April 17, 1975, tanks rolled in The Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, to an increased crowds that believed that the Long civil war of the country could finally be finished.
But what followed was One of the worst genocides of the 20th century. During a sudden four-year rule, communist-nationalist ideologues of the Khmer Rouge killed between 1.6 million and 3 million people Thanks to executions, forced work and famine. The dead represented a quarter of the country’s population at the time.
Fifty years later, the legacy of Khmer Rouge continues to shape Cambodia – politically, socially, economically and emotionally. It is engraved in the bones of each Cambodian – including mine.
Photo of the author’s parents in Cambodia, taken in the late 1960s. Sophal ear, CC by.
I write this not only as a Academic or observer But as a survivor. My father died under the Red Khmer, succumbing to dysentery and malnutrition after being forced to work in a labor camp. My mother pretended to be Vietnamese to save our family. She escaped Cambodia with five children in 1976, crossing Vietnam before reaching France in 1978 and finally the United States in 1985.
We were among the lucky ones.
Today, Cambodia is physically unrecognizable of bombed fields and empty cities of the 1970s. Phnom Penh light with skyscrapers and luxury shopping centers. And yet, under glitter, the past continues – often in silence, sometimes in cynical exploitation.
Inheritance of fear and control
The Khmer Rouge has come to power on a wave of disillusionment, corruption, civil war and rural resentment. Years of American bombardmentThe 1970 Coup supported by the United States This ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk, and the subsequently unpopular military regime aligned by the United States has paved the way for the rise of the Khmer Rouge.
Many Cambodians, especially in the countryside, welcomed the Red Khmer, with its mixture of hard communist ideology and extreme Cambodian nationalism, as liberators who promised to restore order and dignity. But for the next four years, the Red Khmer, under fears the leader Pol Pot, led to the terror to the nation through ideological purges,, forced work,, Racial genocide of minority groupsAnd policies that have brought generalized famine.
The regime fell in 1979, when Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia and overthrew the direction of Khmer RougeInstallation of a new pro-Hanoi government. But his shadows remain.
The now manager Cambodian people feastIn power for more than four decades, justified its grip on the country by the trauma of the genocide.
“”Peace and stability“Have become mantras used to crush dissent.
Each fictitious election becomes a referendum not only on politics, but to avoid a return to war. Critics of Cambodia leaders are formulated as threats to peace and unity. Opposition parties were dissolved,, activists imprisoned,, Muzzled media.
This political culture of fear draws directly from the Khmer Rouge game book – less manifest violence. The trauma inflicted by this regime has taught people to be wary, to be silent, to survive while keeping their heads down. This impulse still shapes public life.
Delayed and always incomplete justice
The Khmer Rouge court – officially the Extraordinary rooms in Cambodia lessons – was supposed to be closed. He brought it.
But it took decades to start, cost more than $ 300 millionand condemned only three senior Khmer Rouge leaders in the genocide of 1975-1979 before its dissolution in 2022. Many authors of medium and lower level walk freely; Some are still in government positions, certain neighbors of survivors.
For a nation where the majority of the population was born after 1979, there remains a blatant gap in education and public calculations on the atrocities of Khmer Rouge.
Cambodia school program struggle to teach This period adequately. For many young people, it is something that their parents do not speak and the state prefers to supervise selectively.
Economic growth: uneven and fragile
In gross number, Cambodia’s economic progress in the past two decades has been impressive. GDP growth was on average about 7% annually before the COVVI-19 pandemic. The cities have expanded and the investment – Especially China – Flooded.
But a large part of this growth is precarious. Cambodia economy Remains dependent on exports of clothing, tourism and construction. This makes him vulnerable to external shocks, like the Trump administration Tariff tax of 49% on Cambodian products, now temporarily a break.
Instead of building an resilient and diversified economy, Cambodia relied on relations – with China for investment, with the United States for the markets – without investing enough in its own human capital. It is also, I believe, is an inheritance of the Red Khmer, which destroyed the country’s intellectual and professional classes.
The trauma has transmitted
The psychological assessment of the genocide does not disappear over time. The survivors carry the scars in their body and their mind.
The same goes for their children and grandchildren. Studies on post-genocide Cambodia have shown high rates of post-traumatic and depression stress disorder Among the survivors And their descendantsresulting in intergenerational trauma.
There is Not enough mental health services in the country. Trauma is often treated in private, by silence or resilience rather than therapy. Buddhism, the dominant religion of the countryOffers rituals for healing, reincarnation and forgiveness. But it is not a substitute for the systemic mental health infrastructure.
Worse, in recent years, even the memory of the genocide has been politicized. Some leaders use it as a tool to dissident of silence. Others cooperate it for nationalist accounts. There is little room for an honest and critical reflection. Certain independent initiatives, such as intergenerational dialogue programs and digital archives, have tried to fill the void but are faced with limited support.
It is, I believe, a second tragedy. A country cannot really go ahead if it cannot speak freely about its past.
The danger of forgetting
April 17 is not a national holiday in Cambodia. There are no official commemorations. The government does not encourage the memory of the day in which Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge. But in my opinion, it should. Not to reopen injuries, but to remind Cambodians why justice, democracy and dignity are important.
The danger is not that Cambodia returns to the days of the Red Khmer. The danger is that it becomes a place where history is manipulated, where authoritarianism is justified as stability and where development is authorized to put paper on injustice.
While the world marks the 50th anniversary of the rise of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia must, I believe, count with this uncomfortable truth: the regime can have been over for a long time, but its heritage has lived in the institutions, behaviors and fears that continue to shape Cambodia today.
When I look back, I think of my father – whom I have never known. I think of my mother, who risked everything to save us. And I think of the millions of Cambodians who live with memories that they cannot forget and the young Cambodians who deserve to know the complete truth.
My life was shaped by what happened on April 17, 1975. But this story is not alone. It belongs to Cambodia – and he is still in writing.
This article was initially published on The conversation. Read it original article.
