Where was Canada?

I now have a better understanding of how horrible humans are capable of being to one another, and how disposable a life can easily become, through both learning about and seeing firsthand the effects the Cambodian Genocide had on its people. 

In 1975, for almost 4 years, three million Cambodians (more than one in every four people) were slaughtered. For 3 years, 8 months and 20 days, Cambodians killed Cambodians. 

The people of Cambodia, known as the Khmer culture were seeking a revolution.  They were weak from being pounded by American bombs that came over the border as a direct and intentional result of the Vietnam War. As the auto tour explains, for Khmer People, America's Secret War, was anything secret as farmers were forced to escaped into the city seeking refuge from the War that leached across the boarder. Shortly after the Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge entered into Cambodia. and rather then a revolution to strengthen and develop the country, the Khmer lost 3 million of their population of 9 million.

The Khmer Rouge regime overthrew the military dictatorship of Cambodia, with the desire to create a new Cambodia with communist rule. Within 48 hours of ruling, churches, schools and hospitals were closed and destroyed and all people within the city were taken to villages. The Khmer Rouge was headed by a secret committee called Angkor - directly translates into The Organization.  The leader, who was Pol Pot, believed that Cambodia needed self-sufficiency through communal workings and had each person put into forced labour camps, often working in rice field or digging trenches up to 14 hours days. Anyone who was educated or foreign, or with 'soft hands' were first sent to the prison, S-21 to get a forced confession fallowed by formal executions. Khmer Rouge recruited young, uneducated and easily manipulated boys to work the in the S-21 as well as the Killing Fields.

Tuor Sleng better known as S-21, was a high school turned into a prison which was used to secretly perform acts of torture in order to get written confessions from the people of Cambodia that related to anything from as a spy for Angkar's enemy to other various and often petty crimes. Approximate 15-20,000 people were brought to S-21, after which, once they admitted their failures they were then taken to Choeung Ek, Phnom Phenh's Killing Fields where they were executed.  Each victim was blindfolded and their hands were bound, and at the stark of night, were killed by the blunt force of a solid object, be it machete or hammer. The bodies where thrown into a mass grave and covered.

For me, one of the most distraught parts of the genocide is how standardized, regulated and systematic it was. Rules were created so that the purpose of torture was to get the information and not be conducted out of frustration. From confessions to executions, everything was documented.  Relations to those deemed enemies (including women as children) were also killed, because no roots can be left to seek revenge. Essentially, any educated person or free thinking individual was sentenced to death. Pol Pot only wanted those people who would be easily manipulated into being part of the newer, better country.  The killing seemed very unperson; Lives were taken without emotion, it was simply small part of a larger process.  

On January 7, 1979 Khmer Rouge was finally defeated. However, western governments still voted for the Khmer Rouge to represent Cambodia and retained its seat within the United Nation.  Pol Pot was taken in as a refugee for 10 years, until he was finally put under house arrest but died the following year, reasons unknown. Personally, he probably died peacefully in his sleep in his late 70s. 

My question is, where the hell was Canada during all of this?

Well, according to the Canadian International Website, "Canada has been a contributor to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), also known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunals. Canada provided initial funding of $2 million in 2005 and an additional funding contribution of approximately $900,000 in 2009 to the international side of the court." Pretty sure with a county as large and financial stable as ours, that dollar value is peanuts. And apparently between 1975-'94 we've had 130,000 Cambodian refugees comes to Canada.  21,000 are of private sponsorship. 130,000 is a insignificant  percentage of Cambodia's population 8 million. So, really, is that it, couldn't we have done more? Shouldn't we have?

Although we were not named as one of the countries to support Khmer Rouge to keep its seat with the UN, isn't saying nothing the exact same as supporting a decision?

Touring the Killing Fields and S-21 was time I've experienced history firsthand  rather than simply reading it in History 12 textbook. This was my first taste to know what human beings  are capable of doing to each other and it's been incredibly real and so very terrible. It makes me question the greediness of human kind and the length we will go to become ultimately win in life.

As was said during both tours, this isn't the first time a genocide has taken place, with the Jewish genocide in Germany and the Aboriginal genocide in North America, as well as several others, and we can be certain that this isn't going to be the last. 

Ultimately, I'm unsure of what to do with this blinding and terribly real experience, but I know it has impacted me significantly. I know that I can no longer afford to bury my head in the sand and pretend that if it isn't directly impacting me, then it isn't my problem, because ultimately, everything full circles in the end and aren't we, as humans, so much better than this?

They say this is why Cambodia is set back to such a degree economically and their systems are so shaky and corrupt. After going through S-21 and the Killing Fields I understand that being Canadian simply categorizes me as an American. So, can I really blame them when, while on my way to the Airport, my Osprey backpack which is within a arms reach, gets quickly snatched up? I watch as my bright blue backpack containing all that's essential and important to me: money, cell phone, credit card, camera, Passport, is driven away on a motorbike. For everything we've done to them, for everything these people have been through, can I really be angry at the people of Cambodia?

Kirstin

A lot of life is just surviving what happens