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Cambodia marks genocide atrocities with Day of Remembrance
PHNOM PENH, May 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Black-clad students reenacted the
horrors of the Cambodian genocide at the “Killing Fields” on Monday to
commemorate the two million people killed by the Khmer Rouge’s murderous,
Maoist regime.
Hundreds gathered at the notorious site in Phnom Penh to mark the annual
Day of Remembrance with prayers and performances, including students wielding
wooden rifles, knives and bamboo sticks in mock attacks.
“We performed these scenes in order to remember the genocidal Pol Pot
regime and the cruelty that Cambodian people suffered,” Chhaem Khleuong, a
fine art teacher who played a Khmer Rouge cadre, told AFP.
A quarter of Cambodia’s population died under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge
regime, culled in mass killings or of starvation, forced labour or torture.
His brutal reign came to an end in 1979, and the Khmer Rouge atrocities
are still remembered at museums and sites dedicated to victims of the
genocide.
The Day of Remembrance, more commonly called the “Day of Anger” in
Cambodia, is held at the Choeung Ek “Killing Fields”, where some 15,000
people were confined and sent to their deaths between 1975 and 1979.
It was an emotional day for many attendees, some who cried as students
pretended to slit victims’ throats, shoot them dead or subject them to
waterboarding.
“These views brought my feeling back to the Pol Pot era, the killing was
heinous,” said 62-year-old Chan Ren, who lost more than 10 relatives under
the regime.
“Today, people attend the event to pray to the souls of people who were
killed by the Khmer Rouge,” she added.
Several of the genocide’s chief orchestrators have been tried by a UN-
backed court, though critics say prosecutions have been too slow and many of
the accused have died before facing trial.
In November, Khmer Rouge’s former head of state Khieu Samphan and “Brother
Number Two” Nuon Chea were found guilty of genocide and sentenced to life in
prison.
Pol Pot, nicknamed “Brother Number One”, died in 1998 before he was
brought to trial.
BSS/AFP/RY/1208 hrs