by Luz Rimban
VERA Files
PHNOM PENH—In a village 15 kilometers south of this city, tourists from all over the world arrive every day to pay their respects to the victims of Asia’s own holocaust, burning incense sticks, offering flowers, or simply gazing at the skulls piled 10 levels high inside a Buddhist stupa standing over what was once a mass grave.
This is the Choeung-Ek Genocidal Center in Dong Kor district, one of nearly 200 sites known as the “killing fields.” Here, the Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, executed, tortured or forced into labor thousands of Cambodians while it was in power from 1975 to 1979.
On Monday, March 30, the world will finally know what really happened in these killing fields as the Khmer Rouge trials enter what is called the substantive phase. For the next three months, evidence will be presented and testimonies will be heard of events that transpired 30 years ago, considered one of the worst atrocities in human history.
Click here (VERA Files) to read the complete article.
What about Davao’s Killing Fields?
Pol Pot is dead,although his death might bring a sigh of relief to some. Pol Pot is a quite modest man who has always had difficulty telling others about himself.he is different from other revolutionaries who have courted the press: Castro practically lives for sound bites, and the Zapatistas are better at planning press conferences than battles. But Pol Pot has never had the gift of the gab, especially around the camera, and he has never learned how to play to the press. Reporters saw him only as a cold-blooded killer; they missed his pensive side. The adulation that journalists showered on Castro, Marcos and Hafez al-Assad,Sadam Hussein passed Pol Pot by. So, too, did the personal wealth that other dictators amassed. Pol Pot has never believed in greed. Not for him the diamonds of Mobutu, the snazzy clothes of Duvalier, the shoes of Imelda Marcos, the Swiss bank accounts of Pidal and them all. When Pol Pot fell from power, he walked into the jungle with nothing but the clothes on his back.
Killing fields? Look, there was not even a holocaust at all!
Hindi naman dapat pang pag-usapan etong mga isyu ng Burma at Cambodia. Problema na nila yan. At huwag niyong isipin na sana mangyari sa atin ang nangyari sa dalawang Bansa na ito. Solusyunan na lang natin ang isyo dito sa Bansa natin. Hayaan na lang natin yong mga Intn’l body ang lulutas at tutulong sa kanilang problema.
Malayo naman tayo sa kanila. Kahit corrupt ang mga pekeng namamahala sa atin, ang kapinoyan naman ay di hamak na may pinag-aralan.
I jumped with joy when a friend informed me that the Evil Bitch has resigned giving way to a transition government. Then, he said “Happy April Fool’s Day”. I’m back to depression.
Dodong, hindi maaring ikaw ay mamuhay na sarili mo lang ang iyong iniisip.
Kung ikaw ay hindi interesado sa kalagayan ng ibang bayan, hindi ka pinipilit.
Ako naniniwala na may mga leksyon tayong makukuha sa iba, kahit sa malayong lugar.
I wonder when those responsible for the killing fields in the Philippines will get to be tried similarly in the International Court.
Kaya siguro takot ng takot si Gloria Mandurugas na matanggal sa Malacanang.
how about the media killing spree
or the old fairview salvage dumpsite
Dodong,
Although this “Kiling Feilds” in Cambodia is historical event.we need to learn it from the past.It is important to be aware of history, not only in the sense of “those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it”, but also in the sense of “Those who control the past control the present”. The meaning of the present is shaped by what happened in the past.
Without knowing the history behind an event, and preferably knowing the history of that history, you can’t understand the current event. The why matters, and the why causes the what. And history should be more than the study of the what, it shoudl be the study of the why. Otherwise, we have always been.
That’s correct. We bring up past atrocities to remind us of the cruelty of people against mankind. However, many still don’t learn from history.