This
week, my team and I visited the genocide museum and killing field in
Cambodia. Here is what I learned:
The Kampuchea Democratic from 1975-1979 tore Cambodia apart. It is said that a third
of the population was killed off.
The Khmer Rouge, the communist party, gained most of its
fuel from the bombings in 1973.
The Khmer Republic Government with the assistance from the US, dropped
about a half a million tons of bombs on Cambodia, which killed close to 300,000 people. Many people joined the Khmer Rouge’s revolution because they
resented the bombings or had lost loved ones.
In 1975 the Khmer Rouge overthrew the government. During this overthrow they took charge
of most of Cambodia and its main cities.
Once in charge they began to take citizens as prisoners to centers for
detention, interrogation, inhuman torture, and killing after confession.
One of the main centers S-21 was
previously a school that had been transformed into a prison with small cells,
torture tools, and shackles.
About
10,000 prisoners came through S-21 between 1975 and 1978. Out of the total of 20,000
inmates of
S-21, only 7 survived.
One of the survivors
The
Khmer Rouge also took citizens of large cities to the countryside to do
agricultural work. They wanted to transform Cambodia into a classless society
where there were no rich people, poor people, or exploitation. To accomplish
this, they abolished money, free markets, normal schooling, private property,
foreign clothing styles, religious practices, and traditional Khmer culture.
Public schools, pagodas, mosques, churches, universities, shops and government
buildings were shut or turned into prisons, stables, reeducation camps and
granaries.
There was no public or private transportation, no private property,
and no non-revolutionary entertainment.
This new regime believed that those with any sort of education were a
threat and needed to be executed.
They began taking the wealthy, educated, and upper class into fields to
be killed. They also began to
teach children that love and family were a weakness.
Most
families were taken to centers outside their cities to live as prisoners, awaiting
their death. Once
the regime tortured you and received their information by electric shock,
pulling out your fingernails, drowning, hanging, and beating, they would load you up in a
truck late at night.
The truck
would travel even further outside the city to a field. The prisoners were
blindfolded and told they were moving to a new home. Once they arrived they were put in a hut to wait their turn.
Then one by one they were brought out to be killed.
Each day the rebels would bring 20-30 prisoners from one center to the fields.
But as more and more people came to the centers, the more that needed to be
killed. As many as 300
prisoners per
day began to be brought to these fields.
While in
power this regime massacred nearly 2 million people. The people
of Cambodia have been broken and need hope.
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A temple that was built at the killing fields. It holds the remains of the bodies found in the fields.
These people don’t only need hope, they need Jesus. Think of the millions of people that met their death without the hope of Christ and His salvation. I pray that this brings urgency into your life…the urgency to share the gospel with the lost. There is evil in the world and Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy.
Jesus said, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:14
