After a short-lived celebrated change in government and the prospect of a new era of peace in their country, Cambodians quickly had a sudden change of emotion. The Khmer Rouge, a communist-favoring and violent group that developed in the jungle of East Cambodia, emerged and began a campaign of mass starvation and killing that led to the deaths of nearly two million Cambodians on April 17, 1975.
The Brown University Choices Program states that Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, imagined a classless society in Cambodia — a communist utopia and led a campaign to rid the country of all class distinctions that existed between rural and urban populations. Khmer Rouge envisioned a Cambodia without cities, private property, or money, where all goods would have to be exchanged and bartered. They forced all urban Cambodians out of the cities and made them adopt a new lifestyle as farmers in the countryside. The Khmer Rouge split up families and cultivated fear and distrust among citizens. Many women and children “disappeared” and the government wanted women to produce children for the regime, using rape as their weapon, so it often conducted forced mass marriages and then monitored the new couples. At TPO Cambodia, one of the survivors quoted, “ During the daytime, young guards of around 15, 16, 17 years old came ‘to play’ (9) with my private parts including breasts, buttocks and cheeks, and they beat me until I finally lost consciousness. “I didn’t know what they had done to me when I had passed out. When I regained my consciousness, I realized that I was bleeding and smelled very strongly like dead fish. They did this to me every day. Sometimes, he inserted his penis into my mouth until I regained consciousness. Every day, three to four times, they beat me until I was unconscious.” The Khmer Rouge destroyed all banks and currency, abolished telephone and postal services, forbade religion, and censored the media. They destroyed clothing, forcing all people to dress in the same government-issued black pants and shirts. They also dismantled the educational system and confiscated and burned all books. Lastly, they closed all hospitals and banned medications.
Unfortunately, an estimated 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979 as a result of execution, starvation, disease, overwork, and exposure to the elements. Fortunately, there were some survivors of this gut-wrenching genocide. One of those survivors is Arn Chorn Pond.
Arn Chorn Pond, an incredible figure and survivor of the Cambodian Genocide, has turned around his life and has “committed to peace,” he stated in our Poly GIP event. Most people after very traumatic events shut off and never speak about the events again, but Mr. Pond is different. Arn Chorn Pond is currently titled as a Cambodian musician and human rights activist, but he noted in our Global Scholar’s class discussion that he is a “human first.” Pond advises everyone “We need be human beings first, don’t — don’t give up on be human.” Arn Chorn Pond fortunately escaped the Cambodian Genocide as a young boy, but first, he had to live through and experience the tragedies of the Cambodian Genocide. Pond reflected on his time under the Khmer Rouge regime as a flute player. Pond was forced to play the flute into a microphone that distributed the Khmer Rouge propaganda song to all in Cambodia to mask the chilling noises of injustices that the Khmer Rouge committed on countless Cambodians. “Music saved me. I was good, so they let me live and I play for all them,” Pond reflected. The biggest statement that Pond said that stood out to me and many others was the importance of crying. Pond somberly noted that he “learned how to turn my heart off” and “During Khmer Rouge I had no time to cry. You cry you get shot. I see they shoot many people. People I know. All because they cry they die. I didn’t want to die.” However, after escaping the horrible genocide, Pond proudly stated that he cried. He continued to say that “we all need not be ashamed to cry because the pain of the world is too great.” At first, I was questioning these statements. “I have never experienced something so bad in my life so do I really have a pass to cry?” I said to myself. But then, Pond stated, “Suffering is no wrong or right and at the end of the day all suffering hurts a human.” After hearing this, I found a lot of comfort and went home to just cry. It was very comforting to hear that a survivor of all of this wrong done to him and his people said that everyone deserves to cry no matter what they are going through. I even hope to continue this mindset and advocate for the importance of being humans first and crying in the future.
Arn Chorn Pond is amazing as it is. Surviving a genocide and being able to relive it every time he talks about it or goes to sleep is one thing, but his mission of committing to peace didn't just stop there. Pond created the Cambodian Living Arts and The Khmer Magic Music Bus, he has worked with Amnesty International and many Anti-Gang Groups. Pond now works to help others during conflicts and also advocates before any conflicts occur to prevent them. Pond’s dream is simply put as, “My dream is that every child in the world picks up instruments, not guns.” He finally went on to proudly note that “this flute that I hold is not an AK-47 anymore, and I am so proud to say that.”
(Notes and direct quotes from the GIP event and our discussion with him in our Global Scholars class were also used as a source.)