Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh
“The regime was “principally good at the beginning,” but that in the end there were “killings without reason.”
A former Khmer Rouge soldier on Wednesday defended the formation of the communist movement before the UN-backed court, saying it was to defend against “foreign aggression.”
Long Norin, 73, a former Khmer Rouge intellectual, said the regime gathered strength from the conflict around it, following a call by then ousted monarch Norodom Sihanouk.
“Everyone joined the party because our country was under aggression,” he told the court, as a trial for three jailed leaders continues. He did not specify which country he refered to, but Khmer Rouge leaders in the past have blamed Vietnam and the US for the rise of the regime.
Sok Sam Oeun, executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, said this “strategy” was aimed at avoiding harsh punishments from the court.
Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary are facing atrocity crimes charges, including genocide, for leading the movement, which led to the deaths of at least 1.7 million.
The trial is shedding historical light on the secretive movement, with hundreds of Cambodians in attendance. The Khmer Rouge movement during the US war with Vietnam and in the wake of a US-backed coup to remove Norodom Sihanouk from power. Many people joined the movement in an effort to put the monarch back on the throne.
On Tuesday, a former deputy district chief named Klam Fit, who is now 65, told the court the regime was able to gather some strength from ethnic minorities in the northeast, who “didn’t know who the enemy was or what the revolution was.”
“I didn’t know what the party was,” he said. “Was it rock or wood?”
On Wednesday, Romam Yun, an ethnic minority and former governor of a district in Ratanakkiri province, said the regime was “principally good at the beginning,” but that in the end there were “killings without reason.”
Nuon Chea, before leaving the courtroom early with complaints of high blood pressure, reiterated his justification for the formation of the regime, which was meant to “cleanse” Cambodia of colonial and capitalist influences. These, he said, “were the enemy.”
10 comments:
the KR organization sounded principally good in the beginning because they used nationalistic principal like protecting cambodia from foreign aggression, foreign colonial rule, etc, etc; however, the killing that went on within its organization at toward the end and the brutality it committed to the general population and so forth deemed it unworthy towards the end of its rule, you know. now, in retrospective, it is easier for their leadership to play that so-called blame game on outside forces, etc. it is easier for all of human to say than to actually achieve something without hard work, perserverant, etc, really. so, naturally, they all lean toward the blame game simply because it is easier. the blame thing is partly true though, however, it wasn't all of it. of course, there were a lot of outside contributors to their cause in the beginning, however, it was toward the end, things seemed out out control as in chaos within the KR organization itself when they started to mistrust their own and their policy eventually turned on their own organization, at the end, that is. to me, that was a backfire of their brutal policy as people all the sudden realized and questioned their own purpose in doing so. i mean, in the beginning it was a different picture, but once they gained victory, etc, the very people they supported turned against each other due partly the differences in their political policy or view. once everybody had to live in fear for their lives, things began to turn around. thus, the mistrust began, the worst killing spree took place more toward the end right before the viet/youn invasion took place.
it looked to me in the beginning, of course, they had their communist allies like vietnam, who supported their cause and helped trained them, etc, however once they lost confidence and support from the vietnamese or youn as they called them, century of hatred and mistrust came back, thus the killing spree beginning to include everybody and anybody they deemed untrusthworthy to their the KR organization, of course, who else! it was like a quarrel within the family, a divorce, perhaps.
remember that the KR regime had very few allies at the end, so for their allies, the viet/youn communist to disengage and struggle within their organization, things began to become very chaotic indeed. i think it is important for khmer people and the world to understand this and know the difference between "in the beginning" and toward the "end", it was two difference scenerio here, really! anyway...
yes, in the beginning of the KR organization, it was all about good allies, etc, like marrying into the same family, but later on, it was like they want a divorce, and things got ugly then. it was that kind of scenerio, you see!
the thing about the KR organization was that they had very few allies, both national and international allies. i believe vietnam, china, soviet union, czech, former yugoslav, etc were a few of the KR allies then. but the strongest allies were the one closest to cambodia such as vietnam and china, of course. the KR divorced vietnam but still be a strong, inseparable with china. the vietnamese invasion then was a result of their divorce from each other as a family they called it. thus, century of hatred and mistrust set back in and the viet/youn invasion took place; and those who did not understand or know this think the viet/youn invasion saved cambodia from the KR, but i think instead it was all of them under the so-called family of communism broke apart and went their separate way, thus we see changes as a result. it was good that it happened that way because it was the beginning of the end of the true communist rule in cambodia. and vietnam wasn't the hero of khmer people just because they invaded cambodia then, it was their dirty trick to fool the ignorant world out there. one has to study and investigate and observed and researched and so on to understand the truth behind what was going on between the brutal KR and the viet/youn counterpart, it was a backfire for them both. of course, some would say it was chance or luck or divine intervention and so on, but that's how it came about, unforeseen and lucky for cambodia, today, the end of the stupid KR era, you know!
