By Keo Kounila

Like many millions of Cambodians, my parents and their families were “evacuated” from Phnom Penh to the countryside on April 17, 1975, the day the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia.

The word ‘evacuation’ means ‘sending people out to a safer place’. Yet, this term was gravely misused by the Khmer Rouge. The regime, known as Democratic Kampuchea, was the beginning of a period of horror. Groups of teenage boys, probably similar in age to my parents at that time, dressed in dark green uniforms and carrying guns, moved house-to-house shouting to people to move out.

When they were removed from the city they were marched into the countryside to work in slave-labour conditions in the rice paddies. The slightest violation of work code or conduct was punished with death.

Over the next three years, eight months and 20 days, while the Khmer Rouge was in power, about 1.7 million Cambodians died of starvation, overwork, and execution. My parents survived but many people they knew – everyone from close relatives and distant cousins to friends and colleagues – unwillingly joined Cambodia’s death row.

My mother is a victim of an unforgettable past. She still carries two deeply painful memories from her experiences of the Khmer Rouge regime.

When the war was almost over, my mother’s father died of hunger. He asked for just two bananas from his skinny and fragile wife before his death. My mother’s cousin also died after being beaten to death for stealing a lump of rice.

Knock at the door of any home in Cambodia and ask if the family lost members during the Khmer Rouge regime and you would be lucky to hear anyone say “no”.

The Khmer Rouge regime treated people like animals. But its legacy is far greater than the number of those who died. Millions of those who survived the Khmer Rouge have suffered life-long trauma as a result of what they experienced. Many from Cambodia’s older generation are mentally ill and yet psychological counseling is rare in a country as poor as Cambodia. Without help, victims can develop post traumatic stress disorder, which can recur regularly throughout life. Their trauma can be transferred to their children.

Before my bedtime as a kid, my mother would tell me stories of her close encounters with death. She could never rest until she had released her stories to me. Each episode is etched in my memory. Luckily for me, rather than feeling traumatised by her stories I have used them as inspiration in my career as a journalist, to keep track of what really happened during this Ultra-Maoist regime.

Yet unfortunately, many young Cambodians from my generation are not very well informed about what really happened between 1975 and 1979. Looking into the school curriculum, the one I studied for 12 years, and knowing what I know now about my country’s history, I can identify a lot of gaps. Continue reading →