Cambodia: home of Ankor Wat, one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. It is also the location of a scene similar to the Holocaust. In the late 70’s a communist party known as the Khmer Rouge moved in. A man known as Pol Pot controlled this regime. This man was born with a different name but changed it to Political Potential and cut it short to Pol Pot. He wanted to show his dominance. The majority of his recruits were teenage boys with no education.
The Khmer Rouge’s vision was to see Cambodia restored to a pure Khmer race. They believed agriculture should be the ONLY foundation for the people to stand on. As a result, people were driven out of big cities, such as the capitol Phnom Penh. Anyone educated or official was killed. I have read countless accounts of families being driven out of their homes in the city to work in labor camps. Just as in the case of the Holocaust, these people were starved and literally worked to death. Many of them tried to hide their identity, sometimes even separating the family into different work camps to save their lives. Children were left alone in work camps, hiding in a false identity as orphans, while their parents were found out and taken to the Killing Fields.
The Killing Fields is a location just outside of Phnom Penh. Victims were brought here blind folded under the false pretense of moving to another labor camp. They were then lined up around mass graves with their hands tied behind the back. The soldiers of the Khmer Rouge, mostly youth, would then proceed to murder these innocent people. Ammunition was expensive, so victims were killed with simple farm tools such as shovels and pick axes. Most were still alive when pushed into the mass grave. Women were raped and forced to watch their children and babies smashed against a tree before being thrown into a hole. Absolute HORROR!
Cody and I had the opportunity to visit the Killing Fields. It was unreal to see the dents in the earth, marking the mass graves.
I cried as I stood at the Killing Tree where children were held by their legs and banged against the tree.
One statistic I’ve heard is that the Khmer Rouge left 70% of the population under the age of 18. It literally became a nation of children. Most teachers and educated people were killed under the regime. This left Cambodia with no funding or educators to guide these children. The result is a country with little hope for the future.
Years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge (1979), Cambodia is now a hot bed for many forms of human trafficking. Some of these include:
Sex trade: girls and boys as young as 2 or 3 may be sold by their families
Organ harvesting: children of all ages are sold by relatives so that their organs can be harvested and sold on the black market.
Professional begging: babies and young children are sold to professional beggars. They are then hooked on sleeping meds to keep them looking sickly and docile. These women buyers then profit as “their” child looks pathetic to rich tourists, who then give her money to feed her children.
These are just to name a few! Cambodian children are the victims in most of the forms of trafficking. Their innocence is stripped away from them in an instant. It seems they are forced to grow up far too quickly.
I cried one day when I realized that all the children I’ve encountered on the streets are selling something; either jewelry and trinkets, or themselves. They aren’t allowed to imagine and play as children should. It is just a reminder of how broken this nation is. How much they desperately need the love of the Father.
I saw a glimmer of hope one evening as it was raining. I looked out my window to see 3 little boys running around naked in the rain. They were laughing and dancing. I watched them splash in puddles and slide across the slippery ground on their bellies. Their innocence and joy so pure. That is when I realized that God hasn’t forsaken this place. He sends the rain to wash away the hurt and abuse and, for just a few minutes, they can forget their pain and dance in the rain. Free. Careless. Innocent.
Please pray for Cambodia. Ask the Lord to send His Rain (the Holy Spirit) to fall upon this nation. Thank you again for all of your support. God bless you!
