Cambodia; a nation destroyed by it's own hands.
The Khmer Rouge Regime. (1975-1979)
There's a whole long explanation about why it happened.
But what hits deep are the gruesome, and quite brutal, truths on what they did to their own people.
The Khmer Rouge wanted to create a self-sustaining nation based on farming.
To attain this goal they started work camps and execution fields to kill off the educated citizens.
Their explanation?
Instead of teaching new ideals, they reasoned it was easier to use the people that already knew how to farm and wouldn't fight the regime. In fact, the village folk were considered 'the perfect citizens.'
The regime targeted the educated 'city-dwellers.'
People that held professions such as lawyers, doctors, and sometimes just people that wore glasses because they assumed it meant they were educated.
Today, we went to visit the killing fields in Phnom Penh.
We walked through mass graves.
We stood in places where people drew their last breaths.
We stepped onto a land where brutality stole innocent lives.
Over two million Cambodian people (adults and children) were killed.
No, they were executed.
Tortured.
Their lives were stolen from them.
They would be arrested, blind-folded, and thrown into the back of trucks without any explanation.
Upon arrival at the fields, they would be executed.
As the number of those to be executed grew, some would be detained until the next night
and put into a blacked out room until their name was called.
Then, they were murdered.
The Regime didn't want to use bullets since they were expensive and they believed the lives weren't worth it.
That the people they were executing weren't worth a few extra pennies.
That their lives weren't worth anything.
Instead, they used farming tools.
Hammers.
Hoes.
Machetes.
The bark off a palm tree with razor edges.
They tortured and executed people daily.
Their executions went up to about 300 people a day.
Then, after bashing in their heads or slicing their necks, they threw them into mass graves.
They tossed them aside.
And covered them with DDT to mask the smell and to kill those who were buried alive.
Their torturing didn't end with adults.
They used their surroundings to end infants lives.
To 'stop the cycle.'
Under the covering of the night sky, with florescent lights shining around, they would slam babies into trees.
They would execute innocent infants.
Women were raped, tortured, and then executed.
Those living around the camps were made oblivious to what was happening in the camps.
The guards would play loud music over the speakers to drown out the screams.
At the fields, stands a temple that was built as a memorial to all who died there.
Inside there are shelves and shelves of skulls.
Skulls of the victims.
Skulls that are bashed in.
Skulls that are cracked.
Skulls of the innocent.
Bone fragments and clothing are continually being dug up by the massive rainstorms here.
I stepped over a half-imbedded jaw that was starting to emerge from the earth.
Cambodians killing Cambodians.
Killing their neighbors.
Murdering their neighbors.
One slogan of the Rouge:
"To destroy you is no loss; to preserve you is no gain."
My words stop here.
There's nothing left to say.
Thank you Jesus, that you care about just the one. (Luke 15:1-7)
<3tasha
