Cambodia. A few years ago while i lived in Singapore
i took a trip down to Cambodia. It broke my heart to
see what people went thru during Pol Pots regime more
like his reign of terror. In phenom Pehn there is
prison which used to be an elementary school but while
Khmer Rouge was in charge they have transformed that
into prison. So, now that has become a part of
history and also tourists attraction.
The class rooms are full of bad memories. In some
rooms there were steel beds with cuffs and shackles,
in some rooms, iron shackles are embed ed on the floor
itself. Some rooms have various torture devices
including the water tank, some rooms had pictures of
people being tortured. One particular picture
disturbed me so much i felt sick to my stomach. The
picture was of a woman, pregnant woman, two military
men holding the woman on the ground, one man cutting
her stomach open to get the fetus out and another man
beating the unborn fetus against a tree. Another
picture was just as horrific which was of a teenage
boy hanging upside down from the ceiling with bounded
hands and legs and his head is in one of those small
water tanks. Outside on the courtyard there are three
hanging bars, one was small, one was medium sized and
one was for adults. The small one was for children
aging 5 years to 12 years old, the medium one was for
teenagers to 20 year olds and the large one for
adults. Every room had the smell of blood, i was
scared to be in those rooms feeling that the evil
hasn't gone away yet if i stay here any longer i would
be forced to lie on the iron bed with the iron
shackles around my ankles.
Then we went to the Killing Fields. Seeing fragments
of human skulls and pieces of torn clothing still
embed ed in that open ground made me feel as if i had
been there before feeling helpless and hopeless, as if
all of the tortured souls still standing around and
looking for their loved ones and asking us living why
was this allowed to happen? There is a small museum
there, its a museum made of human skulls again
arranged from infants to adults.
Then we went to Angkor Wat, that was much more
pleasant than what i had seen days before. Its hard
for me to comprehend why we humans oppose such cruel
treatments on other human beings. We are simply
weired wrong. After that visit i was traumatized for
months thinking, my gosh, what if something like that
happens now, i wouldn't want to see people i know, i
love and care for to die this way. I wouldn't want to
die that way. I hope all responsible for such cruelty
are brought to justice, they deserve to be punished
for each life they had taken. Thank you once again
for such an article. Take care. Shoma
--- Abdul Momen <syl.boston@yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: Uttorshuri
>
> Subject: Crimes Against humanity - in Cambodia
>
>
> Key Khmer Rouge figures charged  Ieng Sary has
> repeatedly denied responsibility for any crimes
> Cambodian authorities have arrested two leading
> figures from the notorious 1970s Khmer Rouge regime
> and charged them with crimes against humanity.
>
> Former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng
> Thirith, were taken into custody in the capital,
> Phnom Penh. The pair, who deny any wrongdoing, are
> due to appear at a UN-backed genocide tribunal on
> Wednesday. The brutal Maoist regime, which ruled
> between 1975 and 1979, is blamed for more than one
> million deaths. A tribunal was established last year
> to bring surviving leaders to the dock. "Today Ieng
> Sary and Ieng Thirith have been arrested in
> execution of an arrest warrant... for crimes against
> humanity and war crimes as regards Ieng Sary and for
> crimes against humanity concerning Ieng Thirith," a
> statement from the tribunal said..
>
> Purge of intellectuals Police surrounded the
> couple's Phnom Penh house early in the morning. They
> searched the house for three hours and then drove
> Ieng Sary and his wife to the tribunal in a convoy
> of vehicles. The couple, who have been living freely
> in the Cambodian capital for more than 10 years,
> were key members of the Khmer Rouge leadership. Ieng
> Sary was Pol Pot's brother-in-law - his wife's
> sister was married to the Khmer Rouge founder. His
> wife, Ieng Thirith, was the Khmer Rouge's social
> affairs minister..
>
> As foreign minister, he was often the only point of
> contact between Cambodia's rulers and the outside
> world. He was responsible for convincing many
> educated Cambodians who had fled the Khmer Rouge to
> return to help rebuild the country. Many were then
> tortured and executed as part of the purge of
> intellectuals, some of them diplomats from his own
> office. Prosecutors for the tribunal have said there
> is evidence of Ieng Sary's participation in crimes,
> including planning, directing and co-ordinating
> forced labour and unlawful killings. Ieng Sary has
> repeatedly denied any crime. In 1996 he became the
> first senior leader from the Maoist regime to defect
> and as a result was granted a royal pardon. But
> analysts say the validity of that agreement looks
> set to be tested with his arrest by the court.
>
> Ageing leaders Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith are the
> third and fourth people to be targeted by the
> tribunal. In September, Pol Pot's second-in command,
> 82-year-old Nuon Chea, was charged with war crimes
> and crimes against humanity. Two months before that,
> Kang Kek Ieu - or Duch - the head of the notorious
> Tuol Sleng prison, was charged with crimes against
> humanity. Their trials, before a team of Cambodian
> and international judges, are expected to start in
> 2008. Other top leaders are already dead. Pol Pot
> died in 1998 and Ta Mok - the regime's military
> commander and one of his most ruthless henchmen -
> died in July 2006.
>
>
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
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Shoma Yadav
____________________________________________________________________________________
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