beneath the killing fields of cambodia

8/11/2019 Beneath the Killing Fields of Cambodia

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today about one of the 20th Century's worst genocides by taking you "Beneath the Killing Fields".

Beneath the

Killing Fields

of Cambodia

Oslo Freedom Forum

Christiania Theater

27 April 2010


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BEFORE THE KILLING FIELDSCAMBODIA, CIRCA 1960


Let me start off by saying that before the Killing Fields, Ca mbod ia was once the e nvy of Southeast Asia, a rice exporter that hosted leaders from nations like Singapore to show them a working mo

development.


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AN ISLAND OF PEAAS THE WAR RAGES IN VIETNAM


Indeed, while the Vietnam War raged o n next door, Cambod ia was known as an Island of

Peace.


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INTRODUCING: MY M


And to make this story a bit more personal, let me introduce you to my mom, who was born in 1936 and sure had a great time on the beaches of Ca mbod ia. There she is with a friend ( in the midd

aunt) on the right.


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MOM & DAD IN CAMBODIA, 1969


1969 was the last year that Cambodia saw any kind of peace, my mom and dad are enjoying an outing together and I can just imagine, although I wasnt born yet then, how little they knew of w

come.


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THE KHMER ROUGE1975-1979


Within six years, the co mmunist Khmer Rouge took control of Cambod ia, forcing everyone into the countryside. They were young and brutal, one in four Cambodians died. Everyone wa s made to

including my pa rents and siblings. My father died by late 1975 from dysentery and malnutrition ate a rat-infested hospital, getting injections of G od knows what. My oldest brother has been missing

reason my four siblings and I got out is beca use my mother, bless her heart, loved lang uages, and she spoke Vietnamese which got us into Vietnam. Speaking a fo reign language bec ame her pa

freedom from death. And she nearly didnt make it, because her Vietnamese was terribleshe gave the boys girls names, and the girls boys namesbut a Vietnamese lady told her this and tuto


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THE KHMER ROUGE1975-19791 IN 4 CAMBODIANS


Within six years, the co mmunist Khmer Rouge took control of Cambod ia, forcing everyone into the countryside. They were young and brutal, one in four Cambodians died. Everyone wa s made to

including my pa rents and siblings. My father died by late 1975 from dysentery and malnutrition ate a rat-infested hospital, getting injections of G od knows what. My oldest brother has been missing

reason my four siblings and I got out is beca use my mother, bless her heart, loved lang uages, and she spoke Vietnamese which got us into Vietnam. Speaking a fo reign language bec ame her pa

freedom from death. And she nearly didnt make it, because her Vietnamese was terribleshe gave the boys girls names, and the girls boys namesbut a Vietnamese lady told her this and tuto


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...WHAT THEY GOT


What the Khmer Rouge got were 1.7 million lives extinguished, a quarter of the

population.


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...WHAT THEY GOT1.7 MILLION DEAD


What the Khmer Rouge got were 1.7 million lives extinguished, a quarter of the

population.


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POL POT (1928-1998)


The Khmer Rouge were led by Pol Pot, who co uld smile at you and order your murder; he died pea cefully in his sleep in

1998.


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1.7 million is a lot o f people; a million here, a million there, pretty soon youre talking a bout real people. I want to make this a little more personal. Lets venture into S-21, also known a s Tuol Sleng, a

ce nter that saw 16,000 murdered there.


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In rooms like these, where they were tortured


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with medieval

contraptions.


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with medieval

contraptions.


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and left to

rot


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And to ld that they could not turn questions away or hide facts or be foo ls or waste time to reflec t or the essenc e of the revolution or cry while being lashed o r

electrocuted


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The victims were young

men


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men


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men


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Teenage boys


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Women and

children


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Mothers and

infants


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Boys


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Young girls


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Old

men


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Killed


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And yet, there were believers of the Khmer Rouge in the West


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Obscure academics like Malcolm Caldwell who taught at the Scho ol of Oriental and African Studies in London ac tually, he died for his beliefs, he went to interview Pol Pot and turned-up dea d

day.


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But there were also believers here in the Nordic c ountries, where a conferenc e took plac e on 17-18 November 1979, after Vietnam had invaded

Cambodia.


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A meeting not unlike ours today o f serious

people.


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Like Marita Wikander and J an

Myrdal


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Who spoke of the need to d efend the national sovereignty of Democratic Kampuchea , what the Khmer Rouge had renamed

Cambodia.


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Noumoff obtains tenure from McGill University, after four decades, retires in 2006.Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Prof. Noumoff of McG ill University in Ca nada a lso sppoke on the role of the Soviet Union in the present

crisis.


