When I think about history, I think about the stuff that happened a LONG LONG time ago. I know that history is made every day but for some reason, in my mind, the inhumane and ridiculous stuff is far from my life time. And then I heard about the history of Cambodia, here’s a summary of what I learned during our orientation this month!
Cambodia has been in existence for about 2,000 years. The kingdom was an important stop in the ocean trade route between India and China. In 802 Jayavarman II declared himself god-king and this founded the Angkor Kingdom. The Khmer (pronounced ka-my) people began to build large temples to honor Buddha and Hindu gods. Over time the Angkor Kingdom gained and lost territory as it fought many wars with the Cham, Thai and Vietnamese. The Angkor reign ended in 1431 when the Thai invaded and took over the capital. The kingdom continued to struggle with the Thai and Vietnamese kingdoms simultaneously. This continued until the French came to Cambodia in 1864 and Cambodia became a French protectorate. Then, as any government would, the French began to take control of the government. During WWII the Japanese took control of Cambodia and the Khmer people had more influence in the government than when the French were in control. After WWII Cambodia began to fight for it’s freedom. In 1954, Cambodia officially had its freedom.
In the 1960’s (this is where the really crappy stuff started to happen) while the American war with Vietnam was going on, the communist movement was on the rise in Cambodia. This movement was under the leadership of Pol Pot. As the Vietnamese traveled through Cambodia to get into southern Vietnam, the American troops began to bomb the Vietnamese troops. The Americans were bombing the Vietnamese while they were in Cambodia without telling the King of Cambodia. The bombs that were dropped killed more Cambodian farmers than it did Vietnamese troops. Out of fear that the Americans would take over Cambodia, the king cut off relations with America. The American government was afraid the Cambodians would side with North VIetnam, so they helped General Lon Nol overthrow the king and take over in 1970.
Now, open civil war began between Lon Nol’s governemnt and Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. Many people joined the Khmer Rouge because they were unhappy with the American bombings and the new government. America provided supplies, weapons and money to the Lon Nol government; but Lon Nol was still loosing the civil war. In addition when America lost the war, in Vietnam, they stopped providing aid to Cambodia.
In April of 1975 (the not so distant past), the Khmer Rouge took over the capital city (Phnom Penh) and forced everyone out of ALL the cities in Cambodia. Everyone was forced into farming communes in the country side. Once the Khmer Rouge was in control they began to kill anyone associated with Lon Nol’s government or his military. They began to kill off all the educated people, teachers and doctors because they didn’t want people to be corrupted by Western thinking. They also killed off religious people: both Buddhist monks and Christians. The people were forced to work long hours in the fields with only one cup of rice to eat per day. During this time the Khmer Rouge also had killing fields and concentration camps of sorts. They would force people onto busses and take them to the fields to work. When they arrived at the fields they would kill many of the people, instantly. The Khmer Rouge beat men, women and children with whatever farming tools they could find. I visited one of the memorial sites- it was distrurbing what they would do. Between the killings, starvation and disease about two million people died (nearly one-third of the population of Cambodia).
In December 1978 the Khmer ROuge invaded Vietnam and by January 7, 1979 the Vietnamese troops had taken control of Phnom Penh and the government. The Vietnamese then set up a new government and the Khmer Rouge fled to the Thai border to continue fighting. Under the Khmer Rouge there had been no money or private property but suddenly there was a need for both- many Cambodians fled to refugee camps. They would head to the refugee camps to collect supplies to bring them back to their families; however the Khmer Rouge had placed many landmines on many of the roads. In retaliation the Vietnamese government and some resistance fighter groups placed even more landmines to prevent attacks. Thus, Cambodia became one of the most heavily land mind countries in the world.
So, 1989 (a little too close for comfort) Vietnam backed out of Cambodia for financial reasons resulting in the resistance fighter groups along the border fighting each other to control the government. At the end of 1990 the United Nations had the fighting groups sign a treaty: saying they would stop fighting and work together. All the groups signed BUT the Khmer Rouge backed out of the treaty and continued fighting. In 1993, the United Nations elections were held and the royalist party (FUNCINPEC) won the elections; however, Hun Sen (leader of the Cambodian People’s Party and prime minister during the Vietnamese era) demanded to be in control of the new government. Thus Prince Norodom Ranariddh (FUNCINPEC) and Hun Sen were declared co-prime ministers. So the UN ended their responsibility and in 1993, King Norodom Sihanouk regained his throne.
In 1997 Hun Sen perfromed a coup to take away the title from King Norodom Sihanouk. In 1998 when elections were held again, Hun Sen won. That same year the Khmer Rouge officially disbanded. Thus in 1999, just 12 short years ago, was the first year of peace for Cambodia since 1969. Their first peaceful elections did not occur until 2003!! All of those killings have left the current population of Cambodia very young: 50% of the population is under 20 years of age and 80% of the population is under the age of 30 and only 3% of the population is over 65.
It’s crazy. Peace, trust and stability are finally beginning to take root in the hearts of the Cambodian people. For so long they have feared making friends and reaching out to people because it was a risk to their life. The more people you knew, the more likely you were to be tortured, forced to give out names of people you knew and then killed. With the primary religion being Theravada Buddhism many of the victims believe that because of a former life they deserved to have thier families destroyed.
On a less depressing note, some factoids:
April is the hottest month with temperatures as high as 36 C and December is the coolest with a low of 26C
Cambodia’s population is 14 million
93% of the poulation practic Theravada Buddhism (they mix in animistic spirit worship, chinese ancestor worship and Hindu symbology)
2% Practice Christianity
5% is other- mostly Muslim
$1 USD = 4,100 Riel
