In the 1950’s Cambodia prided itself on its new independence from French rule. However, this freedom was short lived as the Vietnam War in the 1960’s kicked into full swing, which inevitably landed Cambodia as a key player in the war. The Ho Chi Minh Trail used by the North Vietnamese as a military passage from North Vietnam to Siagon extended to include areas inside the Cambodian boarder. Under the Nixon administration the US forces bombed these areas in Cambodia in 
attampts to take out North Vietnamese troops. The problem however, was that the US forces ended up killing more local Cambodians that North Vietnamese soldiers. As a result King Sihanouk ended relations with the US and at the same time the North Vietnamese were training a communist guerilla group called the Khmer Rouge. The American government, after relations with Cambodia ceased, was concerned Cambodia would side with the North Vietnamese in war. They then aided in instituting General Lon Nol in command of Cambodia’s government and the king was overthrown and imprisioned. This marked the beginning of a period of civil war between the Khmer Rouge and the forces of Lon Nol.
In early 1975 America was loosing the war in Vietnam and as a result ceased giving aid to Cambodia. When US forces pulled out of Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge took control of the capitol. April 17th 1975 marked the beginning of four horrific years in Cambodian history. During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, it is estimated that nearly one third of Cambodians were either executed or died of starvation or malnutrition. As I walk the streets of Phnom Penh the tradgic effects of this time is still evident today in every faucet of Cambodian daily life. Form 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge mounted one of history’s evilest attacks ever seen in humanity.
Have you ever been hungry, tortured, suffering, losing hope in life, waiting your turn to be killed? Have you ever thought that you’re life was less valuable than a piece of bread, a piece of paper, a piece of candy? This phenomenon happened to the Cambodian people under genocidal regime ruled by Pol Pot, leng Sary, and Kieu Samphan.
– Children of Cambodia’s Killing Field’s Memoirs by Survivors- complied by Dith Pran, written by Charles Ok.
Cambodia became a dictatorship with Prime Minister Pol Pot in the lead. Within days of the over throw of Phnom Penh, thousand’s of familes were forced to leave their homes and moved to farm land outside the city. On average Cambodians were forced to work 12-16 hours a day, and were given only one cup of rice a day. The Khmer Rouge killed anyone associated with Lon Nol’s government. They killed the educated – the, teacher, the nurses, the doctors, the lawyers – because they believed the educated were corrupted by western thought. Starvation was daily life. Disease abounded. Western forms of medicine were prohibited by the new government. Children were abandoned or taken from their families. Fathers were killed in front of their children. Men and women were beaten and tortured.
We were evacuated from our homes on April 17th, a very dusty hot and humid day. Thousands, and thousands of Cambodian people were forced out of their homes. During the evacuation the city of Cambodia was crowded with people, automobiles, animals and abandoned children. Sip, sip…plop, plop…beep, beep…waaa, waaa…The sounds of feet, babies cryingand car engines surrounded us as we were forced out of the city. Children were crying because they were being separated from their parents. Some were crying because their parents had abandoned them. The streets were full of thousands of frightened people running and shouting for lost ones. Many belongings were left behind. Elderly people forced out of their homes with only clothes on their body…..Several days passed. The city was annihilated by a new government and was emptied. Its soul was destroyed. Houses and tall buildings stood there with no spirit. It became a ghost town in the flash of a few seconds.
– Children of Cambodia’s Killing Field’s Memoirs by Survivors- complied by Dith Pran, written by Sopheap K. Hang
field. The was a strong tree with the afternoon sunlight dancing through its array of branched. Next to it stood a small wooden sign that read “The kiling tree agaisnt which executioners beat children.” Each mass grave site was covered by overgrown grass. In the middle of the fields stood a monument built in 1988. It was tall and slendor with glass windows on every side. Beyond the windows, there were hundreds of skulls stacked to the celling. One skull after another. As I stood there a short Cambodian man stood next to me.
“It doesn’t seem real- the evil,” I said, “The evil, it just doesn’t seem like there could be such evil in this world.”
My Cambodian friend and I talked for a period of time. He gave me a full run down of his life in less than ten minutes. He moved to Texas with his father in the early 1970’s before the Khmer Rouge came to power. He has two bothers and his best friend that to this day he does not know what happened to them. There was a pause in our conversation. This man stood transfixed next to the hundreds of stacked skulls that lay before him.
“I wonder, ” he said, ” I wonder if any of those could be my brother?”
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12
I am utterly convinced that in a nation which evil has no street corner untouched by evil, Jesus Christ truly is our only hope. Until the day we see the face of hope- the face of Jesus Christ- may we be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.