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http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/39/11/pov/

VIETNAM AND IRAQ:IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?


He retired after 40 years at McGill, a fully tenured p rofessor, and po ntifica tes on Vietnam vs. Iraq, is there a

difference?
http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/39/11/pov/http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/39/11/pov/http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/39/11/pov/


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There was a man by the name of George Hildebrand, who together with Gareth Porter, had written one of the first books doc umenting the new Khmer Rouge regime in glowing terms. Hildebrand

Khmer Rouge propa ganda p hotos, one of which was of an immaculate operating room. I personally take offense to this bec ause my father died in a mite-infested hospital (if it can even be ca lle

Hildeb rand, three years later, and he still spoke of the Khmer Rouge as the folks who neede d to be in cha rge.


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HILDEBRAND & GARETH PORTThe Politics of Food: Starvation aAgricultural Revolution in Cambo(Monthly Review Press,1976)


There was a man by the name of George Hildebrand, who together with Gareth Porter, had written one of the first books doc umenting the new Khmer Rouge regime in glowing terms. Hildebrand

Khmer Rouge propa ganda p hotos, one of which was of an immaculate operating room. I personally take offense to this bec ause my father died in a mite-infested hospital (if it can even be ca lle

Hildeb rand, three years later, and he still spoke of the Khmer Rouge as the folks who neede d to be in cha rge.


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Noam Chomsky, a professor at MIT, who didnt attend the c onferenc e, did have the following to say about the Hildebrand and Po rter boo k, calling it carefully documented, praising the succ ess o

revolutionaries. Chomsky would later go o n to propo se that "If a serious study is someday undertaken, it may well be discovered that the Khmer Rouge p rograms elic ited a positive response

with fundamental problems rooted in the feuda l past and exac erbated by the imperial system. Such a study, however, has yet to be undertaken. Im sure he thought Hildebrand a nd Porter ha

crack!


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Hildebrand and Porter present a carefullydocumented study of the destructive

American impact on Cambodia and thesuccess of the Cambodian revolutionaries inovercoming it, giving a very favorablepicture of their programs and policies,based on a wide range of sources.

DISTORTIONS AT FOURTH HAND

Noam Chomsky & Edward S. Herman

The Nation, June 6, 1977


Noam Chomsky, a professor at MIT, who didnt attend the c onferenc e, did have the following to say about the Hildebrand and Po rter boo k, calling it carefully documented, praising the succ ess o

revolutionaries. Chomsky would later go o n to propo se that "If a serious study is someday undertaken, it may well be discovered that the Khmer Rouge p rograms elic ited a positive response

with fundamental problems rooted in the feuda l past and exac erbated by the imperial system. Such a study, however, has yet to be undertaken. Im sure he thought Hildebrand a nd Porter ha

crack!


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The star of the Kampuchea Conference was the head of the delegation from Democratic Kampuchea, Mrs. Ieng Thirith, then Minister of Soc ial Affairs, seen here in glasses and smiling. Ca n you im

this Minister was ce lebrated a s a great champion? This is like J oseph Goeb bels coming to town after the Nazis have been defea ted and g etting a conference in his honor.


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Her husband, Ieng Sary, who was Foreign Minister for the Khmer Rouge , and her, are seen here in these pictures but they are now

both


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And time has been kind to Ieng Thirith and her husband, before they were arrested, they lived in Phnom Penh, in a villa and have extensive properties throughout

Cambodia.


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And here we have the former head of Tuol Sleng itself, a man wo has confessed to everything and yet has not as of today been found guilty, after four years and more than $100 million...


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So, in closing, I ask you, what is the importanc e o f having a n ac curate historical record? Is it just for historians to satisfy

themselves?


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Or is it for us to remember George Santayanas warning that who do not learn fromhistory are bound to repeat it? And while history does not repeat, it certainly rhymes. Let us remember everythi

My mom passed away in October 2009 without any justice rendered for her. She will never get to see those responsible for her husband, my fathers death, brought to justice; o r her missing son, m

her. For her justice delayed is now justice denied, b ut it is not too late a nd we must never forget.


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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Or is it for us to remember George Santayanas warning that who do not remember history are bound to repeat it? And while history does not repeat, it certainly rhymes. Let us remember everyth

My mom passed away in October 2009 without any justice rendered for her. She will never get to see those responsible for her husband, my fathers death, brought to justice; o r her missing son, m

her. For her justice delayed is now justice denied, b ut it is not too late a nd we must never forget.

beneath the killing fields of cambodia

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