Location where Pol Pot was cremated is now turned into a worshiping shrine (Photo: impressive.net)asahi.com
02/01/2008
BY AYA KIMURA THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
ANLONG VENG, Cambodia--The enormity of Pol Pot's crimes almost defies description. His genocidal policies in the latter 1970s are thought to have claimed up to 1.7 million lives, resulting in the so-called killing fields that took Cambodia back to the year zero.
And yet efforts are now under way to preserve sites associated with the brutal regime to teach future generations about the country's unspeakable horrors of not so many years ago.
A three-hour car trip northward from Siem Reap, where the World Heritage Angkor Wat ruins are located, brings a visitor to Anlong Veng, a county that borders Thailand.
It was in this area that the Khmer Rouge, which used terror to control Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, held out until it collapsed in 1998. I came here, hoping to learn more about the reign of dread that gripped Cambodia in those days.
I came across a boy who offered me what he said were cremated remains of Pol Pot. There was no way to tell whether the sooty white fragments in his bag were genuine, or even human. The boy said he kept the remains to "show off to my customers."
The site where Pol Pot was cremated after his death in 1998 is not even fenced. Burned incense sticks lie scattered about. Amid the shrubbery, a light-blue signboard proclaims, "The cremation place of Pol Pot."
Pol Pot and his henchmen established the government of Democratic Kampuchea in 1975 after toppling the pro-U.S. government headed by a former Prime Minister Lon Nol.
Starvation, overwork and executions were central to the regime's efforts to create an agrarian utopia. Pol Pot's extreme policies denied the existence of a class structure and resulted in the mass confiscation of personal property. Urban residents were forcibly relocated to rural areas to work as laborers.
On Dec. 25, 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia seeking to end Khmer Rouge border attacks. On Jan. 7, 1979, Phnom Penh fell and Pol Pot was deposed. His faction fled to the northwest and continued to battle the government's forces.
The county government of Anlong Veng in the northwest is now working to preserve Khmer Rouge sites and promote them as tourist spots. It has listed 15 sites, including the place where Pol Pot was cremated and the homes of former military chief Ta Mok and other executives of the genocidal regime.
The project, which started around 2000, has made little progress beyond the erection of a few signboards.
For Cambodians, the 15 venues conjure up horrific memories. For this reason, no one has sought to refer to them as "historical sites."
Ceang Sokheng, 42, who works for the preservation project as chief of the Anlong Veng office of the Ministry of Tourism, lost his parents in 1975. He was 10 years old when his father, a member of the national parliament, was rounded up by the Khmer Rouge. His mother, who tried to intervene, was also carted off.
He never saw them again and later realized they had been executed.
"When I was ordered (by the ministry) to transfer to this (Anlong Veng) office seven years ago, I felt tormented," Ceang said, recalling the hardship of the Pol Pot era that made him and his older brother orphans.
When Ceang was instructed to relocate, the Khmer Rouge had already collapsed. However, many former soldiers still lived in the area. It was very unsafe to travel about and he lived in constant fear of being killed.
"Though they were Cambodians just as I was, I was not able to trust them," he said.
In Anlong Veng, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are still revered by some people. They speak with pride about Ta Mok, the faction's military chief, saying he built schools and hospitals for them.
"Ta Mok made it possible for us to make a living. He was a very good man. I cannot describe in words how good he was," said Kong Mean, 50, a former Khmer Rouge soldier.
Ceang's fears for his safety while in Anlong Veng gradually eased. But even now, he says he does not think the local people have any idea what he endured.
It was this realization that made him think that Cambodians must not allow the Pol Pot era to fade into history. Thus, he supports the move to preserve the various sites.
"I must convey the era to future generations so as to prevent a recurrence (of similar tragedies)," Ceang said. "Though memories of the era still torment me, I don't find myself thinking any more that I want to forget it."
Many of the 15 listed sites are located in mountains covered by jungle. They include an underground bunker where Pol Pot went into hiding, and an artificial pond to secure water.
Ta Mok's former home is located on a steep cliff, offering panoramic views from an elevation of several hundred meters. Rong Saroeung, 58, has been operating a restaurant on the site since 2000.
