Khmer Rouge Atrocities
Goddess Ganga’s Mother of Water,
the great Mekong River
flows through the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The former Kampuchea borders Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
It was once a powerful Buddhist Khmer empire
that between the 11th and 14th century ruled
most of the Indochinese Peninsula.
On its red background, between two horizontal blue stripes,
the Khmer national flag displays a stylized image of Angkor,
the magnificent ancient temple complex,
a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The temple ruins are located amid forests and farms
at Tonle Sap, the Great Lake.
The people of Cambodia take stately pride in Angkor,
as a lofty symbol of Khmer nationhood and identity,
In the 20th century Cambodia underwent turbulent changes
and during the Vietnam War the Americans bombed
and invaded the country.
In the 1970s the Maoist Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge
attempted to turn Cambodia into a classless peasant society
by forcing the urban population to move from the cities
to agricultural communities.
Similarly to Mao, Pot Pol saw farmers as the base of
the working class proletariat.
The dictator persecuted teachers, lawyers, doctors
and everyone else with a university education.
Also, the anti-colonialist ideology of the Communist regime
led to the arrest and torture of those who visited another country,
or spoke foreign languages.
The Khmer Rouge had classified these people as class enemies.
Pot Pol abolished money, closed banks,
schools and hospitals and ordered to burn the books.
After all Mao, too, believed that the more books you read,
the more stupid you become.
The Khmer Rouge also tried to extirpate western medicine
and substitute it for traditional peasant medicine.
The Communist revolution in Cambodia
led not only to terrible bloodshed and suffering,
but also involved some very bizarre specificities.
Wearing eyeglasses, for example, became a dangerous thing,
because the Khmer Rouge believed
that only class-enemy intellectuals wore spectacles.
Another capital transgression was
the absence of calluses on someone’s hands.
Again, as the Khmer Rouge saw it,
only class enemies had velvety finger skins.
Unlike clerks in an office, peasants had rough skin
on their hands because they toiled hard
on the fields from sunrise to sunset.
Tuol Sleng, the Hill of Poisonous Trees,
was a high school in Phnom Penh,
which the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison of horrors.
Here thousands of men and women lost their lives
in cruel interrogations and brutal torture.
Between 1975 and 1979 the Pot Pol leadership
in Tuol Sleng, Choeung Ek and other killing fields
committed dreadful atrocities.
It is estimated that at least one million people,
perhaps even two million, died in Cambodia
in this period, due to executions, torture, starvation
and forced labour induced exhaustion.
The population of the country at that time stood at about 7 million.
The genocide perpetrated by the Communist Pot Pol regime
also targeted Christians and Buddhists, as well as ethnic minorities,
mostly of Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese origin.
poem by Paul Hartal
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Related quotes
The trial organized with U.N. participation of some kind will be for crimes committed by Khmer Rouge leaders from 1975 to 1979. That's it.
The crimes committed by the North Vietnamese regime against the Vietnamese people were minor compared to the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge against the Cambodians, but for us on the left they were emotionally far more significant.
quote by James Donald
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Mayaguez Incident
Look and find our names upon The Wall,
Hargrove, Hall and Marshall were our names.
We were three men that were left behind,
three Marines still owed honorable graves.
Marines took back the hijacked Mayaguez
and recovered all her crewmen safe and well
But while our mission accomplished its objective
The Ninth Marines were ferried into hell.
The helicopters took us to the island,
Koh Tang, in the Southern China sea
The Khmer Rouge were dug in on the island
prepared for an assault from air or sea.
They say it was a failure of Intelligence-
The crew of The Mayaguez was moved before
The 2nd battalion forces first were landed
Upon that hostile beach, that deadly shore
Lieutenant Col. Randall Austin was commanding
Our perimeter was shrinking by the hour
Our landing force had taken heavy losses
Some died upon the beach, more drowned offshore.
It happened in perimeter reduction
we three men were forgotten in our hole.
When Helicopters flew the rest to safety
We were left behind on the atoll.
Some say we died that day, some say after
Reports are we were tortured and then killed.
Some claim we were forgotten by our nation.
But our names are on The Wall- you never will.
Look and find our names upon The Wall,
Hargrove, Hall and Marshall were our names.
We were three men that were left behind,
three Marines still owed honorable graves.
