The Killing Fields

A lot of the youth of today, for instance the peers in our classes are not taught in school about a lot of the atrocities that have happened in Our World thus far. I feel that it is important for us to be reminded of the past in order for us to make a better judgement for our future and for the future of the next generation. One such past event we should remember is immortalized in the film “the killing fields”. The Film is based on one mans escape from starvation, genocide, and peril in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge Regime which spanned from 1975 to 1979, this man was Dith Pran. Since his recent passing away on the 30th of March, 2008 from pancreatic cancer at the young age of 65; the world is once again reminded of the atrocities that once took place in the war-ravaged country of Cambodia. “The Killing Fields” is set in 1984 in the killing fields of Cambodia; it follows the life of Dith Pan, a photojournalist for the New York Times whose horrifying and yet almost unbelievable experiences during that time. When the Khmer Rouge took control in 1975, Dith Pran became part of a merciless and inhumane experiment: the eviction of hundreds of thousands of people from cities into the farm lands and the forbidding of education with the goal of re-creating Cambodia as an agricultural nation. This was the goal of Angkar (The Khmer Rouge.) During this time, more than 2 million people (a quarter of Cambodia’s population) were massacred, many of them were shot where they stood for doing something of their own free will, or eating an insect, or just used as examples to show the others around them that the Khmer Rouge was in charge and that it was best not to oppose them. Often many Cambodians, who at that time were living in farm camps were told by their Khmer rouge captives that Angkar needed their help. That all would be forgiven if they simply confessed to being a doctor or a teacher or someone with education. For those who did confess they were told that all would be fine and there would be much elation to be had by the truthful persons, some people confessed knowing what would happen to them just to end their lives of torture; and at the end of the night were taken to the fields and shot, hung or simply buried alive. One of the still standing reminders of this is a high school formally known as S-21 it is now called The Toul Sleng Genocide, it is here that more than 20,000 people were executed; only 6 people have been known to have come out alive. Bearing witness to the violence falling around Dith Pran had to avoid definite execution by hiding that he was educated and so he passed himself off as a taxi driver and dressed as a peasant. Over the next 4 and a half years, he worked in the fields. These where very hard times and even harder to find food for oneself let alone support a family. The sustenance at the times consisted of insects, rats and even the exhumed corpses of the recently executed. In November 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. (Thus creating the Cambodian - Vietnamese War) Dith went home to Siem Reap, where he learned that 50 members of his family had been killed. The local water wells, which once provided clean drinking water, were a mass with skulls and bones. The Vietnamese made Dith Pran chief of the village. But he fled when he feared that they had learned of his American ties. He and 2 companions trekked 60 miles to the Thailand border encountering dangers such as numerous land mines, mass shallow graves and wild animals. His 2 companions were lost to a land mine not long before the end of their journey. Since narrowly escaping from Cambodia, Dith Pran dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of people everywhere, people whose rights have been so inhumanly suppressed like his own during his life time; as no one can relate to these people as best as Dith Pran.

References

N.A. (2007). "Khmer Rouge." Retrieved 17/05, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge.

N.A. (2008). "Dith Pran." Retrieved 17/05, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dith_Pran.

N.A. (2008). "Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum." Retrieved 17/05, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng_Genocide_Museum.

N.A. (n.d). "Cambodian-Vietnamese War." Retrieved 17/05/2008, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian-Vietnamese_War.

The Last Word

My Blog

I don't really know what aspect of this topic I should focus on, it is however quite a grim and sad reminder to everyone about the atrocities that occurred in Cambodia after the Vietnam war in the mid to late 1970's. After throwing out the Americans, Cambodia's new communist government decided to rule its people with an iron fist slaughtering nearly 1\4 of its population. I think that it is important to remember what happened in the past and it should be a lesson to all of us that war, being civil or international is no way to achieve peace. I watched the movie - "The Killing Fields" which was based on the story of one man, Dith Pran, about his peril and escape from Cambodia. he recently passed away a few months ago, so i thought i would start there by focusing on his life and also the other events that took place during that time. what do you guys think? any ideas appreciated