Cambodias Killing Fields Remembered 30 Years Later

Thousands of Cambodians gathered in Phnom Penh on Wednesday to mark the fall of Pol Pots ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime 30 years ago. Around two million are believed to have died during what has become known as the Killing Fields.
Up to 80,000 people packed into the Olympic stadium in Phnom Penh for a rally organized by the ruling Cambodian People's Party, the descendant of the puppet government installed by Vietnam after its troops ousted
China-backed Pol Pot on Jan. 7, 1979.

As much as Cambodians loathe the Khmer Rouge for their genocidal attempt to create an agrarian paradise, many of them also mourn January 7th as the start of a 10-year occupation by their hated Vietnamese neighbors.

Some of the rally participants were too young to remember what life in Cambodia was like under the Khmer Rouge some were not yet born.

[Vong Leakenatevy, University Student]:
"I think that January 7 is my second birth. Although, I was not born during that regime I always heard about the suffering and killing from my parents. This is a special day for me and my parents. If we didn't have this
day, I would not be here."

The remnants of Pol Pot's black-shirted guerrilla army fled into the jungle along the Thai border until their final surrender in 1998.

But Pol Pots henchmen are only now being brought to justice in a joint Cambodian-United Nations tribunal.

The court admitted this week that Cambodia's prosecutor was blocking a bid by the prosecutor's international counterpart to go after more than the five top cadres now in custody on charges of war crimes and crimes against
humanity.

Those in custody are Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, former President Khieu Samphan, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, his wife, Ieng Thirith, and Duch, head of Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng, or the "S-21" interrogation and torture center.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• cambodia
• killing fields
• phnom penh
• pol pot
• china
• genocide

[tinkybee1]

WHOA..ALOT OF DUMB FUCKS HATIN ON INOCCENT CAMBODIANS!

[XShynobiX]

@khmerIjeat I'm Vietnamese and this is stupid.

We were part of the Khmer Rouge Regime, We provided them until 1973

[khmerIjeat]

Fuck Cambodia, Bow down to your Vietnamese master, stupid Cambodians

[michmanusa]

yeah, then you should celebrate the killing fields in honor of the Kmer people and the dead and survivors huh? Some times I feel you guys are so stupid you deserve to be slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge, and I wish Vietnam had stayed out of Cambodia and all of your brainless morons wouldn't be here to complain or condemn the country that have saved your ass

[510raskal]

lol he a pussy to ran out on KR to the vietnamese... but if cambodia had a diff leader there would be no diff KHMER has a tendency to be corrupted by money and power ever khmer king after Jayvaraman was a fuck up lol

[niggangam]

lol that was dumb!

[jaonthairobber666]

Celebrating the Vietnamese invasion. Pure Vietnamese puppet regime.

[KhmerSerey1]

This is the ultimate insult to Khmer people,the dead and the survivors..

[KhmerSerey1]

Hun Sen is a Khmer Rouge,he rolled into the stadium as if he's not guilty of any charge,as if he had no part in the genocide of 2millions people.This is a joke !!

[khmai]

ha ha i know! when i heard that i was like "what the heck!!?!!"