Saturday, April 17, 2010

Duty of Memory: Please help share your stories under the Khmer Rouge regime

(Photo: AP)


Song interpreted at Khao-I-Dang camp:
ចារទុករឿងខ្ញុំ (Write down my story)
Click here to download or listen (MP3)
Originally posted by mpreuk on Camdisc

Dear Readers,

As you all know, the anniversary of “17 April 1975,” the date when the Khmer Rouge killing started, is just around the corner. In order to commemorate the memory of our loved-ones who lost their lives under the KR regime, we are calling on all of our readers to please help share your life stories under this tragic period. In addition to commemorating the memory of our loved-ones, these stories will also shed light to newer Cambodian generations who did not witness this event.

As survivors and relatives of survivors of the KR regime, such information sharing is our “duty of memory” so that they will never happen again!

Please send your story contributions in Khmer, English or French to us for posting, at the following email address: kiletters@gmail.com.

Thank you very much!

KI-Media team

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Khmers brothers and sisters,
It is time to forgive and forget. Let us move on together to defend our motherland, east and west.

Anonymous said...

we forgive, but we should not forget or history will repeat. lest we forget.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Sam Rainsy has never interested with 17 April 1975 because while Khmer in Cambodia had a huge suffering during Pol Pot regime, he and his family was living in luxury life in France. When coalition government has created near Thailand's border to fight with Vietnamese troop and Hun Sen government, Sam Rainsy said he was busy working in France, not interested in politics but when he heard that Paris Agreement has signed in 1991, he said he's free. Then, a stupid Prince Ranarith has rushed to appointed him as the Minister in the government. Thing comes around and goes around.

Bopea David

dodz said...

i heard once that song and i love it.

My Community Networking said...

? Duty of memory

Anonymous said...

The most coward politician in Cambodia is Sam Rainsy and he's also fastest run politician in Cambodia's history.

Gumar Vann, Philadelphia, USA

Anonymous said...

9:56 AM
Mr. Sam Raingsy did not spent his time in a camp or have much interest to visit the refugee camps at the Thai-Cambodian border.

Anonymous said...

"I live to remember the nightmare". After 35,years of khmer rouge,the torture,execution and starvation as well.all of my familys are all gone,I'm the only one survived the holocaust,and they all denies the facts or they say they din't know of the killings or torturing."This memory will alway be in side my heart for ever".

Anonymous said...

To the bravest reporter,

Please ask Mr. Hun Sen what did he do with Prince Seri Matak, Mr. Long Boret and Mr. Ung Bun Hor? All three men got pulled out from the French Embassy in mid April of 1975. The bravest KR's soldier then was .....and we know now the Cambodian pm.

Anonymous said...

The KR came for my father in the middle of the night. He was a soldier fighting against them before they came to power. He flee in the back door leaving my mother, little baby sister, and me. My other brother were put in youth camp, he repeatedly got tortured by suffocation in plastic bag over his head. This had affected him mentally until this day.

So they took three of us at gun point to their camp. There my mother and I were put in shackle to our ankle in a feces and urine infested room and fed watery porridge with few grains of rice in a bowl. Other prisoners were being torture and sent to their death every night.

My father surrender himself- walked to camp, when he heard through flyers that the KR will kill three of us. The KR grabbed him, tied him up and later released us.

During our released, I saw my father chopping wood with the KR watchful eyes. He looked at me as though to tell me to get away as fast as I can. That's the last time we ever him. Years later we found out that the KR took him to 'kach rotess', another execution camp outskirt of Battambang.

I've visted the site where they had us lock-up, it was a tear-jerker. They used WAT JENG, in Osalov, Battambang as their camp. Osalov- is a name of district in countryside about 20 minute ride from the city.

I want to go testify in the tribunal, but I can't go due to time restriction from work.

Anonymous said...

Khmer rouges did this to Khmers.
Vietcongs did this to Khmers.
Vietminhs alias CPP members did this to Khmers.

Anonymous said...

There are countless stories about the killing field...each one of it has an amazing impact on each individual life. For those who say forgive and forget or let move on, these just so easy to say but it actually almost impossible to do. I can forgive to Khmer people who were indoctrinated to hate other Khmer but I don't forgive nor forget the KR leaders and many cadres who are very spiteful with Khmer compatriots and exploited their status and ability to eliminate innocent countrymen and women especially children. They are ex king Sihanouk, Ieng sary, Nuon chea, Khiev samphorn their butchers and especially Hun Sen, Heng Samrin, Chea Sim and their clans. The issue goes beyond forgive and forget, please recognize and respect the feeling of lost, hurt and continuation of pain and suffering due to the fact that the victims cannot find closure to the horrendous crimes because of the act of manipulation to promote impunity in our society. Until the impunity and the social injustice in the Khmer society are resolved then perhaps we would be able to find peace in our heart and mind.