"Thailand is planning to help develop this place as a tourist spot that leads to Angkor Wat. It's a business chance for us," he said.
A wide paved road from Thailand was completed in 2006, and the number of Thai tourists has since increased.
As a Cambodian government soldier, he fought gunbattles with the Khmer Rouge. He also experienced the terrors of land mines.
"Crimes are not what individuals judge. The judgments must not be given based on hatred either. They must be given based on laws," Rong said.
The county government of Anlong Veng also has plans on the drawing board for a museum dedicated to the Khmer Rouge era. As yet, not a single brick has been laid due to construction costs of some $500,000 (about 54 million yen).
"We need a place that teaches us accurately what happened," said Anlong Veng's deputy governor, Nhem Ein, 47.
When he was 16 years old, Nhem Ein was forced to take photographs of detainees awaiting torture and death at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Had he refused, he would have been executed.
"I was not able to think about anything except how to survive," he said. "From now on, we can only study what took place during that period and reflect on those days. Really, we have just reached the starting point."
The Documentation Center of Cambodia is busy gathering records of the genocide. According to the center, a total of 391 execution sites, 194 prison sites and nearly 20,000 mass graves have been found across the country.
"We leave residents living in the area of each site to decide how to preserve it and convey its history to future generations," said Youk Chhang, the center's director. "That is because each site is part of the residents' own history."
A 60-year-old woman who had come from Phnom Penh stood quietly at the site where Pol Pot was cremated. Her six brothers and sisters perished in the killing fields.
She stared at the cremation site for a while and then silently joined her hands together.
"We are all equal after we die. I do not hold a grudge (against Pol Pot)," she said.
The woman pondered what kind of people the Khmer Rouge were and what had gone wrong with their lives to allow them to inflict such brutality.
"I came to this town because I wanted to get close to the answers as much as possible," she said.
More than 400 Cambodians visit the Khmer Rouge sites each month. For many, it's a chance to experience the remnants of a dark chapter of Cambodia's modern history, even at the expense of opening up emotional scars again.
(IHT/Asahi: February 1,2008)
02/01/2008
BY AYA KIMURA THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
ANLONG VENG, Cambodia--The enormity of Pol Pot's crimes almost defies description. His genocidal policies in the latter 1970s are thought to have claimed up to 1.7 million lives, resulting in the so-called killing fields that took Cambodia back to the year zero.
And yet efforts are now under way to preserve sites associated with the brutal regime to teach future generations about the country's unspeakable horrors of not so many years ago.
A three-hour car trip northward from Siem Reap, where the World Heritage Angkor Wat ruins are located, brings a visitor to Anlong Veng, a county that borders Thailand.
It was in this area that the Khmer Rouge, which used terror to control Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, held out until it collapsed in 1998. I came here, hoping to learn more about the reign of dread that gripped Cambodia in those days.
I came across a boy who offered me what he said were cremated remains of Pol Pot. There was no way to tell whether the sooty white fragments in his bag were genuine, or even human. The boy said he kept the remains to "show off to my customers."
The site where Pol Pot was cremated after his death in 1998 is not even fenced. Burned incense sticks lie scattered about. Amid the shrubbery, a light-blue signboard proclaims, "The cremation place of Pol Pot."
Pol Pot and his henchmen established the government of Democratic Kampuchea in 1975 after toppling the pro-U.S. government headed by a former Prime Minister Lon Nol.
Starvation, overwork and executions were central to the regime's efforts to create an agrarian utopia. Pol Pot's extreme policies denied the existence of a class structure and resulted in the mass confiscation of personal property. Urban residents were forcibly relocated to rural areas to work as laborers.
On Dec. 25, 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia seeking to end Khmer Rouge border attacks. On Jan. 7, 1979, Phnom Penh fell and Pol Pot was deposed. His faction fled to the northwest and continued to battle the government's forces.
The county government of Anlong Veng in the northwest is now working to preserve Khmer Rouge sites and promote them as tourist spots. It has listed 15 sites, including the place where Pol Pot was cremated and the homes of former military chief Ta Mok and other executives of the genocidal regime.
