A stupa containing the bones and skulls of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. DC-Cam
As the May 20 National Day of Remembrance approaches, both Prime Minister Hun Manet and scholars have advocated for greater public awareness of the Khmer Rouge era. The day provides an opportunity to commemorate the suffering caused by the Khmer Rouge regime and to reaffirm a commitment to preventing genocide from returning to Cambodia.
On May 20, 52 years ago (1973), the Khmer Rouge established cooperatives, collectivising people into solidarity groups and abolishing private property in the areas they had liberated. This policy was reimplemented nationwide on May 20, 1976, a year after they seized power on April 17, 1975.
“This day marks when farmland, orchards and all personal property of Cambodians were collectivised into cooperatives. Later, people were forced into gruelling labour at work sites, leading to exhaustion, starvation, accusations and executions. May 20 is considered the start of widespread genocide across Cambodia under Khmer Rouge rule,” said Som Bunthorn, Khmer Rouge history researcher and editor-in-chief of Searching for the Truth Magazine, at the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam).
Bunthorn explained that the National Day of Remembrance, initially observed in 1984 as the “Day of Anger”, was later renamed the “Day of Remembrance”. In 2013, the Council of Ministers designated it the “National Day of Remembrance” at the request of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).
In a statement released to mark the occasion, Prime Minister Hun Manet stated that in 1974, Khmer Rouge leaders Pol Pot and Nuon Chea planned to commit crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide on a massive scale. These included forced evacuations from cities and villages, forced labour, torture at work sites and cooperatives, and other atrocities. The Khmer Rouge regime collapsed on January 7, 1979, with over 1.7 million lives lost during its rule.
“Although these tragic events are now in the past, and Cambodians are living in peace, political stability and development across all sectors, we must not ignore or forget this bitter history. We must always remember, discuss and educate to understand, disseminate and collectively prevent such heinous crimes, including war, from recurring on our sacred Cambodian soil,” he said.
According to Bunthorn, the evolution of May 20 does not alter the history of the Khmer Rouge but is part of providing psychological reparations, justice and reconciliation for survivors after the Khmer Rouge Tribunal concluded. He estimates that around 5 million survivors of the regime remain today.
He added that to prevent such a regime from returning, DC-Cam has published and distributed tens of thousands of books, trained teachers and students, and educated the public to raise awareness about global and Cambodian genocides.
