Genocide

“Genocide: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.”

            I just finished reading “First They Killed My Father” which is a memoir about the Cambodian Civil War.  I had heard of it but never in much detail.  The author, Loung Ung, remembers the fear, starvation, torture and child soldiers in such vivid detail that it broke my heart.  I cannot begin to imagine the terror a child feels as she watches soldiers take her Father away…never to be seen again.  The civil war raged from 1975-1799 and roughly 2 million Cambodians died from starvation, torture, disease, labor and execution.  2 million out of 7 million people exterminated by hate. Loung Ung tells her story in the voice of the 5-year-old child she was when the war began.  We see her fear, guilt, anger, courage and hatred as she struggles to survive in a land torn to pieces.  I am amazed that despite what she witnessed, she overcame the horror and became an advocate for the Campaign for a Landmine Free World and for the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project of the Maine Coalition against Domestic Violence.  Instead of allowing her experience to consume her she has embraced it to better the world and has proven that she is not merely a survivor but a warrior.

            I am always horrified by how long these mass killings continue before someone steps in.  We always hear about the Jewish concentration camps but let’s not forget the genocide in Cambodia, Bosnia, and many others, including the most recent one in Darfur and Rwanda.  How long will the world standby and allow this to happen?  I realize that we cannot prevent every war but we continually wait years before attempting to intervene, if we do at all.  We just look the other way and pretend that millions of people aren’t being slaughtered because of their racial, political and cultural roots. The world – the U.N. must stop being complacent and starting protecting those who cannot protect themselves.  Words are not enough.  We cannot condemn the actions of a government and continue to let them get away with their killings; we must enforce our words with actions!