"A slayer of monsters… and forever a monster himself" --Francois Bizot, The Gate

A trip to Along Veng

Considering the "other" - the other person, the other view, the other narrative is hard to do, even for those studying conflict resolution. We have all been taught the "right" view through our daily interaction in school, religion, work, ideologies, friendships and family. When hearing of other points of view, it is easy write-off the other's viewpoints as mere justifications for their actions or the words of a "mad man". Considering the other is extremely important in understanding underlying interests and moving forward to find solutions of understanding versus retribution and judgement.

The Anlong Veng community was the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge. Two words memorized in its elementary schools as late as 1995 were "A-yang" (puppet) and "Youn" (Vietnam), both words meant to teach hatred towards the Cambodian Government. It was not the place where the Khmer Rouge started, but it is where it existed over many years in the Northwest of Cambodia bordering Thailand, after its defeat at the hands of its former mentors, the Vietnamese from 1978 to 1979. With the liberation/occupation by Vietnamese forces in 1979, a splinter faction known as the Eastern Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, installed by Vietnam. Many in the Eastern Khmer Rouge had been tortured and killed at the infamous S21 prison in a series of purges. Leadership from the Eastern Khmer Rouge partnered with Vietnam to help them conduct regime change. In retribution to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, China invaded northern Vietnam later in 1979. Pol Pot's forces moved to Anlong Veng and set up a long running insurgency against the Vietnamese and the installed government. The insurgency took advantage of sanctuaries in Thailand on the other side of the Bamboo Curtain, supported by both the United States and China against the cold war backdrop against Russia and Vietnam.

The Peace Fellows went to visit Anlong Veng where we met with the Director of the Anlong Veng Peace Center (http://againstgenocide.org/2016/07/27/anlong-veng-peace-center/), Dr. Ly Sok-Kheang. After receiving an initial presentation, we met with a former Khymer Rouge soldier and medic who talked to us about her experiences with the Khymer Rouge. Later, we were taken to Pol Pot's cremation site where we met another Pol Pot soldier who had lost one of his arms. This soldier still admired Pol Pot and said that Pol Pot's lasting legacy was that he had taught the country how to work. He said he would not say more, merely to say you need to know what is in a person's heart. It was this soldier's stance, this narrative that was difficult for some Peace Fellows to hear. In the context of the times, this small clue he gave, was just the tip on the iceberg for the times the soldier lived in. The narrative provided can be written off as a justification for violence, or it can provide an insight to the aspirations of the times, to better understand underlying conflicts which existed in those days. In an attempt to better understand the soldier's narrative, I have attempted my best to put his answers in the context of the times. Given the difficulties of the peasants after 1967, they were ripe for communist propaganda that had been successful in many places including the USSR, the People's Revolution in China, the Cuban Revolution, North Korea, and Vietnam. In the Marxist "class struggles" pitting the proletariat with the bourgeoisie, all these revolutions restructured their societies at a very high cost. In the case of Cambodia, 2 million "bourgeoisie" were expelled from Phnom Penh right after the communist takeover. These city dwellers were forced to march to the countryside without any humanitarian support and set to toil in rice fields, producing cheap rice for China. After all of this had taken a place, over 3 million people were killed during the Pol Pot regime (according to our guide, 1.5 million to the forced march, 1.5 million from the genocide), reducing the population down from 7 million to 4 million. Eventually, elements of the Eastern Khmer Rouge defected to the Vietnamese and worked with famed General Giap to successfully invade and occupy Cambodia in 1979 for a period of 10 years. Cadre from the Eastern Khmer Rouge were installed in power and continue to run the country through the Cambodia People's Party, which has been in power for the last 30 years. From the soldier's hints in his narrative, this reordered society forced the bourgeoisie to work and it restructured society, allowing others to become part of the political process. Given the soldier's reluctance to talk freely, it may be an indication that he may have sensed his audience would not be able to understand, but instead were there to judge. Many Peace Fellows chose to walk away from his talk prematurely after hearing his short, unapologetic answers. Clearly, there were many criticisms one could point out during those times, but the whole point of this exercise was to learn to listen to the other point of view. This often is difficult as it is different from the norms many of us have been taught in the context of each of our backgrounds and the times we live in.