The Star (Malaysia)
DURING their trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, students of Taylor’s College’s School of Architecture. Building. Design found in their tour guide Tring Huy not only someone to show them around, but also someone to enlighten them on the country’s sad and violent history.
Huy was 17 years old during the start of the Khmer Rouge, which was the Maoist-extremist organisation that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.
Headed by the infamous Pol Pot (whose real name was Saloth Sar), the era saw the death of almost two million Cambodians due to execution, starvation and forced labour.
Huy says everyone who was suspected of being educated was executed by the regime, including teachers and doctors.
“Even people who wore spectacles were killed, because the High Organisation (what the regime was called) thought this meant they read a lot. If you could speak a word of any other language except Khmer, then you would also be killed.”
Families were separated and adults executed, while their children were kept alive to “indoctrinate policy”.
Huy remembers being put in a labour camp with other young men, while all the young women were put in a separate camp. He says they were made to do grow rice, plough fields and plant green beans. In the dry season, they were put to work making dams and canals. They were given no education.
“Sometimes, we would get about a spoonful of rice a day, and two chickens to be shared among a hundred of us,” says Huy. “At night, we slept on mats on the floor or in hammocks.”
“Anyone who disobeyed the regime or did not perform up to expectation would either be shot or burnt in a furnace.”
He adds that the situation became so bad that some members of the camp would go into the forest and slit their own throats to escape the suffering.
“Our country had so much to offer – beautiful sights, quality wood, delicious rice and fish. But all this came to a stop under the Khmer Rouge, and millions of dollars were lost. And now, we are still struggling to recover,” he says regretfully.
When asked why Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime committed such atrocities, Huy shakes his head.
“Like many of the Cambodian people, I am still confused about why they did this.
“Maybe those higher up would understand, but many of us don’t know the reason for what happened.”
Huy was 17 years old during the start of the Khmer Rouge, which was the Maoist-extremist organisation that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.
Headed by the infamous Pol Pot (whose real name was Saloth Sar), the era saw the death of almost two million Cambodians due to execution, starvation and forced labour.
Huy says everyone who was suspected of being educated was executed by the regime, including teachers and doctors.
“Even people who wore spectacles were killed, because the High Organisation (what the regime was called) thought this meant they read a lot. If you could speak a word of any other language except Khmer, then you would also be killed.”
Families were separated and adults executed, while their children were kept alive to “indoctrinate policy”.
Huy remembers being put in a labour camp with other young men, while all the young women were put in a separate camp. He says they were made to do grow rice, plough fields and plant green beans. In the dry season, they were put to work making dams and canals. They were given no education.
“Sometimes, we would get about a spoonful of rice a day, and two chickens to be shared among a hundred of us,” says Huy. “At night, we slept on mats on the floor or in hammocks.”
“Anyone who disobeyed the regime or did not perform up to expectation would either be shot or burnt in a furnace.”
He adds that the situation became so bad that some members of the camp would go into the forest and slit their own throats to escape the suffering.
“Our country had so much to offer – beautiful sights, quality wood, delicious rice and fish. But all this came to a stop under the Khmer Rouge, and millions of dollars were lost. And now, we are still struggling to recover,” he says regretfully.
When asked why Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime committed such atrocities, Huy shakes his head.
“Like many of the Cambodian people, I am still confused about why they did this.
“Maybe those higher up would understand, but many of us don’t know the reason for what happened.”
1 comment:
Khmer Rouge simply means Khmer communist that had been endoctrinated by Hanoi and Peking (Beijing). It may not be a common knowledge, but in the eyes of the intelligence community, those killers (Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Ta mok, etc..) had been baptized either by Hanoi or Peking. Hanoi and Peking competed with one another for the engineering of the KILLING FIELDS for the onslaughter and the cleansing of KHMER race. Hanoi and Peking knew full well that they may have lost their so-called own people (Khmer-Chinese, Khmer-Viet) in the process, which they did. Hanoi was banking on the Killing Fields to have broken Khmer's spirit which lead to their miscalculation of the passing-by to takeover of Cambodia in 1979. Khmers did not kill Khmers. But Hanoi and Peking (Beijing) did by engineering and khmerizing the Killing Fields thus must be held responsible for their unimaginable act of atrocities. Locally, and internationally, Hanoi is steadfast in their effort to cover up their babaric acts on Khmer people, to change Khmer history, and to fully Veitnamize Cambodia. From Sydney, to Paris, to Washington D.C., Hanoi's lobbyists teams are there, really hard at work...The Cambodian Embassy on 16th street cannot even move a muscle without the prior consent and approval of their Viet boss on R street. The world must help Cambodia to find the real culprit and criminal before it's too late and to NOT joining in on praising the VIET HUN SEN regime as carelessly did the U.S Ambassador to Cambodia, Mr. MUSSOLINI...
09/10/06
AKnijaKhmer
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