Former Khmer Rouge and their current whereabouts: Heng Samrin (L) is President of the National Assembly of Cambodia, Chea Sim (C) is President the Senate of Cambodia, and Hun Sen (R) is the current Prime Minister of Cambodia. Hun Sen plans to hold his PM position until the age of 90-year-old.May 20, 2007
Cambodians mark Day of Hatred at Khmer Rouge killing field
DPA
Phnom Penh - Around a thousand Cambodians flocked to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields on the outskirts of the capital Sunday to mark the official anniversary of the beginning of the Khmer Rouge regime's bloody killing spree.
Organizers said more than 100 Buddhist monks in saffron robes prayed at the infamous stupa of human skulls at the center of the mass-grave site before mourners made offerings of fruit, incense, food and money.
The National Day of Hatred was first marked on May 20, 1984 by the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) government set up after the Khmer Rouge was ousted in 1979.
It is now also often called the National Day of Remembrance after the last of the former Khmer Rouge troops defected to the government in the late 1990's, but is still faithfully observed by the present Cambodian government, particularly the dominant Cambodian People's Party.
The PRK declared it 'the day when the blood and life of ... innocent Kampucheans was shed and destroyed, when the tears of the surviving Kampucheans started flowing up to the present.'
It was said to officially mark the day when the Khmer Rouge first began a wholesale slaughter after its April 17, 1975 victory which eventually left up to 2 million Cambodians dead.
A joint 56-million-dollar UN-Cambodian process to try a handful of elderly, ailing former Khmer Rouge leaders continues to stumble forward, with proceedings hoped to begin in earnest later this year.
Khmer Rouge supreme leader Pol Pot died at his home in 1998. His military commander Ta Mok, nicknamed The Butcher, died in hospital last year of age-related complications.
