Cambodia Recent History
Cambodia – a beautiful tropical country nestled between Thailand and Vietnam, was devastated by the genocide of the Killing Fields between 1975 and 1979. It is difficult to give precise figures for how many people lost their lives during this period with estimates ranging between 1.7 and 3 million. People died from starvation, disease and exhaustion and tens of thousands were violently executed by the state. This represented a quarter to a third of the whole Cambodian population being destroyed at the hands of its own rulers.
Pol Pot, the country’s dictator, was consumed with the vision to restore Cambodia to the time of its ancient Angkorian Empire when it was an unrivalled power in Southeast Asia. Cities were emptied and the entire population was subject to enforced starvation, mass execution and slave labour. Working days were long and food rations meagre. All the public institutions of society were systematically dismantled. Money and the ownership of all personal property made illegal. Music was banned. Doctors, teachers, engineers, academics and all other educated professionals were executed along with their extended families. Children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced labour camps to be ‘retrained’. People were not allowed to choose their own marriage partners. They could not leave their given place of work or even select the clothes that they would wear. Many were taught to look for traitors in their midst, spying on their own families and neighbours. All ties to religion and family had to be broken with all loyalties transferred to the state. All political and civil rights were abolished. Formal education was stopped and children were taught that their only real family was the Khmer Rouge.
Many of these children would become the parents of today.
Cambodia Today
The dark days of the Khmer Rouge are behind Cambodia and its people look towards a more hopeful future. Unfortunately, Cambodia still finds itself in economic crisis, with the average annual wage being only US$256. Judged by the standard of the UN Human Development Report, Cambodia is among the poorest countries in the world presently ranking 121 out of 164 on the human development index. A UNICEF survey completed earlier this year reports that 77% of families live on less than $2 per day.
As one travels round this beautiful land there is nowhere to hide from the preceding atrocities dating back over 30 years. Despite the statistics that over 50% of the population are under 20 years old, almost without exception, everyone has a story of a lost mother, father, brother, sister, friend or extended family member. Cambodia as a nation has never fully grieved and as a result significant proportions of her population suffer the daily impact of post traumatic stress.