On May 15,1975, two weeks after the last Americans fled Saigon, the men of the fourth
and Ninth Marines were ordered to retake the U.S.S. Mayaguez and rescue her crew. The
ship had been seized by elements of the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia. It was mistakenly
believed that the crew were being held hostage on Koh Tang Island, Cambodia. While
the 4th Marines Delta Company successfully boarded and retook the Mayaguez, the ninth
Marines were landing on the beach at Koh Tang. Officially, the second battalion of the
Ninth Marine Regiment lost 18 dead,41 wounded and three MIA. In addition 7 of 8
assault helicopters that took part in the original assault were destroyed.
This last battle of the Vietnam War era was a tragedy of errors. The Marines were sent to
rescue crewmen who were no longer on the Island. The crew was rescued elsewhere. The
Khmer Rouge troops on the Island were expecting an attack by the Viet Cong as the
island was the subject of a territorial dispute. The marines were sent in, based on faulty
intelligence, against a force whose strength and dispositions had been badly
underestimated by our leaders. The fire fight on the Island was so fierce that the dead
had to be left where they had fallen.
Lance Corporal John N. Hargrove, PFC Gary L Hall and Danny G. Marshall’s names
appear on panel 1W lines 130-131 of the Vietnam memorial in Washington D.C. They
are the last combat fatalities of the Vietnam conflict. Not all heroes are buried in
Arlington Cemetery
poem by John F. McCullagh
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My own reaction from a distance is that Pol Pot's demise as the leader of the Khmer Rouge was inevitable, and that his own paranoia did him in as much as anything else.
quote by Sydney Schanberg
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Thailand: November 25,2009
IN Kanchanaburi
we were confessed
nature lovers rafting
our way along the
River Kwai
then
on a trip to Saraburi
we pay homage to the
Buddha's Footprint
there
finally in Lop Buri we prayed in the
Khmer shrine
where the remains of King Narai's
palaces of the 17th century
still survive
we rested in the sunflower fields
extremely beautiful
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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It seems to be that when these communist regimes take over - if you look at the example of Vietnam or Cambodia or Nicaragua - that even in conditions of peace they don't seem to be able to figure out how to support their people, and the human suffering is enormous.
quote by John Negroponte
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I had a lot of fun in Cambodia, much more so in Cambodia than Vietnam.
quote by Ed Bradley
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When I die, my only wish is that Cambodia remain Cambodia and belong to the West. It is over for communism, and I want to stress that.
Henry Kissinger is the greatest living war criminal in the world today, with the blood of millions of people in Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos and Chile and East Timor on his hands. He will never appear in a court or be behind bars.
quote by George Galloway
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Millions also perished in the Chinese camps, and there have been terrible genocides in Cambodia and Vietnam.
quote by Jean-Marie Le Pen
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Pledge No Longer
after watching films like "The Killing Fields, "
"Apocalypse Now, " "Full Metal Jacket" &
beginning to think long and hard about what
his country had really been doing in Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos,
this high school senior refuses in early morning
home room
to stand up & say
The Pledge of Allegiance
to the flag hanging from the corner of the wall,
where all his classmates, holding their hands over their hearts
mutter along the words that they have repeated
day in & day out,
since they can remember-
his homeroom teacher takes him aside when the rest sit down &
he is told that he needs to say the pledge just like the rest of the kids,
but he sits there staring up at the teacher with
fierce eyes that the teacher sees other classmates already being inspired by at that very moment,
and he utters simply,
"i'm not pledging any longer."
poem by Andrew Delapruch
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Callin Baton Rouge
I spent last night in the arms
Of a girl in louisiana
And though Im out on the highway
My thoughts are still with her
Such a strange combination of a woman and a child
Such a strange situation stoppin every hundred miles
Callin baton rouge
A replay of last nights events
Roll through my mind
Except a scene or two
Erased by sweet red wine
And I see a truck stop sign ahead
So I change lanes
I need a cup of coffee
And a couple dollars change
Callin baton rouge
(chorus)
Operator wont you put me on through
I gotta send my love down to baton rouge
Hurry up wont you put her on the line
I gotta talk to the girl just one more time.
Hello samantha dear, I hope youre feelin fine
And it wont be long until Im with you all the time
But until then Ill spend my money up right down to my last dime
Callin baton rouge.
