Originally posted at Socialstudious.us
Today is a special day in several South East Asian countries In Cambodia it’s the Day of Remembrance. in East Timor they celebrate their country’s 12th year of Independence, and in Indonesia National Awakening Day is celebrated! While across the Indian Ocean and on the west coast of Africa, Cameroon celebrates their National Day.
Ok I can hear all of the collective sighs now, who cares, well me because it gives me a reason to learn somethings I didn’t know about these countries or somethings I’d rather forget about Cambodia, but I guess like remembering the Holocaust it is better to remember. Ok so first let’s look at where in Cambodia is located in southeast Asia…
So there’s Cambodia right in the south central part of the map, with Laos and Thailand along its northern border and Vietnam to the east and southeast. When you look at the map you can readily see why Laos and Cambodia were important for the movement of equipment and men from the north to the south of Vietnam. But back to Cambodia’s Day of Remembrance from Wikipedia….
Pol Pot leader of the Khmer Rouge and Prime Minister
The Day of Remembrance, formerly called the National Day of Hatred, celebrated on May 20, is an annual event ,Cambodia. It commemorates the excesses of the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled the country between 1975 and 1979.The English name ‘Day of Hatred’ is somewhat of a mistranslation. The Khmer name, when instituted in 1983, was T’veer Chong Kamhaeng (‘Day of Tying Anger’). The name could also be translated as ‘Day of Maintaining Rage’. Read more
and what were the “excesses” of the Khmer Rouge…..
Modern research has located 20,000 mass graves from the Khmer Rouge era all over Cambodia. Various studies have estimated the death toll at between 740,000 and 3,000,000, most commonly between 1.4 million and 2.2 million, with perhaps half of those deaths being due to executions, and the rest from starvation and disease.[59]
The U.S. State Department-funded Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University estimates the number of deaths at approximately 1.7 million (21% of the population of the country).[60] R. J. Rummel, an analyst of historical political killings, gives a figure of 2 million.[61] A UN investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimates that 3 million had been killed.[62] Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed,[63] while Marek Sliwinski estimates that 1.8 million is a conservative figure.[39] Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a “most likely” figure of 2.2 million. After five years of researching grave sites, he concluded that “these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution”. (emphasis added)
To put these numbers in perspective – the total number of US Combat Deaths from all the wars that the US has been in since 1775 totals 848,163 and the TOTAL of all US deaths resulting from those wars is approximately 1.3 million people. Consider that;the US deaths are spread over 239 years and a bunch of wars including two World Wars and the Khmer Rouge did it in 4 years!! (more about United States military casualties of war)
Finally, when the wing-nuts in America whine about Obama marching us to communism they have no clue tell me that there is any way that the Obama administration is doing anything like this……
The Khmer Rouge attempted to turn Cambodia into a classless society by depopulating cities and forcing the urban population (“New People”) into agricultural communes. The entire population was forced to become farmers in labour camps. Cambodians were expected to produce three tons of rice per hectare; before the Khmer Rouge era, the average was only one ton per hectare. The total lack of agricultural knowledge by the former city dwellers made famine inevitable. Rural dwellers were often unsympathetic or too frightened to assist them. Such acts as picking wild fruit or berries was seen as “private enterprise” and punished by death. The Khmer Rouge forced people to work for 12 hours non-stop, without adequate rest or food. These actions resulted in massive deaths through executions, work exhaustion, illness, and starvation. They did not believe in western medicine but turned to traditional medicine instead; because of the famine, forced labour, and the lack of access to appropriate services there was a high number of human losses.[52]
The Khmer Rouge attempted to turn Cambodia into a classless society by depopulating cities and forcing the urban population (“New People”) into agricultural communes. The entire population was forced to become farmers in labour camps. Cambodians were expected to produce three tons of rice per hectare; before the Khmer Rouge era, the average was only one ton per hectare. The total lack of agricultural knowledge by the former city dwellers made famine inevitable. Rural dwellers were often unsympathetic or too frightened to assist them. Such acts as picking wild fruit or berries was seen as “private enterprise” and punished by death. The Khmer Rouge forced people to work for 12 hours non-stop, without adequate rest or food. These actions resulted in massive deaths through executions, work exhaustion, illness, and starvation. They did not believe in western medicine but turned to traditional medicine instead; because of the famine, forced labour, and the lack of access to appropriate services there was a high number of human losses.[52]
Money was abolished, books were burned, teachers, merchants, and almost the entire intellectual elite of the country were murdered to make the agricultural communism, as Pol Pot envisioned it, a reality. The planned relocation to the countryside resulted in the complete halting of almost all economic activity: even schools and hospitals were closed, as well as banks, and even industrial and service companies. Banks were raided and all currency and records were destroyed by fire thus eliminating any claim to funds.[53]
Rooms of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum contain thousands of photos taken by the Khmer Rouge of their victims.During their four years in power, the Khmer Rouge overworked and starved the population, at the same time executing selected groups who they believed were enemies of the state or spies or had the potential to undermine the new state. People who they perceived as intellectuals or even those who had stereotypical signs of learning, such as glasses, would also be killed. People would also be executed for attempting to escape from the communes or for breaching minor rules. If caught, offenders were taken quietly off to a distant forest or field after sunset and killed.[54]
All religion was banned by the Khmer Rouge. Any people seen taking part in religious rituals or services would be executed. Several Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians were killed for exercising their beliefs.[55] Family relationships not sanctioned by the state were also banned, and family members could be put to death for communicating with each other. Married couples were only allowed to visit each other on a limited basis. If people were seen being engaged in sexual activity, they would be killed immediately. Almost all freedom to travel was abolished. Almost all privacy was eliminated during the Khmer Rouge era. People were not allowed to eat in privacy; instead, they were required to eat with everyone in the commune. All personal utensils were banned, and people were given only one spoon to eat with. In any case, family members were often relocated to different parts of the country with all postal and telephone services abolished.[52][55]
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As a matter of fact, it appears that the war against intellectualism in the US is being waged by the folks of the other party and Mr. Obama certainly accepts a variety of religions much to the chagrin of the right that only accepts one religion, well, two, if you consider the worship of the almighty dollar a religion..
Well after reading all of this it appears that the name National Day of Hatred or ‘Day of Maintaining Rage’really fits!!
And I guess if your country has been through what Cambodia has been through it is kind of hard to forget and forgive completely!
I know this post has gone on too long and I will try to write about Cameroon and East Timor either later tonight, but more likely tomorrow!
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