50 years ago, the Khmer Rouge began its reign of terror in Cambodia. Justice remains elusive | CBC Radio

CBC - 17/04
The catastrophic four-year rule, which saw up to two million people killed, sparked a drive to prosecute the regime's top leaders and paved the way for the International Criminal Court. But was justice ever served?
The Sunday Magazine33:0650 years ago, the Khmer Rouge began its reign of terror in Cambodia. Justice remains elusive

WARNING: This article includes a discussion of genocide and references to extreme violence.

It's been 50 years since Bokhara Bun's carefree childhood of climbing trees and making mischief in Phnom Penh turned into a nightmare. The era when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia remains vivid in his mind. 

His early recollections of hopeful citizens welcoming black-garbed soldiers shift into memories of a disorienting evacuation at gunpoint into jungle labour camps during the sweltering Cambodian New Year season. 

Life-altering horror after horror followed as soldiers severed families and killed indiscriminately. Even starving children were punished as traitors for "stealing" fruit or a drink of palm tree sap from the wild instead of bringing it to the communal camps. 

"There's a lot of things that … you see but you cannot touch, you cannot eat ... [because] you're not sharing the food with the rest of the commune," Bun, who now lives in Gatineau, Que., recalled to The Sunday Magazine.

One of his sisters was caught in that situation and brutally beaten to the point of permanent brain damage. His parents and older siblings were forced to watch but could not intervene, he said. Any challenge would have meant the execution of their entire family.

A notorious tree in a field outside of Phnom Penh is among the sombre Cambodian monuments recalling the Khmer Rouge era. The site is where soldiers executed children, after having killed their parents. (Howard Goldenthal/CBC)

April 17, 1975, marked the start of Year Zero, the attempt by the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot to "reset" the nat...
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