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MEMORIES OF THE HISTORICAL EVENT THAT PASSED
ON 17 APRIL 1975
Chhayrann Ra
17 April 1975 is a day in which millions of Cambodian people
had reason to celebrate and congratulate the victory of the Liberation Army over
the Lon Nol government and the failure of the U.S. imperialists. But this celebration and time of joy for
the victory of the Liberation Army, transformed into a day that brought much
pain and suffering for the Cambodian people throughout the country. Even though I was not yet born at this
time, this terrible day did happen and I am able to understand some of the
events that happened through the memories of my parents, my grandmother, my
uncles and aunts, my brothers and sisters, and the recorded documents of
writers.
Of the memories of everyone above, I am most impressed by the stories of
my aunt. During that time, she was
only twelve years old. At that
time, when the Liberation Army entered Phnom Penh, she and her older brother
joined together and went to help welcome and congratulate the soldiers. They were elated, believing the country
had achieved peace and they would no longer hear the explosion of bullets and
shrapnel. But while they stood
there staring at the soldiers among the crowds of people, one soldier dressed in
black jumped from the tank and the other soldiers took their guns and pointed
them at everyone standing there.
They yelled at the people standing, watching them: “Everyone, leave the city immediately,
because the Americans have a plan to drop bombs on the city! Therefore, brothers and sisters leave
the city! You don’t have to take many things with you because you are only
leaving for three days.”
Her older brother,
who is my father, grabbed her hand and they ran back home again to hide. A moment later, two soldiers dressed in
black, with weapons in their hands, arrived at their house and screamed at them
to quickly get out of the house.
Afterwards, they forced them to leave the house immediately without
taking many things with them. My
father had already prepared a bag of things. In this bag, were clothes and a few
valuables. My aunt said that while
they were travelling along the road, she saw many people, each person carrying a
bag of clothes on their shoulders.
Some placed their goods on bicycles, others placed them in carts, and
others put their things in the car.
Along this same road, she saw many soldiers dressed in black dragging any
Lon Nol soldier they could pick out of the crowd. These soldiers were shirtless and had
only their pants on. The three or
four soldiers dressed in black carried guns pointed at the backs of the Lon Nol
soldiers. Later on, she saw many
people who died along National Road #2, but she didn’t know how these people
died. She felt extremely terrified,
because she had never encountered anything like this before.
While they were
walking, a group of soldiers dressed in black, walked next to her. They yelled and asked her, “Do you have
any relatives serving as officials in the Lon Nol government? If you do, we will allow them to return
home.” When my aunt heard this, she
saw a group of people come forward looking for these soldiers, declaring they
had served as officials during the Lon Nol government. After they had gathered many people,
they led them away and disappeared towards the west. But it was not certain where they were
taking them. At this time, when
they saw the soldiers leading the people away, my aunt and my father was very
scared. They had a feeling that
they were taking these people away to be killed somewhere. On the other hand, she was afraid they
would find out about her family, because her father and grandfather were
soldiers during the Lon Nol period.
My aunt told me that while she is still alive, the events that passed
will always remain close to her heart.
She tells her stories to all the young children so that they will know
and understand what happened, the way she has also told her stories to me.
This is all that my aunt can tell me from her memories of 17
April 1975, because at that time she was still very young. Over twenty years have passed since then
so she has forgotten certain things. Therefore I, Ra Chhayrann would like to end
my story at this time. I belong to the younger generation. My stories are only gathered from the
stories I have heard. Therefore, I
do not dare to cut or add very much because I am afraid to wander from the
truth. I also believe that my writing must have many errors and mistakes. Therefore, I have hope that there will
be much constructive criticism and suggestions from my family and friends who
read my article.
In conclusion, although millions of other Cambodian children and I in the
last generation, have never crossed, experienced or seen what has happened, we
have heard that these events did actually happen. And we are still hurt when we
hear about the terrible events that passed on the 17th of April. This
was the day in which all the people of Cambodian people fell into a society that
was dark and oppressive. Millions
of gentle and honest Cambodians were killed within this regime. Not only this, they have brought world
attention and fame to what has happened and they have, since then, abandoned our
reputation. Therefore, we ask to
support the establishment of an independent tribunal in order to put the Khmer
Rouge leaders, whose hands are stained with the blood of millions of Cambodians,
on trial. We also have hope that
such events will never happen again on the soil of Cambodia, because the people
of Cambodia are fed up with the suffering.
Therefore, we must make certain that such crimes against humanity will
never happen again and the Cambodian people will no longer kill their own
people. |
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