Sary, ex-foreign minister; Leng Thirit, ex-minister of Social Affairs, and the late Nuon Chia, second in command under Pol Pot. Some tried to elude responsibility blaming the crimes on the leader, giving him full responsibility for the excesses of the regime; but they couldn’t free themselves from history, the most implacable judge.
SOMETHING TO NEVER FORGET
Pol Pot and his circle of power were not revolutionaries. They imposed a regime based on isolation and the eradication of urban populations, conceiving only in a peasant country.
They went to such an extent that since its victory in 1975 the regime prohibited all types of modernity in the country. The cities were emptied by force and the Cambodians obliged to move to work camps. The population of Phom Penh fell from two million to 25,000 in just three days.
Money was banned and the central bank disappeared. Motor vehicles were also eliminated and religion was prohibited. Communications with the outside world were cut off, postal service ceased and schools and hospitals were closed.
People that wore glasses and those that spoke a foreign language or had a higher education, were interned for "reeducation." The majority were killed by a regime that considered neighboring Vietnam as its main enemy, attacking it repeatedly and killing many of its citizens.
NOT JUST THE POL POT REGIME
Analysts, including US linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, believe that not only should the living Khmer Rouge leaders be tried by the International Court, but also the US secretary of state at the time, Henry Kissinger, and other authors of the US bombardment of Cambodia, —which killed more than 600,000 civilians—, as well as their support of the criminals after Vietnam and Cambodian patriots managed to expel them from power in 1979.
For years, the United States and Great Britain supported Pol Pot in exile in Thailand, managing to keep alive a counterrevolution and mercenary groups, principally in the border areas. During this period, Washington and London supported the representation of the genocidal Cambodians at the United Nations.
Later they unsuccessfully tried to manipulate the efforts to form the tribunal that would judge the criminals. In that context, Vietnam demanded severe punishment for those who led the genocide and today’s Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said: "Nobody should escape justice. The Khmer Rouge must be brought before the Tribunal. But those that supported them should also be there."
6 comments:
But Hun Sen, a Viet puppet, is and was also khmers' murderers, as a former Khmer Rouge Commander. And later led Vietnam to invade and Vietnamise Cambodia with a nonstop flow of over FIVE Millions Viets illegal invaders resettling in Cambodia.
hunsen youn 'slave worst than Marshal lon nol.
toronto newmaket
Noam Chomski was one of the most enthusiatic cheerleaders of the KHMER ROUGE. He and other pro-communists inthe Western-Academia should be on trial. They were the enablers and moral supporters of the genocide....
I think Americans, Britons and Chinese did the right things to support Khmer Rouge resisted against the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1980s or Cambodia would not have been a country today.
Vietnamese motherfucker who created and trained the fucking evil Pol Pot!
The Viet may use Pol pot to killed Cambodia! Other just stay quiet just like what Ah Hun Xen is doing as ah Pol Pot did in slow motion`1
May the evils die soon!
Vietnamese motherfucker who created and trained the fucking evil Pol Pot!
The Viet may use Pol pot to killed Cambodia! Other just stay quiet just like what Ah Hun Xen is doing as ah Pol Pot did in slow motion`1
May the evils die soon!
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