Cambodia had had a turbulent history of war, revolutions, mass killings and poverty from the 1970s to the late 1980s. Among the most notorious were the dark years of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. At that time, government leaders carried out a radical and aggressive programme to weed out the intellectual, the rich and the ethnically “impure.” Estimates of the death toll range from approximately one million to three million; in any case, the country was left in devastation by the end of the regime. (And then the country went into another ten years of civil war.)
The most visible physical remnant of the dark years is the Toul Sleng Museum, formerly Khmer Rouge special forces (S-21) prison. Official accounts (and yes, the Khmer Rouge kept meticulous account of torture and confessions) indicated that 20,000 prisoners had once entered the prison. Only seven came out alive. The rest, researchers believe, were killed and buried in a mass grave site called Choeung Ek. I have passed by Toul Sleng on numerous occasions (for church and for work). Every time, I have an eerie feeling thinking of those who suffered bloody and painful deaths.
Today, many Cambodians have decided to move on in pursuit of better lives for their family. Most would rather benefit from the country’s economic growth than to fall victim to more hatred. Nonetheless, emotions are buried deep inside. Sometimes, simple conversations can bring up bitterness.
Case I.
Conversation with a colleague while he helped to upgrade my computer’s virus programme…
“You know, my grandparents were from China also. But I have not seen them for more than 30 years now… When I was a kid, I was put in a children’s camp. You have heard of the Khmer Rouge? They took the children away from their parents…”
Case II.
Conversation while at dinner with my Cambodian and Filipino colleagues…
Filipino colleague (just finished eating a spider – gross!): Chinese eats everything too!
Me: That’s true. When I was a primary school student, there was a store that sells snake meat. They would have cages of live snakes outside their store…
Filipino colleague: Yes, they have snakes in the Philippines too! (Turning to the Cambodian colleague) Have you eaten snake?
“I have eaten when I was a boy in the camp. We were too hungry and had to eat snake. I have not eaten snakes since then.”
Case III.
Conversation while thanking my landlord for the delicious ly-chees he brought back from his annual vacation…
“Some of them (the ly-chees) are not so sweet. When I was young in the camp, we eat the wild ones. There are many black seeds and it was not sweet… I was fourteen then and was old enough to stay with my mother…”
I was often shocked by how easily these conversations lead to the Khmer Rouge. Indeed, many aspects of life can serve to remind them of their painful encounters more than 30 years ago.
Such mass atrocities impact this generation as well.
Case IV.
Lunch conversation with a 28-year-old colleague…
Colleague: How tall are you?
Me: About 1.7m. And yourself?
Colleague: “I am 1.68m. But my older brothers, they were born during the Khmer Rouge time. They did not have food when they were young. So now they are shorter than me.”
Case V.
Leisure conversation with 22-year-old college student from the province…
“My parents were forced to marry during the Pol Pot regime. And then the regime forced them to separate. They are together happily now, but my family has been very poor…”
Whenever the topic of Khmer Rouge comes up, the atmosphere would suddenly turn very heavy. I would not know what to say. It would be very awkward. But deep inside, I felt that it is good that people still talk about it. Nowadays, we listen to “experiences” from the Khmer Rouge. But in twenty or thirty years, we will be hearing “stories” of those terrible years. We, as the younger generation, should learn about the past and prevent similar tragedies from happening.
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