Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Cambodia: Never forget

38 years ago today, Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge. What happened after was the most horrific events in modern history the media has wished we forgotten. In just four years before they were overthrown, between 2-2.5 million lives were lost as a result to Pol Pot's evil and genocidal regime. That is more than a quarter of the entire population of the country. To put that into perspective, that's double the population of modern Birmingham, UK. Dead.

When the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge, the governments of Thatcher and Reagan, along with China and the United Nations, supported their 'resistance', even against their population's own public opinions. These includes creating an 'exiled' government made up 'reasonable' Khmer Rouge and training the 'resistance'. The result was years of violence, with many still feeling the impact.

Today should mark as a grim reminder of a genocide that should never have been allowed to happen. Instead, the mainstream media, in collusion with the government, aims to revise history today by honouring a homophobic who supported Pol Pot, one of the most evil person to have ever lived. Not to mention Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet, Suharto and Apartheid South Africa. But we will never forget.

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