Cambodians pray during the annual 'Day of Anger' at the Choeung Ek killing fieldsThursday, May 20, 2010
AFP
CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia — Tearful Cambodians marked an annual "Day of Anger" with a re-enactment of Khmer Rouge crimes at a notorious "killing field" on Thursday to commemorate relatives killed by the regime.
Some 3,000 people, including Buddhist monks, watched as students mimed raping, bludgeoning, strangling and eviscerating bound victims to remember those who died at Choeung Ek, a field outside the capital Phnom Penh.
Many sobbed during the performance by the black-clad students just metres (yards) from mass graves where Khmer Rouge soldiers murdered thousands of people during the rule of the hardline communist movement in the late 1970s.
"I still feel very much anger toward the regime," Chea Thov, 63, told AFP during Thursday ceremony.
"Justice is near. But I want all bad Khmer Rouge leaders to be sentenced to death," she said, adding that Khmer Rouge killed her husband and 15 relatives.
Up to two million people were executed or died from starvation, overwork and torture during the communist regime's 1975-1979 reign as it emptied Cambodia's cities and enslaved the population on collective farms.
Five Khmer Rouge leaders are being held by a UN-backed genocide court over their roles in the hardline communist government.
Final arguments in the court's first trial, of Khmer Rouge's main prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, ended in November and a verdict is expected later this year.
Four other leaders including the regime's "Brother Number Two" ideologue Nuon Chea and head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith are expected to stand trial next year.
"I am speechless about Khmer Rouge crimes. I hope justice will be rendered very soon so that sadness will fade away from the people's hearts," said another relative of the regime's victims, Nob Chin, 72.
Some 3,000 people, including Buddhist monks, watched as students mimed raping, bludgeoning, strangling and eviscerating bound victims to remember those who died at Choeung Ek, a field outside the capital Phnom Penh.
Many sobbed during the performance by the black-clad students just metres (yards) from mass graves where Khmer Rouge soldiers murdered thousands of people during the rule of the hardline communist movement in the late 1970s.
"I still feel very much anger toward the regime," Chea Thov, 63, told AFP during Thursday ceremony.
"Justice is near. But I want all bad Khmer Rouge leaders to be sentenced to death," she said, adding that Khmer Rouge killed her husband and 15 relatives.
Up to two million people were executed or died from starvation, overwork and torture during the communist regime's 1975-1979 reign as it emptied Cambodia's cities and enslaved the population on collective farms.
Five Khmer Rouge leaders are being held by a UN-backed genocide court over their roles in the hardline communist government.
Final arguments in the court's first trial, of Khmer Rouge's main prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, ended in November and a verdict is expected later this year.
Four other leaders including the regime's "Brother Number Two" ideologue Nuon Chea and head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith are expected to stand trial next year.
"I am speechless about Khmer Rouge crimes. I hope justice will be rendered very soon so that sadness will fade away from the people's hearts," said another relative of the regime's victims, Nob Chin, 72.
4 comments:
Com'on all Khmers, it is over, it is past 30 years. What do you still want it to be? Kill all Khmers and than Vietnamese take over Cambodia. Is this what you want it to be? Why can you all do something else beside 'Khmer Rouge story', it's over, it's past. We all should look into the furture.
Angkorian Kman
Basically I agree with 10:41PM
Having a memorial day is healthy. But please, do not sit and weep in silence EVERY SINGLE DAY for the rest of your life.We are faced with more deadly challenges ahead of us. Let's move on together.
10:57 PM,
For some people, it's hard to really have that motivation and energy to move on when you are faced every single moment of your life knowing that your family and your great country's destiny was forever changed into a different course of history. Cambodia is moving on, but it's hard for many Cambodians forget. It's not that easy. The "killing fields" become a part of you and honestly, it's part of the Cambodian identity in modern times. It broke us and also what makes us.
Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime
Members:
Pol Pot
Nuon Chea
Ieng Sary
Ta Mok
Khieu Samphan
Son Sen
Ieng Thearith
Kaing Kek Iev
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka...
Committed:
Tortures
Brutality
Executions
Massacres
Mass Murder
Genocide
Atrocities
Crimes Against Humanity
Starvations
Slavery
Force Labour
Overwork to Death
Human Abuses
Persecution
Unlawful Detention
Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime
Members:
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka...
Committed:
Attempted Murders
Attempted Murder on Chea Vichea
Attempted Assassinations
Attempted Assassination on Sam Rainsy
Assassinations
Assassinated Journalists
Assassinated Political Opponents
Assassinated Leaders of the Free Trade Union
Assassinated over 80 members of Sam Rainsy Party.
"But as of today, over eighty members of my party have been assassinated. Countless others have been injured, arrested, jailed, or forced to go into hiding or into exile."
Sam Rainsy LIC 31 October 2009 - Cairo, Egypt
Executions
Executed over 100 members of FUNCINPEC Party
Murders
Murdered 3 Leaders of the Free Trade Union
Murdered Chea Vichea
Murdered Ros Sovannareth
Murdered Hy Vuthy
Murdered Journalists
Murdered Khim Sambo
Murdered Khim Sambo's son
Murdered members of Sam Rainsy Party.
Murdered activists of Sam Rainsy Party
Murdered Innocent Men
Murdered Innocent Women
Murdered Innocent Children
Killed Innocent Khmer Peoples.
Extrajudicial Execution
Grenade Attack
Terrorism
Drive by Shooting
Brutalities
Police Brutality Against Monks
Police Brutality Against Evictees
Tortures
Intimidations
Death Threats
Threatening
Human Abductions
Human Abuses
Human Rights Abuses
Human Trafficking
Drugs Trafficking
Under Age Child Sex
Corruptions
Bribery
Embezzlement
Treason
Border Encroachment, allow Vietnam to encroaching into Cambodia.
Signed away our territories to Vietnam; Koh Tral, almost half of our ocean territory oil field and others.
Illegal Arrest
Illegal Mass Evictions
Illegal Land Grabbing
Illegal Firearms
Illegal Logging
Illegal Deforestation
Illegally use of remote detonation bomb on Sokha Helicopter, while Hok Lundy and other military officials were on board.
Lightning strike many airplanes, but did not fall from the sky. Lightning strike out side of airplane and discharge electricity to ground.
Source: Lightning, Discovery Channel
Illegally Sold State Properties
Illegally Removed Parliamentary Immunity of Parliament Members
Plunder National Resources
Acid Attacks
Turn Cambodia into a Lawless Country.
Oppression
Injustice
Steal Votes
Bring Foreigners from Veitnam to vote in Cambodia for Cambodian People's Party.
Use Dead people's names to vote for Cambodian People's Party.
Disqualified potential Sam Rainsy Party's voters.
Abuse the Court as a tools for CPP to send political opponents and journalists to jail.
Abuse of Power
Abuse the Laws
Abuse the National Election Committee
Abuse the National Assembly
Violate the Laws
Violate the Constitution
Violate the Paris Accords
Impunity
Persecution
Unlawful Detention
Death in custody.
Under the Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime, no criminals that has been committed crimes against journalists, political opponents, leaders of the Free Trade Union, innocent men, women and children have ever been brought to justice.
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