Following the Vietnam War Cambodia went through several years of civil war. Then, on April 17, 1975, the war-ravaged capital of Phnom Penh was “saved” when an army of Cambodian soldiers, mostly young, and dressed in all black marched silently into the city. The people thought that they were there to end the war and they rejoiced. They cheered, hugged, and cried with relief. They gathered in the streets to meet the soldiers and thank them. The soldiers, representing the Khmer Rouge Regime and directed by the newly assigned leader, Pol Pot, told the people that the Americans were going to bomb the city in the next few days and that they had to evacuate. This wasn't a stretch to believe, as the Nixon administration had recently relentlessly bombed other areas of Cambodia for days on end in an attempt to quash communism. Within three hours of their arrival, the Khmer Rouge soldiers had emptied the entire city of Phnom Penh and drove all of its residents to the countryside, where they killed them all with pick-ax blows to the backs of their heads and necks. The fields where the mass killings took place came to be known as The Killing Fields. But they didn't stop there. Under Pol Pot's orders, they continued their terrorizing throughout the whole country. They targeted the educated class of Cambodia, focusing on torturing and killing the upper-level of society. Those that they didn't kill right away were held in torture camps and interrogated. Supposedly, every single one of them was suspected of espionage for the CIA and KGB, but it is much more likely that they were the only ones that posed a threat of speaking out against the Regime.
When it was all said and done, from 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge Regime murdered 2 MILLION Cambodians, including all of its doctors, teachers, professors, lawyers, judges, government workers, and other professionals. The entire educated class of Cambodia was wiped out. Their children were also all killed in an effort to avoid future acts of revenge.
When I arrived in Cambodia, I had heard vaguely of the Khmer Rouge regime, but had no idea of how central that period in time was to creating the country that I found on my trip. It is hard enough for a country to recover from a period of war, especially on it's own soil, but Cambodia's problem is even greater. Not only had they lost all of their educated class who were essentially running the country before, but they had nobody to train and teach a new generation how to fill those roles. They are a poor nation of farmers and laborers who were left to start from scratch. They went from having 40,000 doctors to having 40, and nobody left to teach medical students. The country is in such widespread poverty that I can't imagine a child growing up in one of these poor villages thinking of anything but survival, much less higher education. But, even if they did, who would teach them? Nobody knows how the courts and government used to run. I consider myself part of the educated class in the U.S., but even I would seriously screw up if I was left to start a legal system from scratch. So, as these people struggle to recover from devastating war, genocide, and grief, they must not only fight for basic survival, but also to build an entirely new country. And all the while, they are trying to find strength to move past the horrors that they themselves have witnessed. I don't think I met one person in Cambodia that hadn't lost someone in the Regime. It's a wonder that they have any faith left in humanity. And learning all of this has helped me to understand how the corruption, poverty, and inhumanities are occurring. How could they not?
So, back to Randa. We met with Randa, and she told us her story while we sat on huge home-made swings under palm-frond huts. Randa was 12 or 13 when the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh.
Her family was slaughtered in the Killing Fields, and she was taken to a torture camp where she knew she would be killed. One day, she decided that she would rather die anywhere but there, so she hid in the back of a military truck and held herself up against the wall of it behind a blanket. The truck left the camp and, after a few hours of driving, her muscles gave out and she tumbled into the front of the truck. The soldiers looked down at her, and asked her what she was doing. She said that the would rather die anywhere but the torture camp, and asked if they could kill her there instead of taking her back. One of the soldiers, a female, promised that she would keep Randa with her and wouldn't let her go back. When they got to their base, Randa was told that she would be trained to shoot a gun and kill for them. The little girl of only 13 looked at them and said that she would not. Rather than killing her, they said that she could instead work as a maid for them, but that she would not be allowed to speak a word – ever. So, she worked with some other children as the silent slaves of the Khmer Rouge soldiers for months and months. One morning, she awoke to the sound of gunfire and bombs, and saw that the base had been completely abandoned. Only she and the children remained. She decided to wait one week, and if nobody came for them, they would run. A week later, she and the children escaped from the base into the jungle. There they hid for days, covering themselves with dirt and leaves to avoid detection and mosquitos. At one point, they all hid in a pond for 3 whole days, and when they finally emerged, they couldn't even see their skin because they were covered in leeches. Weak from the loss of blood, Randa stumbled upon an American military envoy, and was saved. They took her to a refugee camp and asked where she would like to be re-settled. She said America. Her story of being in the Camp, hearing about the Bible, becoming a Christian, meeting her husband, moving to the States, and then deciding to return to Cambodia is one that could best be read in her autobiography, which is available for sale. Learning about her experiences first-hand are much more powerful than my weak re-telling, so I highly recommend reading it.
Randa made us all cry with her story. Perhaps the most incredible part, to me, was that she returned to the country that caused her so much heartache and trauma, and decided to immerse herself in other people's pain in order to help them recover. She is so inspirational and encouraging. If and when Cambodia recovers from the atrocities it has seen, it will be because of people like Randa.
(Film about the Khmer Rouge genocide: The Killing Fields; Randa and Setan's stories: http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/flash/cambodia/print.shtml)
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