Week 9_Uyen Ngo_ASA 150E

While much of our focus has been on the Vietnam War, this week shifts to Cambodia and their struggle with the Khmer Rouge's terror. I was surprised to learn from Schlund-Vials' War, Genocide, and Justice that former members of Khmer Rouge still currently occupied multilevel positions of governmental powers. On top of that, only ONE Khmer Rouge official has ever been trialed and convicted for the war crimes, even more than 30 years after Democratic Kampuchea's dissolution. This raises the question of whether or not there really was ever victory on this genocide and this battle against inhumanity, as it seems as justice was never really served.

This surprised me as how can the leader Minister Sen urge his fellow Cambodians to forgive the Khmer Rouge and "bury the past" when 1) what they did was the peak of inhumanity and evil, 2) those that participated continue to reap benefits of power and wealth when they took away the lives of their people's loved ones, and 3) those who had the most influence and play in the genocide were never held accountable for their actions. And while it is important to eventually move from tragedy, to ask for forgiveness for the Khmer Rouge seems unthinkable to me, and certainly not the right way to start honoring those who gave up their lives to win over the genocide.