Anonymous said...

When you kill and specially your own people, you don't deserve to be forgiven, forgetten and you even doesn't deserve to live, you must be jailed.

Anonymous said...

I am not a Cambodian. As an American I feel terrible for what happened to the Khmer people before, during and after the Khmer Rouge.

My country abandoned Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge monsters were slaughtering so many innocent people. The United States conduct in Southeast Asia is unforgivable. Not only Khmer Rouge but the US military and intelligence agencies must answer for their crimes against innocent Cambodians.

I am sorry that the Cambodian nation must remember this day.

Anonymous said...

:"Khmers brothers and sisters,
It is time to forgive and forget. Let us move on together to defend our motherland, east and west.

9:36 AM"

And be fuckup by your motherfucker again? See! how ah Kwack Hun Xen motherfucker is stilling land to give to the Vietmotherfucker!!!!

you go to hell 9:36AM! go chage yourself and be an honest person motherfucker!

Anonymous said...

Before they can be fofiven, do they accept of their wrong doing?

Or we just fool around playing around with the victime and let the crime go as nationalism or righth thing to do for the moment?

What happen in Cambodia right now is the same thing that lead to the killingfield! " If I don't please ah Kwack Hun Xen I would get shit! Not my fault is ah Kwach fault!" and so on and on never ending!

Anonymous said...

i want to know how much Hun Sen pay taxes last year.

check this link to sees how much Obama paid his taxes last year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100415/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obamas_taxes

Anonymous said...

Before they can be fofiven, do they accept of their wrong doing?

Or we just fool around playing around with the victime and let the crime go as nationalism or righth thing to do for the moment?

What happen in Cambodia right now is the same thing that lead to the killingfield! " If I don't please ah Kwack Hun Xen I would get shit! Not my fault is ah Kwach fault!" and so on and on never ending!

Anonymous said...

12:07Am! you jug head! there are no personal income tax in Cambodia and most countries in the world!

Anonymous said...

Before they can be forgiven, do they accept of their wrong doing?

Or we just fool around playing around with the victime and let the crime go as nationalism or righth thing to do for the moment?

What happen in Cambodia right now is the same thing that lead to the killingfield! " If I don't please ah Kwack Hun Xen I would get shit! Not my fault is ah Kwach fault!" and so on and on never ending!

12:07 AM

Anonymous said...

it makes sense to forgive and reconcile, well at least during times of national crisis, however the stupid KR leadership should still be brought to justice for they were accountable and responsbile under their watch, really! no except here. it is lives they played with, they are responsible and should be held accountable for their stupid thinking, etc...

Son of a farmer said...

The absence of memory of the killingfield is one thing, and the distortion of history is another---the former KR killers are recently became Mighty God, Hun Sen, Chea Sim, Heng Samrin, and more. That's simply reason why the CCP and Youn won't officially allow Cambodians Learning the history of the Killingfied!

Anonymous said...

Bopea David prefers bloody hans like Chea Sim, Heng Samrin..

Anonymous said...

To Posters 7:03PM and 8:36PM
I am interested in interviewing you to add your stories to a book about the Cambodian civil war and the Khmer Rouge regime which I have spent the past 20 years writing it. I plan to get it published by next year. If you would like to have your stories added to this book, please kindly contact me at: khemara_kakvey@yahoo.com
Thanks,
Chanda Chhay
PS. I will send some excerpt of this book to KI-media to be posted wihtin the next few hours so that you could see how the book's format would look like.

Anonymous said...

Before looking back to historical events, I can't help asking myself these 2 following questions
(1)who backed up KR to take over P.Penh on 4/17/75?
(2)why no Cambodian dared to overthrow KR's regime?

Anonymous said...

You are stupid but I answer to your questions.
1) China
2) KR were Khmers, Khmers didn't want to fight against Khmers because Khmers never think that Khmers could kill Khmers like that.

Anonymous said...

4:42am, good question as it made me think. i can only speculate that 1) it was the extreme or radical nationalism view that look to outside world for weapon to fight in war, 2) most cambodians did not resist because they thought the war was over, and never thought that khmer could do such thing as killing their own people. over all, it was policy done wrong, and thus all heal broke loose! i think the enemy was withing itself, and what helped to facilitate it all was the stupid KR immediate abolished what we all taken for granted like law, civility, freedom, education, etc, etc... now think about it, without law and order, all hell broke loose as there was no justice, none whatsoever under their rule.

