Crimes against humanity
As many people have heard, there have always been trouble with crimes against humanity. People had been treated like they have lost their whole worth. They’ve been defamed, tortured and executed. But were those innocent people worth this? What have they done to society? There are a lot of questions which demand answers. If we’re going to find the answers are not clear. Those questions keep haunting us…

There existed a Cambodian group in the middle of the 20^th century - the Khmer Rouge. If you hear the name, the Khmer Rouge, you may think they were a party which had good intentions. But appearances are deceptive… They were a communist party which strived after a society which was totally based on agriculture. But that was the biggest mistake they ever could make…

Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge’s leader, became prime minister in Cambodia 1976.When Pol Pot became prime minister, a number of bad things happened. Pol Pot put Cambodia in a very hard situation, which caused many people’s deaths. People died of starvation, exhaustion and execution. Educated people and some ethnic groups were the main victims for persecution. But the Khmer Rouge didn’t think about the consequences.  If they killed all educated people, how could the country handle the economy? After those horrible years (1975-1979), Cambodia was in a serious economic crisis. The agriculture ended up in a hard position.  

There were a lot of prisons situated around in Cambodia. The living conditions in those prisons were horrible. One of the most famous and ghastliest prisons was Toul Sleng, also called S-21.  Those people which been sent to Toul Sleng, were accused for political crimes. They had been executed or tortured after they had gone through an examination. In total there was 14000-20000 people who been sent to Toul Sleng, but only seven people survived.  

In other words,some of the worst crimes against humanity through history were those crimes in Cambodia which killed around 1.7 million people. 20 percent of Cambodia’s population had been brutally executed during 1975-1979. I can’t believe it when I read it. How could so many people have been executed? It’s such a horrible story. I really suffer with them.  Those people haven’t done anything wrong. Just because Pol Pot thought they didn’t fit in the society, they were bound to die. How can a human think like that? Probably he had a hard upbringing, which caused his bad behavior and his wrong appreciation of other people.  But one thing really irritates me; almost all members of the Khmer Rouge were or had been doctors earlier in their lives. So, why did they execute like-minded people? I think I know why. They strived after an advantage, and that’s why they executed the educated population. If all educated people were dead, they had reached their goal. No one could dispute the Khmer Rouge’s opinions and ideas, because the population had no education and didn’t know better in that situation.

Our school visit to “Forum För Levande Historia” a couple of weeks ago. There was an exhibition which was called “Middag med Pol Pot”. The exhibition was really interesting and touching. We saw pictures of people who were in Toul Sleng and at these agricultural collectives. A horrible thought hit me at that moment: I realized that everything really had happened. It felt so terrible inside of me when I think about it. I think every person have the same rights to live. It doesn’t matter if you’re black, educated, white etc. Everybody has the same worth. End of discussion.

Sources:
http://www.levandehistoria.se/kommunistiskaregimer/kambodja
”Forum För Levande Historia”.
My own thoughts.

 
Toul Sleng




The Killing Fields



Written by: Victoria Strömvall