of course the KR leaders and the viet/youn commy aren't going to admit this, but educated people can analyze and see it when they research or investigate into it, really! in this part of the world, political event happened subtly, meaning one has to do some work in order to understand it, you know.
i did learn a lot from listening in khmer to the testimonies of the KR leaders in court now. so it is a good education for me and i'm sure for many people as well, especially khmer historians and khmer people and those who are interested in cambodia, etc...
of course, noun chea was one of the its leadership that implemented a dreaded communist policy that enforced the general population to embrace it without argument, etcc. it was cruelty, evil and injustice, of course! they were trying to change the country of cambodia to communism society that most people weren't used to, you see! and they had the supported of their commy allies to do that, but later when one of their stunch ally, vietnam commy, lost that ally position, they turn around and fought each other. it was like they has getting along for a long time, but then all of a sudden they turned against each other,thus the worst killing spree took place toward the end of the regime and set way for the viet/youn commy invasion, of course! and viet/youn invasion, although perceived as rescuing cambodia from the KR rule, however, it was all that spic and span, it came with a cost to cambodia and an evil intention toward controlling cambodia by vietnam. yes, the key work here is control by vietnam, you know! thus, a a result, centuries of hatred and mistrust came back at them both, of course. yes, it does have historical reasoning behind it all, you know! viet/youn originally came from the north and settled into cambodian territories like khmer krom lands, khmer koh tral island, etc, so khmer people do have a legitimate and political reason for mistrust and hatred toward viet/youn for doing so. it's not like cambodia is not grateful for their assistance, etc, that's not the case, it's more like khmer people of cambodia cannot trust and hated viet/youn for mostly their illegally settling in khmer former territories more then anything. but the thing about the KR was they had too few allies then and they seemed not know how to fight the viet/youn, althought they did have a good principal of protecting cambodia from
foreign aggression", etc. their mistake which cost cambodia dearly was that they did not have many allies and did not know how to put a political strategy together to fight the hated viet/youn. and it didn't help them to start slaughtering their own people on top of that during their reign of terror. that was their biggest mistake. of course, to err is human and to forgive is divine. i just wanted to point that out. so, it's not like they are racist toward the viet/youn like some people who did not understand this would point out, that's not the case, but it was more like what viet/youn commy did to them that they turned against the viet/youn. it's not simple as it looks, we have to dig into it to understand it with our hands dirty, etc, you know!
remember too that this is all history now, but it is good to understand or know it, really! nothing to be ashamed about it, ok! it's called history for those of us who's been to college and educated.
for viet/youn, it was about control, but we know cambodia and khmer people and the world won't let viet/youn dream about that, really!
DUMB, VIETCONGS/VIETNAMS, YOUR SMART IN THE BAD WAYS BY KILLING KHMERS PEOPLE AND TAKE OVER THEIR LANDS AND COUNTRY ETC. EVEN IN AMERICA, WHEN YOU (DUMB VIETCONGS), DO SOMETHING WRONGS.
1. YOU TELLING AMERICANS PEOPLE, YOU ARE KHMER/CAMBODIAN.
2 WHEN YOU (DUMB VIETCONGS) DO SOMETHING GOOD, YOU TELLING AMERICANS
PEOPLE, YOU ARE VIETNAMESE OR CHINESE.
DON'T LOOKS DOWN ON KHMERS PEOPLE AS YOU ARE SO DUMB TOO.
AND THE WORLD IS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE NOW, MAYBE YOUR (DUMB EVILS VIETCONGS) GO TO HELL SOON.
Whos killing millions of Khmers life????
The answer is.......Vietcooks/Viets
Vietnam's bad intention toward Cambodia will be unmasked by the international communities.
We need to take this Cambodia’s land thief, Vietnam, to the international court of justice; otherwise Vietnam will keep creating turmoil in Cambodia.
After 1989, did Vietnam truly withdraw all of its troops back to Vietnam?
Did Vietnam comply with the 1991 Paris peace accord?
Millions of illegal and legal Vietnamese have been residing inside Cambodia after Vietnam’s invasion in January 1979, causing extreme concerns amongst Khmer people about the prospect that Cambodia would be the second Kampuchea Krom (the current southern part of Vietnam).
How much Khmer natural resource has Vietnam destroyed after its invasion in January 1979?
The killings during the Pol Pot's era were committed by the Khmer rouge, the Khmer Vietminh, etc.
Notice that the Khmer Vietminh were created and brainwashed by Vietnam to make Khmers fight with Khmers, to make Khmers kill each others.
How about the K5 project, which killed hundreds of thousands of Khmer people in the 80's? This K5 scheme was totally orchestrated by Vietnam.
Vietnam must pay for this enormous K5 project crime. We need to take Vietnam to the international court about this K5 issue regarding Vietnam’s catastrophic action in Cambodia. Vietnam’s current dominance in Cambodia also contributes to the present vast majority of Khmer people’s misery.
Khmer Rouge leaders must responsible for the killing, but the others who secretly involved.
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