The Killing Fields - the Legacy 1979-89

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 This poster was circulated throughout the 1980s and called on the UK government to renounce official support for the government in exile ran by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. That the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the People's Republic of China and most of the rest of the world supported Pol Pot even after the news of the massacres and mass starvation became well known often surprises many. 

The reason is geopolitics, all these powers including Thailand who allowed Pol Pot and his fellow ringleaders to rule refugee camps and continue their civil war in a devastated and exhausted Cambodia were concerned with checking the power of a triumphant Vietnam, which was expanded its influence in neighbouring Laos and its close relationship with the Soviet Union was seen as an existential threat towards the People's Republic. Simply put, no one in power cared about the average Cambodian, they were expendable. 

After the 1979 declaration of war on Vietnam backfired, there were effectively two rival government's vying for legitimacy. The one installed by the Vietnamese army that did actual administrative work and the Pol Pot and King Sihanouk's alliance which existed only in remote camps and the United Nations.

 


 

   THE KILLING FIELD-the legacy Kampuchea, a small, fertile, once prosperous country has over the last 40 years witnessed, wars, coups, invasion, despotic regimes and famine.  

From 1969-1973 American bombers dropped half a million tons of bombs on Cambodia — equivalent to 7 1/2 times that drooped on Britain throughout World War. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed. 

In 1975 the Khmer Rouge took power from the US-backed LON NOL government and so began one of the most brutally repressive regimes of the 20th century. The Khmer Rouge condemned up to 2 million people to death by hunger, disease and execution. Led by the infamous Pol Pot they also launched attacks against Thailand and Vietnam.  

In 1978 the Vietnamese invaded and the full horror of the devastation of the Pol Pot regime became known to the world. Kampuchea was a country returned to the Dark Ages, after years of murder, slavery and hunger, its people were in desperate need. Their plight moved the hearts of a stunned world and aid efforts began. In Britain, more money was given than for any previous diaster — £7 million through OXFAM alone.  

Since 1979 the Kampuchean people have been trying to rebuild their shattered lives. But the legacy of the Killing Fields remains. Appalling food shortages mean that malnutrition and disease is rife, hunger and poverty the norm, and yet — essential development aid is denied by the UN and most Western governments.  

THE UK GOVERMENT GIVES NO OFFICIAL AID TO KAMPUCHEA, NOR DOES THE UN While the UK and other Western countries continue to recognise the representatives of Pol Pot and his allies at the UN, the people of Kampuchea remain effectively unrepresented. Condemned to lives of continuing fear and poverty. Unnecessary poverty.  

It is hard to believe that the millions of British people who give their time, energy and money for Kampuchea in 1979 are satisfied that their Government, for whatever reasons, should help perpetuate fear and poverty and present development.

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