The project, which started around 2000, has made little progress beyond the erection of a few signboards.
For Cambodians, the 15 venues conjure up horrific memories. For this reason, no one has sought to refer to them as "historical sites."
Ceang Sokheng, 42, who works for the preservation project as chief of the Anlong Veng office of the Ministry of Tourism, lost his parents in 1975. He was 10 years old when his father, a member of the national parliament, was rounded up by the Khmer Rouge. His mother, who tried to intervene, was also carted off.
He never saw them again and later realized they had been executed.
"When I was ordered (by the ministry) to transfer to this (Anlong Veng) office seven years ago, I felt tormented," Ceang said, recalling the hardship of the Pol Pot era that made him and his older brother orphans.
When Ceang was instructed to relocate, the Khmer Rouge had already collapsed. However, many former soldiers still lived in the area. It was very unsafe to travel about and he lived in constant fear of being killed.
"Though they were Cambodians just as I was, I was not able to trust them," he said.
In Anlong Veng, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are still revered by some people. They speak with pride about Ta Mok, the faction's military chief, saying he built schools and hospitals for them.
"Ta Mok made it possible for us to make a living. He was a very good man. I cannot describe in words how good he was," said Kong Mean, 50, a former Khmer Rouge soldier.
Ceang's fears for his safety while in Anlong Veng gradually eased. But even now, he says he does not think the local people have any idea what he endured.
It was this realization that made him think that Cambodians must not allow the Pol Pot era to fade into history. Thus, he supports the move to preserve the various sites.
"I must convey the era to future generations so as to prevent a recurrence (of similar tragedies)," Ceang said. "Though memories of the era still torment me, I don't find myself thinking any more that I want to forget it."
Many of the 15 listed sites are located in mountains covered by jungle. They include an underground bunker where Pol Pot went into hiding, and an artificial pond to secure water.
Ta Mok's former home is located on a steep cliff, offering panoramic views from an elevation of several hundred meters. Rong Saroeung, 58, has been operating a restaurant on the site since 2000.
"Thailand is planning to help develop this place as a tourist spot that leads to Angkor Wat. It's a business chance for us," he said.
A wide paved road from Thailand was completed in 2006, and the number of Thai tourists has since increased.
As a Cambodian government soldier, he fought gunbattles with the Khmer Rouge. He also experienced the terrors of land mines.
"Crimes are not what individuals judge. The judgments must not be given based on hatred either. They must be given based on laws," Rong said.
The county government of Anlong Veng also has plans on the drawing board for a museum dedicated to the Khmer Rouge era. As yet, not a single brick has been laid due to construction costs of some $500,000 (about 54 million yen).
"We need a place that teaches us accurately what happened," said Anlong Veng's deputy governor, Nhem Ein, 47.
When he was 16 years old, Nhem Ein was forced to take photographs of detainees awaiting torture and death at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Had he refused, he would have been executed.
"I was not able to think about anything except how to survive," he said. "From now on, we can only study what took place during that period and reflect on those days. Really, we have just reached the starting point."
The Documentation Center of Cambodia is busy gathering records of the genocide. According to the center, a total of 391 execution sites, 194 prison sites and nearly 20,000 mass graves have been found across the country.
"We leave residents living in the area of each site to decide how to preserve it and convey its history to future generations," said Youk Chhang, the center's director. "That is because each site is part of the residents' own history."
A 60-year-old woman who had come from Phnom Penh stood quietly at the site where Pol Pot was cremated. Her six brothers and sisters perished in the killing fields.
She stared at the cremation site for a while and then silently joined her hands together.
"We are all equal after we die. I do not hold a grudge (against Pol Pot)," she said.
The woman pondered what kind of people the Khmer Rouge were and what had gone wrong with their lives to allow them to inflict such brutality.
"I came to this town because I wanted to get close to the answers as much as possible," she said.
More than 400 Cambodians visit the Khmer Rouge sites each month. For many, it's a chance to experience the remnants of a dark chapter of Cambodia's modern history, even at the expense of opening up emotional scars again.
(IHT/Asahi: February 1,2008)
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