Failure to prevent mass killings of innocent civilians is an ever present stain on our collective conscience. Too often competing interests of national security or geopolitics take precedence over human life and our responsibility to prevent is too often sidelined.
In 2007, I traveled to Cambodia and visited S-21, Tuol Sleng, a Khmer Rouge imprisonment and interrogation site in the heart of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Phen. Today, it is a tragic memorial to the victims of Cambodia’s genocide – one of the worst incidents of mass killing in modern history with an estimated 2 million people killed over a period of just four years.
On April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Phen, took control of the government, and immediately began implementing a radical communist ideology. In their attempt to create an agrarian utopia they forced the population into labor camps. Anyone they viewed as being opposed to their ideology were tortured, killed and buried in mass graves.
Cambodia’s complicated history of French colonialism, return to monarchy and the rise of radical communist ideology is wrapped up in American intervention in the region. As the United States became increasingly entangled in the Vietnam War, Cambodia was caught up in a geopolitical game between regional and international powers. As a precursor to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, the U.S. was involved in an intensive bombing campaign in Cambodia against Vietnamese forces. The U.S. dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on more than 113,000 sites, causing heavy casualties among combatants and civilians. This bombing campaign created grievances and potentially added recruits for the Khmer Rouge, which was just a rebel movement at that time.
Due to American entanglement in the region, preventing genocide in Cambodia was not seen an option. If mistakes of the past are not to be repeated, the prevention of mass atrocities and genocide should be prioritized at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Fortunately, Congress can take action to make it a priority by passing the Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, S.2551.