*chorus*
Callin baton rouge
Sweet baton rouge, my baton rouge
song performed by by Garth Brooks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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South East Asian Domino Checker Board Games
Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos were chosen domino countries?
Who were countries playing their new domino checker board games?
Like Korea COMMUNISTS North Vietnam had two powerful allies?
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Bearly a Cereal Killer
The killing fields,
not in Cambodia during the Kymar Rouge Regime,
Not in slaughter house five by Vonnegut,
But an animal that tended to have animal instincts,
appalling isn’t it?
The bear, who is bi-polar,
--no scratch that, single polar,
For the Antarctic continent lacks bears but is for the birds,
Knut, was cute, his diet, seafood he had to taste,
For awhile, but he began maliciously killing carp,
All the possible Gelfite Fish gone to waste.
Knut, the once-cute celebrity polar bear turned vicious killer, is at the center of a controversy over his brutal slaughter of ten carp at the Berlin Zoo. The massive polar bear, who has lived at the zoo since birth, apparently fished the carp out of the moat surrounding him and ripped them to shreds in front of several disgusted zoo patrons.
DE-DE-DE, you wonder if people know about nature.
Life is not orderly and cute,
such as especially Germans can attest to this,
From the chancellors and barons,
'There is speculation that hand-reared Knut killed the carp just for fun.' One German newspaper reported that Knut 'senselessly murdered the carp' before leaving their remains.
I find a paradox that so many were sickened at the thought of many carps being put down by a polar bears,
Yet not more than two generations has passed since millions were slaughtered, but no one knew or were following orders.
(4-13-2008)
poem by Joe Rosochacki
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Once the troops move into Cambodia, the colleges and universities of this country were on the verge of civil war. Many closed down. The students were up in arms. And it looked very much like there were going to be real problems in this country.
quote by William Kunstler
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Cambodia
Written by ricky & marty wilde
Well he was thailand based
She was an airforce wife
He used to fly weekends
It was the easy life
But then it turned around
And he began to change
She didnt wonder then
She didnt think it strange
But then he got a call
He had to leave that night
He couldnt say too much
But it would be alright
He didnt need to pack
Theyd meet the next night
He had a job to do
Flying to cambodia
And as the nights passed by
She tried to trace the past
The way he used to look
The way he used to laugh
I guess shell never know
What got inside his soul
She couldnt make it out
Just couldnt take it all
He had the saddest eyes
The girl had ever seen
He used to cry some nights
As though he lived a dream
Ans as she held him close
He used to search her face
As though she knew the truth
Lost inside cambodia
But then a call came through
They said hed soon be home
She had to pack a case
And they would make a rendez-vous
But now a year has passed
And not a single word
And all the love she knew
Has disappeared out in the haze
Cambodia - dont cry now - no tears now
And now the years have passed
With not a single word
But there is only one thing left
I know for sure
She wont see his face again
song performed by by Kim Wilde
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I always felt more emotionally attached to Cambodia than I did to Vietnam.
quote by Ed Bradley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Let me reassure that the Kingdom of Cambodia a country with independence, neutrality, peace, freedom, democracy and human rights as you all have seen, shall be existing with no end.
The Animal Refugees
I’m the only elephant in Phnomh Penh
No more of my kind you’ll see
My wife ran off from the killing fields
She’s an animal refugee
I’m a Mekong crocodile from Vietnam
When the napalm scorched each tree
I swam to Laos at dead of night
I’m an animal refugee
I’m a slithery snake from Angkor Wat
Where the mountains churned the sea
Now tourists squat in my habitat
I’m an animal refugee
When people’s homes are ripped apart
There’s appeals on world TV
No one saves us. There’s little fuss
For an animal refugee.
poem by Sheena Blackhall
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I shall call the class, Heaven
'A class is not just a class
A class is like a temple.'
'Such as the God lives in temple
Same way the students lives in the class
Both are with the shiny face and broad smile.'
'A class is like a flower
That blooms with the light of the students.'
'A class is like a nursery
In which every type of flower planted.'
'In this way the class is a heaven
If we see it with our soul eyes
If we feel it
then we will find us
In the presence of God
And that is our respected Teachers.'
poem by Mahaveer Kumawat
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