I was an educated girl from a middle-class family. These people were corrupted and lived off the blood and sweat of the farmers and the poor. The rebellious, the kind-hearted, the brave, the clever, the individualists, the people who wore glasses, the literate, the popular, the complainers, the lazy, those with talent, those with trouble getting along with others, and These people carried bad memories of the old, corrupted Cambodia. Were getting education to exploit the poor. These people thought, and their memories were tainted by the evil Westerners. The intellectuals, the doctors, the lawyers, the monks, the teachers, and the civil servants. The merchants, the capitalists, and the businessmen. Their crime was fighting in the civil war. Former soldiers, the police, the CIA, and the KGB. The city people were the enemy, and the list was long. Their crime was that they lived in the enemy's zone, helping and supporting the enemy. These were any Cambodian men, women, girls, boys, and babies who did not live in their "liberated zones" before they won the The people on the Khmer Rouge death list were the group called the city people. We stole, we cheated, we lied, we hated ourselves and each other, and we trusted no one. They ordered us to attend meetings every night where we took turns finding fault with each other, The Khmer Rouge built animosity and jealousy into them so the killings could be justified. These people took orders without question. They were the most violent and ignorant people, and the Khmer Rouge taught them to lead, manage, control, andĭestroy. They accomplished all of this by promoting and encouraging the "old" people, who were the villagers, the farmers, and the uneducated. "To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss." Our lives had no significance to their great Communist nation, and they told us, The Khmer Rouge said that the Communist revolution could be successful with only two people. We were less than a grain of rice in a large pile. They clubbed the back of our necks and pushed us down to smother us and let us die in a deep hole with hundreds of other bodies. A woman would be killed if she was too tired to work. A man would be killed if he lost an ox he was assigned to tend. We were not allowed to cry or show any grief when they took away our loved ones. They took young children from their homes to live in a commune so that they could indoctrinate them. Held love, faith, comfort, happiness, and companionship. They openly showed their intention to destroy the family structure that once They encouraged children to find fault with their own parents and spy on them. Later the Khmer Rouge killed the wives and children of the executed men in order to avoid revenge. What could they have done that deserved a tortured death? ![]() In fear of finding out what atrocities were committed against our fathers, husbands, brothers. This is true for almost all Cambodian widows and orphans. ![]() We can only imagine what happened to him. But my father's fate is unknown to this day. They told my family that my father needed to be reeducated. We were seduced into returning to our hometowns in the villages so they could reveal our true identities. Along the way, many innocent Cambodians were dying of starvation, disease, loss of loved ones, confusion, Innocent children, old women, and sick patients from hospital beds were included. They were willing to pay any cost, any lost lives for their mission. They did this intentionally, without mercy. They ripped off our homesĪnd our possessions. They separated us from our friends and neighbors to keep us off balance, to prevent us from forming any alliance to stand up and win back our rights. Of residents of Phnom Penh and other cities out of their homes. They told us that Americans were going to bomb the cities. ![]() "equality." How could these worms have come out of our own skin?Įven after our warmest welcome, the first word from the Khmer Rouge was a lie wrapped around a deep anger and hatred of the kind of society they felt Cambodia was becoming. They risked their own lives and gave up their families for "justice" and Their tactics were effective because most of us refused to believe their malicious intentions. The Khmer Rouge were very clever and brutal. At the time we didn't realize how high the price was that we had to pay for the Khmer Rouge's peace. We wanted to bring back that slow-paced, simple We were ready to support our new government to rebuild our country. Tired us out, and we could not make much sense out of killing our own brothers and sisters for a cause that was not ours. ![]() I and many Cambodians wanted peace at any price. I can still remember how overwhelmed with joy I was that the war had finally ended. I was fifteen years old when the Khmer Rouge came to power in April 1975.
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