“The children these days don’t believe our stories. They make me upset by this,”
an elder in the community said during a recent ICfC visit there.

Reenactment at the Day of Remembrance

The ICfC Office in Cambodia: current projects and activities

photos by Adam Saltsman.

Vuth Kim

The Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia on April 17th, 1975 when Khmer people were celebrating the New Year. Within 3 years under the Khmer Rouge control, people were evacuated from the cities to the countryside, tortured, forced to overwork, and did not have enough to eat. About 1.7 million died from disease, starvation, or execution.

It is now 32 years since 1975. However, many people say the Khmer New Year will forever be linked to the Khmer Rouge.
 
Svay Rieng, east of Phnom Penh, is a province next to Vietnam.  Svay Rieng is one of the provinces where people suffered the most during the Khmer Rouge regime as they were displaced and forced around the country into hard labor camps. About 35 kilometers south of the Svay Rieng provincial town in a small village, every year on the 20th May—the National Day of Hate—villagers still celebrate what is no longer a public holiday by making and igniting a scarecrow of Pol Pot, the deceased top leader of the Khmer Rouge regime. They burn the scarecrow as a way to release their anger, pain, hardship and revenge, according to some of the village elders. Though many cite the 20th of May as a politically charged holiday, for the members of this village it is also a time for people to speak freely about their nightmare during the Khmer Rouge regime. Until now, these villagers are yet to see a picture of Pol Pot’s face and they are curious to know what such a man would look like.

One old man said “I did not understand and I still can’t think of any reason why the Khmer Rouge soldiers did not give us enough to eat when we worked so hard to produce lots of rice.”

“We want the younger generation to hear about the hardship we went through,” said an old woman in the village just before the new year. However, the younger generation often show doubt in response to the stories of their elders. The children often do not believe their parents who tell them that one can of rice would be cooked into porridge and shared among 10 to 20 people during the Khmer Rouge time. The children say this would not be possible. “The children these days don’t believe our stories. They make me upset by this,” elders in the community said during a recent ICfC visit there.

Some people do not want to talk or even hear others speak about the Khmer Rouge regime. For them, to forget is the best means to move forwards. “I do not want to talk or hear this any more. I lost my parents, my brothers and sisters. Each time, I think of them, it hurts me, it almost stops my breath,” a woman in her mid-sixties said.

There are a number of factors that cause the younger generation to distrust the stories told by their elders. Firstly, many of them feel that there is not enough information about the Khmer Rouge for the younger generation to learn.  Public school textbooks are extremely limited when it comes to the subject.  Even more significant, many families do not bother telling their stories to their children.  At the same time, they agree the young generation should hear the story somehow.