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Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia


bumblebee

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Thanks for the video BB, I just saw this thread today and along with everyone else here I am fascinated by this stuff.

 

 Seems hard to believe now, but there was a time when I visited southeast Asia for historical reasons and not for the LBs! 1998 and 1999, visited battlefield sites in 'Nam and Cambodia; was as intrigued by it now as I was back then.  I am a bit older than you, but I distinctly remember the Khmer Rouge from my high school days, ripping up Cambodia and installing some backwards regime which sent them back to the stone age.  Such nice, friendly people too;  by now I have been to Cambodia at least 10 times and have lots of close friends there [PD met one of them] and the people are literally some of the nicest you could meet, anywhere.  Damn shame what those lunatics did to that beautiful place.

 

    If you have a chance and haven't yet seen it, I would recommend Spalding Gray's "Swimming to Cambodia" from 1987, a one-man show which made him semi-famous for a while......for some reason it's only shown in segments on Youtube, but you can probably get it on torrent as well.  Great stuff.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCGmra0eFQk

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Well,anyone doubting this statement-or think I have an anti american agenda,check out 40-42 minutes of the film......"two men were responsible of what has happened in cambo-nixon and kissinger....they created the khmer rouge "-Prince sihanouk.....enough said.

The North Vietnamese reacted to the political changes in Cambodia by sending Premier Phạm Văn Đồng to meet Sihanouk in China and recruit him into an alliance with the Khmer Rouge. Saloth (Pol Pot) was also contacted by the Vietnamese who now offered him whatever resources he wanted for his insurgency against the Cambodian government. Saloth and Sihanouk were actually in Beijing at the same time but the Vietnamese and Chinese leaders never informed Sihanouk of the presence of Saloth or allowed the two men to meet. Shortly after, Sihanouk issued an appeal by radio to the people of Cambodia to rise up against the government and support the Khmer Rouge. In May 1970, Saloth finally returned to Cambodia and the pace of the insurgency greatly increased. After Sihanouk showed his support for the Khmer Rouge by visiting them in the field, their ranks swelled from 6,000 to 50,000 fighters.

Royals don't always get it correct i guess....

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There is a huge Khmer population where I live, here in Long Beach, CA. I also have Khmer colleagues who work as Khmer interpreters in the courts. They are great guys with wom I have shared a drink or two on occasion. They have mentioned the killing fields. For most of them it is a deep trauma that they would rather forget but cannot.

I could not bring myself to watch the video. I have a hard time with violence and brutality of any kind.

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There is a huge Khmer population where I live, here in Long Beach, CA. I also have Khmer colleagues who work as Khmer interpreters in the courts. They are great guys with wom I have shared a drink or two on occasion. They have mentioned the killing fields. For most of them it is a deep trauma that they would rather forget but cannot.

I could not bring myself to watch the video. I have a hard time with violence and brutality of any kind.

 

I completely understand. Tell your friends (and yourself) to keep moving towards the sunrise tomorrow. That's all we have and it is full with abundance. 

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  • 3 months later...
Guest JustSumGai

at great risk to himself but driven to find long buried truths so the khmer people can know what happened a Khmer journolist researched this and even got interviews with Brother Number Two. Over time it was almost a friendship. He also interviewed other KR members including a guy who demonstrated how he had to change his grip on the knife because killing SO MANY at a time caused his arm to cramp and fail him. Riveting stuff..

THE Killing Fields - ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE - Confessions from Brother Number TWO

It was on youTube, might still be. 

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Yikes...what a horrifying picture on cover of link to Video.  Will watch after this post...

 

Just wanted to note that the most emotionally meaningful part of my approximate month in Cambodia was the day I spent touring both S21 and the Killing Fields.  However, what really blew me away, was looking through the chain link fencing on the second floor of S21 and seeing new skyscrapers in the distance...it actually renewed my hope that no matter how much evil there is in the world, man has the ability to recover and prosper.

 

Peace 

RU

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