Anonymous said...

1) Kampuchea Democratic vs. Khmer Republic
2) Kampuchea Democratic overthrown
3) Killing Fields

Anonymous said...

My bad...

1) Kampuchea Democratic vs. Khmer Republic
2) Khmer Republic overthrown
3) Killing Fields

Anonymous said...

Oh, it's rather painful to look back on the miserable historical events -- each chapter is a blood-stained chronicle of our fellow Cambodians'calamity under the brutal regime.
What has Cambodia done to deserve such a mortal punishment for decades?
Lacking a political consciousness-raising, Cambodians can escape the genocide under Pol Pot's ruling but cannot avoid being colonial slaves under HunSen dynasty. I have no doubt about it.

Anonymous said...

Just acknowledgement of the Khmer Rouge killing field is good enough and no need to go beyond that!

The Khmer Rouge killings are struggle between the poor and the rich, the have and have not, the privilege and the underprivileged!

Anonymous said...

I too came out of this era at 9 yrs. old. I am at a lost as to why Khmer can kill Khmers like this.

The only way I can put Pol Pot's madness into pespective is to accept that the nation of Cambodia was, and may still be, a county under God's judgment. She received judgment for her people violence, lawlessness, arrogance and pride.

The Nazi were killers as well, but they did not target their own people.

The KR era 1975-1979 was a period of cleasing for injustices. Hundred of thousands was slaughtered like animals, and hundred of thousans more starved.
It was painful, but that's what judgement does, like a purification process.

As a young boy living under KR, I saw a man blind folded and bound with aluminum wire taken to the other side of the railtrack from the village where I live. He was taken for execution. I was terrified and my knee jerked from this terrifying sight.

Pol Pot loved his country. He was an ultra nationalist, who, no doubt would go to great lenght to protect Cambodia. But he was terribly blind as a leader. He wanted to see Cambodia return to greatnes she once possess during the Khmer Angkor Empire. But he was a blind nationalist. His drive to restore Cambodia former glory become a curse instead for the nation and for the people because of this prideful attitude.

That right Cambodian brothers, our pride in Khmer's past greatness can become a curse. We should be thankful what we're able to inherit from our ancestors, but we should avoid letting that pride blind. We should be careful to adopt a balance perspective on national inheritance, like Angkor Wat. We should maintain a right and moderate attitude toward nationalism and country territorial presevation.

I am of the opinion we not only should NEVER forget what the KR did, but should also educate our children on this era. We should tell our children that Pol Pot was a horrific monster who destroyed everything that is Khmer, culture, religion, family structure, language, education, fabric of society. He turned the country back 50-100 years. I can forgive, but how can one forget such a horrendous atrocities where the blood of millions are crying out for justice?

Peace to Cambodia

Anonymous said...

Ask foreigners what they know about Cambodia. I venture to guess:

1. Angkor Wat
2. Khmer Rouge
3. Pol Pot

Do you ever wondered if there are connection between these?

Anonymous said...

1) Democratic of Kampuchea overpower
2) Lon Nol fled, 2 of 3 executed
3) Khmer Rouges

Anonymous said...

3:54pm or Peace to Cambodia,

You wrote,"Pol Pot loved his country. He was an ultra nationalist, who, no doubt would go to great lenght to protect Cambodia. But he was terribly blind as a leader. He wanted to see Cambodia return to greatnes she once possess during the Khmer Angkor Empire. But he was a blind nationalist. His drive to restore Cambodia former glory become a curse instead for the nation and for the people because of this prideful attitude."

Pol pot was beyond what you describe here. You stated that he "was a blind nationalist." How could you brand pol pot as a nationalist? He was never a nationalist but a killer. Is killing innocent people considered nationalism? you must be out of your mind, pal. Also, the notion that pol pot had wanted to create a khmer society likened to the Angkor Empire was a myth. No one knows what he had in mind or why the killing took place. There are lots of un-answered questions surrounding the khmer rouge regime.

Anonymous said...

good point, we may not know the real evil motive of pol pot and his regime that destroyed cambodia; however, we all know that his regime killed a lot of khmer people and took the cambodia back to the stone age, almost! nobody can deny that for a fact, the killing of khmer people for sure under his stupid regime! you called that nationalistic? i'm sure others like myself called that stupid, idiotic, psychopathic, arrogant, bastard, foolish, ignorant, uneducated, monster, evil, satin and more! next time, if any leader like khmer people like pol pot did in cambodia, he should be locked up in prison for life or worst, get thrown into the deep blue ocean and let the great white shark feast on him for sure!