Category Archives: Khmer Rouge History

Second time in Germany

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After spending three weeks in Germany last year, I didn’t expect to come back to this country once again. I always like the country, as much as I want to study there. Before boarding, as usual I felt extremely nervous about the flights. I never had any bad or good omen but just anxiety about plane crashes. (Sorry, I’m now at Sovannaphum airport, and I don’t want such a thing to happen to me then.) Fortunately enough (or as simply as it should), my friends and I landed safely on the German land where I could see ‘ green’. Ooh, so so green, that’s our first impression word. I thought I was in paradise, except that I knew I was alive, breathing. It’s summer in Germany but it rained a lot a few days after we arrived in Munich. We went to our training centre located in Feldafing, Munich, (Bavaria State).

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It’s a different sort of feeling from the last time, of course. I felt like I could spend the rest of my life at the area. The small flowers of differrent colors could be seen from the field (photos next). I always imagined such a view, and now I could have it. Amazing, wasn’t it? Feldafing is a small little town in which I was told only rich and wealthy Germans (a large number of millionaires and billionaires) are residing. That wasn’t like what many Asians think about how an area for the rich should be. It is quiet, peace and serene, one could never find in metropolitan areas such as Phnom Penh or Bangkok (aren’t they?). Several alumni participants did give words of praise about the area. I was always thinking that I could spend the rest of my life over there.

In Munich (7 days), we went on our schedule by starting with a tour to differrent memorial sites dedicated to various resistance events against the Nazi regime/Adolf Hilter. We met a suvivor of the White Rose resistance group against Hilter. To me, he was just like Chum Mei, Bou Meng, or Vann Nath. It was good to listen to stories told by him as a prisoner of conscience. However, he was more lucky than his Jewish friends of the resistance who were beheaded by the Nazi soldiers. Isn’t it sad? Next days were spent visiting the Munich court, prosecutor, “Dachau” concentration camp. I could go on for hours describing my experience over there…but I never forget to compare what I saw to what there is in Cambodia. All I could say is that Cambodia has a long long way to go. What symbol should I use to emphasize this sentence? None, I think. Maybe you wanna know why I came to Germany this time. I was selected as one of the 23 participants to attend this Khmer Rough Tribunal Fellowship Program that tries to promote justice and reconciliation through capacity building. Of course, I always felt lucky to be chosen considering to less exposure to or experiences with the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

Off to Nuremberg now (2 days). Right there, we visited the former court of Nuremberg Trials that prosecuted the former Nazi leaders, one judge association, and at last the documentation centre which I could say is way much bigger and more modern than the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam). I know quite well that the DC-Cam has worked so hard on the Khmer Rouge matters, only to demand more support from differrent key players such as the government and donors.

Berlin is a very vibrant city, I dare say. I felt very safe and secure though at the beginning, I didn’t trust the city after a friend got robbed in a hotel lounge. I understand that insecurity is everywhere, but this time it was just different. People I met are very nice, helpful and friendly. It is very difficult and not right to make a generationalization about one nationality, city or country itself. The most interesting for me is the efficient transport. I could never get lost with this ability to speak English and to read the map given for free!! What we did in Germany for nearly a week was visiting memorial sites of the Jews killed in the Nazi regime, psychological (treatment) centres for victims, the ARD broadcast company, and the amazing Jewish museum that hosts great architectures to represent pain, suffering and emotions of the Jews in the Holocaust. There are times I think that Pol Pot did learn and use the techniques Hitler had used during the war: Isolation and Extermination of one’s race. Yet, these two guys went off the wrong way, and slaughtered so many innocent lives. You love your life, but why take others’  if you are bored with yours? There were so many questions popping up in my mind after witnessing places and stories told about legacies of the regime.

Time to stop here. I did see a lot but not enough yet. I’m fascinated by the synergy of the youth and the efforts in bridging the gap between ages in Germany. Ages just don’t matter, do they? They are all equally important to develop their country. The exhibitions about the German history I saw initiated my interest to start one small exhibition about the Khmer Rouge regime, and I hope this will bring together young people with different talents to make this possible. This, too, will show that the young are ready to accept the suffering of the old generation. It is still a dream to be realized, and I’ll see when it will be.

Besides all lessons learnt, I did have some fun including:

-touring the whole city and going to different tourist places: Reichstags, especially…

-dancing Tango with a friend in the evening (how incredible!)

-shopping (It’s never on the list of my favourite things to do but this time, yes!)

Bou Meng: Free from the Past

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Bou Meng, one of a handful of survivors in the former prison centre S-21 just launched his book today. From Kampong Cham province, Bou Meng joined the Khmer Rouge movement in the early 1970s until 1977 when his wife and he himself were arrested for allegedly being part of CIA agents in Cambodia.

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I remember he said, “I’m delighted that my story can let everyone inside and outside Cambodia know the darkest year, so that this history chapter will not be repeated.” For Bou Meng, the book is a healing pill or a cure for his trauma that’s been with him ever since he’s released from S-21.

