Warning: this blog is about the Cambodian genocide and as such parts of it may be hard to read. In addition, I have posted pictures at the bottom of the blog, some of which may be difficult to view for some readers. Please consider this when viewing. Thank you.
On Saturday, we went to visit the Choeung Ek Genocide Memorial, built at one of the largest killing fields during the Pol Phot reign.
After wards, we talked to Pastor and he said that Cambodia is a secular country filled with despair. The trauma of the regime left a stressed and fearful nation.
About 3 million people were killed, which is approximately a fourth of the population. No one was safe. Women and children, the educated, and city dwellers were particularly targeted. However soldiers of the regime were not exempt from death either. We saw a mass grave that was filled with the headless corpses of soldiers that were suspected of betraying Pol Phot and the cause.
One of the worst things we saw was the killing tree. When discovered, the tree was covered with blood, bones and other body parts. Next to it was a mass grave with the remains of women and children. They now believe that the children were killed by being beat against the tree and then thrown into the mass grave. Many of the bodies of the women and children in the grave were found without clothes.
A large memorial was built to remember and honor the victims. It is a tall structure encasing the remains of some of the victims. Inside are levels of glass cases, each filled with bones. There are nine levels filled with just the skulls of victims.
Skulls were examined to determine ages and ethnicity. Some skulls belonged to foreigners and our tour informed us that much of the outside world didn't know what was happening in Cambodia because of the closed borders. Many of the skulls were identified as victims younger than twenty (despite Phot's intention that children were more pure and many survived).
Children were often killed as part of a family death. There was a thought that if one person caused "trouble" or was to be killed, the whole family should be killed so that the trouble would stop and there would be no one left to take revenge. Essentially, they believed that there was no benefit to keeping the children alive and that there might be a risk to do so.
The killings began in 1975 and ended in 1979. Pol Phot remained in power, on a smaller level, for another 15 years and was later put on house arrest until he died of natural causes in his 70s.
The people left behind now claim Hinduism and Buddhism as their primary religions. The memorial reflects this with symbols from both incorporated into its architecture. Pastor says that many of the youth choose to walk away from religion all together and their parents are jaded by how religion did not save or help them and do not fight to keep their children in religion since it seems to offer nothing. Hinduism was the largest religion in Cambodia for many years but Buddhism has surpassed it. Currently only about 1% of the population are Christians (which is about 10 times what it was in the 90s) but Christianity is growing. Pastor believes this may be because of the hope and healing people find in it.
It's hard to understand the capacity of humans to commit such harm against one another. All I can think of is the possibility that we get so caught up in our idea of what good is and our inclination that we are right that we forget that the person we're viewing as the enemy is someone just as human, just as loved, perhaps believing just as strongly in their own set of ideas. What blinds us from viewing each other's humanity and allows us to ruthlessly kill and torture, I cannot say.
Fear plays a part in it I'm sure. The view of "if I don't kill them, I may be killed" certainly must have been used by some to justify what they were doing. Still, it's hard to imagine that humans, created after a loving God, can be so cruel and have go so far from the love God meant for us to show one another. Sadly, this isn't the only time on the Race we've seen this level of horror. We saw it in Rwanda as well and there it happened even more recently.
I don't have the answers for this, but i hope we remember the horror and try to prevent it from happening yet again. Let's acknowledge survivors of trauma, whether genocides or something else, and let them tell their stories. Let's show them that not all people are bad and that some people want to love them and keep them safe. Let's try and reflect the good of God and be the love we want in the world. Let's pray for nations like Cambodia and Rwanda that still feel the ripples of the terror and let's support them where and how we can.
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