Students, civilians commemorate Cambodian genocide

World Monday 20/May/2019 14:51 PM
By: Times News Service
Students, civilians commemorate Cambodian genocide

Kuala Lumpur: Black-clad students reenacted the horrors of the Cambodian genocide at the 'Killing Fields' on Monday to commemorate the two million people killed by the Khmer Rouge’s murderous Maoist regime.

Hundreds gathered at the notorious site in Phnom Penh to mark the annual Day of Remembrance with prayers and performances, including students wielding wooden rifles, knives and bamboo sticks in mock attacks.

A quarter of Cambodia’s population died under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime, culled in mass killings or by starvation, forced labour or torture.

His brutal reign came to an end in 1979, and the Khmer Rouge atrocities are still remembered at museums and sites dedicated to victims of the genocide.

The Day of Remembrance, more commonly called the 'Day of Anger' in Cambodia, is often commemorated at the Choeung Ek 'Killing Fields', where some 15,000 people were confined and sent to their deaths between 1975 and 1979.

Religious ceremonies were also held across the country to pray for the victims of the genocide.

Several of the genocide’s chief orchestrators have been tried by a UN-backed court, though critics say prosecutions have been too slow and many of the accused have died before facing trial.

In November, Khmer Rouge’s former head of state Khieu Samphan and “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea were found guilty of genocide and sentenced to life in prison.

Pol Pot, nicknamed “Brother Number One”, died in 1998 before he could be brought to trial.