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with a hoe. The executions took
most of the day to complete. Al–
though the first few groups of offi–
cers were not aware that they were
going to die, the latter groups strug–
gled strenuously to escape since the
air was permeated with the stench
ofblood."
Another instance of Khmer
Rouge cruelty bears a poignant re–
semblance to the execution scene in
the TV series
Holocaust
in which a
number ofhelpless Jewish men were
stripped of their clothing and ma–
chine-gunned down. As one refugee
tells the story, on April 21 , 1975,
Khmer Rouge troops took prisoner
a number of government troops
(about 200) at a school. After taking
their weapons. the Communists told
their prisoners that they would be
taken to the capital to hail Prince
Sihanouk, a former (and non-Com–
munist) leader of Cambodia. The
prisoners were herded into severa!
trucks, which were driven about
eight kilometers south. Then , sud–
denly. the trucks halted and the
prisoners were ordered into a field
beside the road. Suddenly ex–
plosiofls erupted in their midst. The
Khmer Rouge had led their captives
into a mine field which they deto–
nated as soon as the prisoners had
reached the center. After the dust
cleared , the Communists threw
hand grenades into the group of
screaming wounded. But sorne were
still alive, crying out in pain. A
squad armed with pistols moved
through the corpse-strewn field to
finish them off.
Villagers Slaughtered
At the viltage of Kauk Ton, all 360
inh abitants - every last man ,
woman, and chi td- were machine–
gunned because sorne of the men
were suspected of being spies.
At the village Khal Kaber. the
Khmer R ouge buried approxi–
mately forty wives and daughters of
former government officials up to
their necks, then stabbed them in
the throat one by one.
At Mongkol Borei, ten famities,
about sixty people, were rounded
up, their hands were tied behind
their backs, and they were taken to
a clearing. According to one refugee
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1978
account reprinted in
Commentary
("After the Dominoes Fett ," by Carl
Gershman, May 1978). wha t fol–
lowed was a sickening, barbarous
atrocity: "Weeping, sobbing. begging
for their lives, the prisoners were
pushed into a clearing among the
banana trees, then formed into a
ragged line, the terrified mothers and
children clustering around each head
of family. With m ilitary orderliness,
the Communists thrust each official
forward one a t a time and forced him
to kneel between two soldiers armed
with bayonet- tipped AK-47 rifles.
The soldiers then stabbed the victim
simultaneously, one through the
chest and the other through the back.
Family by famity, the Communists
pressed the slaughter. moving me–
thodically down the line. As each man
While the Cambodian
holocaust is not the Great
Tribulation of
Bible prophecy, it is a
ghastly fore runner
of such demoniaca!
inhumanity.
lay dying, his anguished. horror–
struck wife and children were dragged
up to the body. The women. forced
to kneel. also received simu lta–
neous bayonet thrusts. The children
and the babies, last to die. were
stabbed where they stood."
The Cruel Exodus Out of
Phnom Penh
On the 17th of April , 1975, the
Commuuists seized the Cambodian
capital of Phnom Penh. With in two
days they forced everyone who had
been living in the city to leave their
homes and march into the jungle.
The marchers were deprived of
food, water, shelter a t night, and
medicine. Soon the old people and
children began to die. Anyone who
fell behind was given one or two
curt warnings and then shot. The
dead were left unburied: The smell
of rotting flesh was said to be
unbearable.
This was a march of an incredible
three million people. Women and
children, the sick and the elderly.
were all forced to keep pace or be
shot. Pregnant women had lo give
birth along the roadside. Few of the
children survived.
As
it
turned out. not only had the
people of Phnom Penh been forc–
ibly evacuated , but people in every
major city and town in Cambodia
had been forced to leave their
homes and march into the jungle.
As a sign of special cruelty. the
Communists concentrated on emp–
tying the hospitals first. Wben Com–
munist troops stormed the Preah
Ket Melea Hospital in Phnom Penh .
they shouted to everyone who was
there, "Out! Everybody get out! Get
out! " Operations in progress were
interrupted , with both patients and
doctors forced to leave. As Barron
and Paul describe it in
Murder of a
Gentle Land:
"Hundreds of men.
women and chi ldren in pajamas
limped, hobbled, struggled out into
the streets, where the midday sun had
raised the temperature to more than
lOO degrees.... One man carried his
son, whose tegs had just been ampu–
tated. The bandages on both stumps
were red with blood. and the
son ... was screaming, 'You can ' t
take me like this! Please kili me! '"
Lost children, thirsty and hungry.
helpless. were among the most piti–
able sights of the evacuation. Par–
ents clung despera tely to tbeir small
chi ldren Jest they be crushed by the
enormous crowd.
But worse was even yet to come
as the refugees were herded into
labor camps and forced to live on
starvation rations. Pin Yathay, a ref–
ugee who la ter escaped to Thailand,
recently told a Washington. D.
C.,
news conference: " l will now tell
you a story that
T
li ved myself. [Be–
cause the Khmer Rouge purposely
forced people to work long hours on
starvation rations] a teacher ate the
flesh of her own sister. She was la ter
caught; she was beaten from morn–
ing to night until she died. in the
rain . in front of the whole village as
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