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CAMBODIA 1975-1979
Chronicle of a genocide
13 September 2006 - 28 January 2007
In January 1979, Vietnamese troops entered Phnom Penh and routed
the Khmer Rouge, putting an end to a regime that had cost the lives
of over 1.7 million Cambodians in four years, or nearly one quarter
of the pre-1975 population.
What brought the Khmer Rouge to
power? Where did their murderous utopia spring from? This exhibit
draws on the few pictures available from that period, previously
unseen film footage and ethnographical objects to recall the political
and cultural context in which the Khmer Rouge rose to power, the
violence of their years in government and the impact of that violence
on present-day Cambodia.
The measures taken to try Khmer Rouge officials should come to fruition
in 2007, making this an appropriate time to analyse the mechanisms
of the genocide. Cambodia remains a ravaged country, and it is therefore
crucial to acknowledge what happened. Shown as part of the exhibit,
Cambodian director Rithy Panh’s film, S-21, The Khmer Rouge Death
Machine (2002), confronts the torturers with their past, attests
to their impunity and renders justice to the suffering of the survivors.
The exhibit was conceived by the Lyon-based Centre d’Histoire de
la Résistance et de la Déportation and has been adapted for the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum.
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