Mr. Huy Vannak who used to work for the DC-Cam, a documentary centre that works on and stores many documents about the Khmer Rouge regime and now works as an anchor for CTN, authors the story of Bou Meng. Something remarkable happened. He said that it’s his very first time to hear Bou Meng said that he’s now “free from the past.” As an audience, I was happy to hear that writing a book can somehow release all negative feelings within Bou Meng, whom I know had carried along many painful memories of the loss of his wife and children.

The book, as Huy Vannak said, is a combination of Bou Meng’s personal life in the regime that’s told in a plain language, a dramatic love story and first encounter with his wife and their honeymoon, historical facts, and cultural background of Cambodia (why did Cambodians who had this great smile kill?). On page 41 in the book, a common phrase mentioned by the Khmer Rouge soldiers goes: “Don’t hide your secrets, and your eyes will be removed.” The Khmer Rouge leaders brainwashed these young soldiers to hate their enemies or treat other people like less than animals, and it’s very easy to kill or harm when hatred happens.

Bou Meng is a man who has lived through four regimes in Cambodia: French colonial time (1863-1953), Sangkum Reastre Niyum (1953-1970s), Lon Nol (1970s-1975) and today’s regime (1979-present). He, like other countryside boy, was mobilized and later purged for his alleged relation with secret police like CIA or KGB.

I can’t wait to read this book! ;-) .

Photos by Yourn Sarath

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Khmer Rouge Ideology

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It was very fortunate of me to get accepted into this Khmer Rouge Tribunal Fellowship Program where I have learnt from trauma to the history around the Democratic Kampuchea regime known as the Khmer Rouge regime, and how to provide justice and reconciliation in Cambodia. This is the third week I’ve been taking the course, and late this month, all the 22 fellowship participants will travel altogether to Germany and Netherlands for amazing study tours. I can’t wait to travel again.

Regarding to the KR regime, there have been very many questions posed about how Saloth Sar aka Pol Pot came into power, and how this guy could stir up the whole country between 1975-1979. It was not less known about his intention and motivation, though. Many books about the regime and people involved have been written up for the next generation to read on. As for me, I have now had nearly 20 books about the Khmer Rouge to read. Feel free to contact me and borrow the book. (Return is a must :-) .)

One of the urgent issues to ponder about is how the Khmer Rouge leaders could indoctrinate and brainwash hundreds of thousands of people to be so cruel to city dwellers, torture and kill them. These young people were incited to hate the new people or city people… No doubt that young people are very easy to persuade to do anything against their conscience. Hundreds of the Khmer Rouge soldiers who entered the Phnom Penh city in April 17, 1975 were these young boys dressed in dark green, moving house-to-house. Four to five hours after they arrived, they started to mobilize around the city and told people to march toward the countryside, according to a recalling of a Cambodian survivor whom I talked to a week ago.

I had this fruitful talk with the fellowship program trainers. We went around topics such as the documentary called “S-21, the killing machine”, and “Enemies of the People”. In the latter, two perpetrators confessed their horrible crimes, killing people and drinking human gall bladders. Thirty years ago, they were of course young men who loyally followed Angkar (what the Khmer Rouge wanted to be addressed as.) Why were they so brutal? What was in their mind before and after they killed? I was overwhelmed about the situation, and was furious at those who killed blindly. Yet, my trainer gave me a food for thought. For young people, when they are isolated from their parents and relatives, from their communities, they start to feel detached with new people. Even more, Pol Pot incited them all to look over each other’s soldier (mistrust and paranoid). Their emotional attachment and personal communication were completely cut off. Therefore, they (tried to) felt numb while killing. They could not feel your pain considering survival of the fittest or “most cruel”. Most of the KR soldiers were children and young people. Children especially are like a blank sheet of paper which when a drop of black ink drops on, absorbs and does not wash away. Likewise, it was very easy for Pol Pot to indoctrinate these young to commit terrible crimes against humanity.

I was asking myself the same question. If I were an uneducated 12 or 13 year-old countryboy, if I were mobilized to other parts of the country, leaving my parents and relatives behind, and taught not to trust anyone but report on him or her about their mistakes, would I be able to resist death threat imposed upon me by Angkar? Would I dare to kill myself but spare hundreds of life in front of me? These children were taught to feel like a robot, and that was automatic to go on like that. I watched a 25-minute documentary about this Cambodian former child soldier who admitted to (getting involved in) killing people. It was a terrible inhumane mistake Pol Pot and his gang ever committed: killing people (to death) and kill people (alive).

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I am not saying that those who were young and killed lives should not be held accountable. I am not sure if I would be different if I were in their shoes. Crimes are to be prosecuted of course; however, the ECCC has been so selective in their choices to try only the senior leaders or “most responsible” ones. For former child or young Khmer Rouge soldiers, there should be a legal system that spares them only partly because they were too young to resist. The most responsible people were educated but good-for-nothing like the former Khmer Rouge leaders