Cambodia marked 50 years since the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh, but no public ceremony was allowed at the Choeung Ek killing field. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/04/18/asia-pacific/khmer-rouge-50-years-on/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #cambodia #khmerrouge
Since January last year, a team led by a lawyer has traveled around Cambodia teaching schoolchildren about Pol Pot's brutal regime, sharing 20 years' worth of evidence and testimony from victims. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/04/16/asia-pacific/crime-legal/cambodia-khmer-rouge-tribunal/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #crimelegal #cambodia #southeastasia #khmerrouge #polpot #genocide
When crimes are committed with impunity, the world becomes less secure. Fifty years on from the Khmer Rouge's rise, Japan must renew its commitment to international law. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/04/16/japan/khmer-rouge-japan-international-law/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #japan #cambodia #khmerrouge #us #icc #icj #courts #warcrimes #humanrights
Cambodia’s haunted present: 50 years after Khmer Rouge’s rise, murderous legacy looms large. “On April 17, 1975, tanks rolled into…Phnom Penh, to cheering crowds who believed…the civil war might finally be over. …what followed was one of the worst #genocides of the 20th century. During a brutal 4-year rule, the…#KhmerRouge killed between 1.6 million & 3 million people…a quarter of the…population... …the Khmer Rouge’s legacy continues to shape #Cambodia…” | by Sophal Ear https://theconversation.com/cambodias-haunted-present-50-years-after-khmer-rouges-rise-murderous-legacy-looms-large-254125?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
“In the first hours of the #KhmerRouge entering #PhnomPenh, there was celebration, everyone running around and waving #flags. It looked like it was going to be peaceful. But soon we began to hear disturbing news from other parts of the city that they were telling people to get out of their houses and go into the countryside for the agrarian #revolution.”
Seeing the film in ‘85 it would never occur to me I’d actually work with a survivor of the Killing Fields & Pol Pot.
“The Killing Fields”, 1985 / #SydneySchanberg / #DithPran <https://www.historynet.com/interview-sydney-schanberg-author-of-beyond-the-killing-fields> / <https://archive.nytimes.com/kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/dith-pran-rip/>
The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 by Ben Kiernan
This edition of Ben Kiernan's account of the Cambodian revolution and genocide includes a new preface that takes the story up to 2008 and the UN-sponsored Khmer Rouge tribunal.
Kiernan's other books include 'Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur' and 'How Pol Pot Came to Power'.
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