Cambodia attempts to reconcile massacre

The Athens Banner-Herald ^ | November 27, 2005 | Ker Munthit

[THEUPMAN]

KRAING TA CHAN, Cambodia - The older Cambodian excitedly called out the younger one's name, smiled broadly and threw an arm around his shoulder.

It might have looked like a scene at a school reunion, except that Chum Mey, 75, was a victim of Khmer Rouge torture, 50-year-old Him Huy was an executioner, and their encounter in a Cambodian killing field was part of a remarkable attempt to lay to rest a few of the ghosts of this nation's holocaust.

Some 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge's four-year dictatorship, yet little has been done to heal the trauma - no South Africa-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission, no DNA testing to identify loved ones left to rot in the killing fields, and a war crimes tribunal that is barely off the drawing board.

So some Cambodians are taking matters into their own hands. The event that brought 25 former Khmer Rouge operatives and 25 of their victims to the mass graves and prisons of the 1975-79 reign of terror .....

[THEUPMAN]

1.7 million ?


I think that is a low-ball number.

I posted this as a reminder of what can happen when "government" goes bad.
Our founding fathers gave us the finale check in the check and balance system.
Guns.
There were a lot of regular joes just following orders, that killed a lot of other regular joes.

This didn't happen 100 years ago ... it happened in my life time. It could happen again. It could happen somewhere else.

The second amendment is not about crime. It is not about hunting.
It is about letting the people have the last word. period

[The_Media_never_lie]

A victim named Chum? Sounds like a gory event...

Chumming up Sharks

[backhoe]

1.7 million ? I think that is a low-ball number.

It is- off the top of my head ( I lived through the era ), 6 million Cambodians total, 2 million killed- it was one out of every three... I've noticed such revisionism before.

-more-

The Killing Fields & Murder of a Gentle Land- what really happened in Cambodia a quarter-century ago

[THEUPMAN]

6 million Cambodians total, 2 million killed

yes thats more like I remembered ..
thanks for the link, information is a much better tool when it's organized and accessible.

[angkor]

countrystudies.us estimates 7.3 million population in 1975.

The number killed under the KR varies from 1 to 2 million, depending upon the source.

When I was there, *every* Cambodian I knew without exception had lost at least one close family member to the KR, and in some cases many more. Brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, uncles.

[backhoe]

The art of spin, disinformation, denial, and changing the subject has been going on a long time.

As the horror in Cambodia unfolded, in real time, the media here was largely uninterested in it- it ran contrary to the "narrative" they were maintaining. High-profile Americans ( Pol Pot's Cheerleaders ) spun and deceived.

And millions died, unprotested and unmourned.