Cambodian Genocide - Needham.K12.ma.us

UNCOVERING THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE
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Uncovering the
Cambodian Genocide
Paul Franceschi, Karissa Chao, Olivia
Korostoff-Larsson, Anbo Wei
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UNCOVERING THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE
“The enormity and brutality of the Cambodian holocaust
staggers the imagination; its horrors cry out for explanation.
It reminds us to what depths humanity is capable of sinking
and pushes each of us to examine our own conscience and our
relationship with our fellow human beings."
- Sophal Leng Stagg, Cambodian genocide survivor
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
As the director of this original production of a semihistorical account of the actions by the Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia of which we may never fully comprehend, I am
pleased to present this production of Uncovering the
Cambodian Genocide. This play is written from the
perspective of archeologists and historians whose mission is
to uncover the atrocities of the Cambodian Genocide. These
archeologists discover evidence of what happened during
the genocide, prompting flashbacks through history that
examine the life and rise of Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer
Rouge and organizer of the crimes. Additionally,
archeologists discover evidence that indicates the horrific
quality of life during the Khmer Rouge’s time in power.
The rationale for centering the play around these
historians and archaeologists is to emphasize the amount of
uncertainty surrounding the genocide. Estimates for the
number killed in the genocide range from 1 to 3.4 million
(Etchson). Additionally, many, if not most, of Pol Pot’s
original Khmer Rouge leaders were killed to satisfy his
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paranoid need for security, making it close to impossible to
create a viewpoint of the genocide from the Khmer Rouge
perspective (Becker). Thus, accounts of life from within
Cambodia during the genocide are based on accounts of
survivors, who obviously did not die. Hopefully, this play
convinces a reexamination of the Khmer Rouge. Please enjoy
the show.
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UNCOVERING THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE
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The infamous Choeung Ek “Killing Fields”
ACTS & SCENES
Act 1: Investigating Pot’s Past
1: A group of young archaeologists commence research on the Cambodian genocide at their lab.
Before heading to Cambodia, they discuss the background of the genocide’s instigator, Saloth Sar—later
referred to as Pol Pot. The group begins the story in 1953, when Sar ended his schooling.
2: Flashback to January, 1953: A young Saloth Sar returns to his home country of Cambodia after
failing out of his school in Paris. Having joined the French Communist Party earlier in 1948, Sar further
pursues his interest in Communism by joining the local Indochinese Communist Party. Seven years later,
Sar becomes an official in the Communist Party of Kampuchea, commonly known as the Khmer Rouge.
(Bergin 36)
3: 1948: Cambodian king Norodom Sihanouk, worried about Communist groups in Cambodia
threatening Cambodian neutrality in the Vietnam War, makes a speech to his subjects. He reveals his
intentions to establish martial law and dissolve the Cambodian parliament. (Bergin 35)
4: 1970: U.S. president Richard Nixon discusses the threat Cambodia poses to the U.S.–Viet Kong
soldiers may be living in the country and the country could have possible support lines to the North
Vietnamese army. U.S.-backed Cambodian official Lon Nol launches a bloodless coup, overthrowing King
Sihanouk. (Bergin 38)
5: Late 1970: Saloth Sar is named chief of the Khmer Rouge military, and the revolutionaries gain the
support of King Sihanouk and Vietnamese Communist guerillas in their efforts to take down Lon Nol.
Meanwhile, Nixon authorizes bombings in Cambodia against the Communist revolutionaries in 1973,
resulting in greater general support for the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Two years later, Sar leads his
powerful military force into the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, and overthrows Lon Nol. Sar assumes the
role of Cambodian ruler, now referring to himself as Pol Pot. (Bergin 39)
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UNCOVERING THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE
ACTS & SCENES
Act 2: The Genocide
1: Archaeologists are at one of the killing fields at an orchard at
Choeung Ek, explaining Pol Pot’s secret prison, known as S-21: After
gaining power in 1970, Pot and his secretary general, Nuon Chea, forced
suspected enemies into S-21, interrogated them, and tortured them until
they confessed guilt. They were then taken to the orchard at Choeung Ek
and were killed in mass graves. (Koopmans)
2: Archaeologists flash back to Soy Gemza’s experience in the
Cambodian genocide of 1970: At 8 years old, she is forced to flee from
her home with her family, but soon her family is separated like all the
other families, and the children are sent to labor camps. Soy sneaks out
at night and tries to visit her parents, though she is captured and forced
back. As she grows older, she experiences mass shootings and
witnesses people being tortured. Soy Gemza and her surviving family are
finally able to escape the genocide and make it to Thailand (Gemza).
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3: The archaeologists then flash back to Sarom Prak’s experience in the labor camps during the
genocide: At camp in Takeo province, he is forced to work all day for minuscule amounts of food. He
recalls how girls were molested until they got pregnant and then were forced to marry, and killed if they
refused, and how the Khmer Rouge denounced love, creating a reason for children to kill their own
parents: “We were born of virtue of the sexual passion of the parents, so we don’t respect them. If the
parent do something wrong, we must kill them.” Sarom constantly hears the moans and screams of
innocent victims of the Khmer Rouge. (Prak)
4: Back at Choeung Ek, the Archaologists have a third flashback, now to Dave Lonh’s experience
during the Cambodian Genocide: At 9 years old, he was separated from his mother and was forced to
work in a labor camp. Missing his mother deeply, he one day decides to escape the camp to return home.
He was able to escape but when he came home, his mother and home had been sent to another camp.
He sneaks in to their labor camp and they are able to be reunite. (Lonh)
5: After reflecting on the tragedies of the genocide, the archaeologists discuss Pol Pot’s downfall and
death: After Pol Pot decided to attack the Vietnamese border in 1979, the Vietnamese took action against
Pol Pot and invaded, sending Pol Pot into exile and establishing a puppet government. This government
was soon replaced after the UN moved power back to Norodom Sihanouk during the early 1990s (Bergin
40), creating a constitutional monarchy in Cambodia. After the transition of power, many Khmer Rouge
leaders defected to the government side, prompting Pol Pot to execute top Khmer Rouge members.
Eventually, Pot was put under house arrest, where he died in 1998. (Abuza)
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UNCOVERING THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE
CHARACTER BIOGRAPHIES
Pol Pot
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Pol Pot was a Cambodian Maoist Revolutionary and leader of the Khmer
Rouge, the Cambodian Communist Party, from 1963 to 1998. In 1949, he won
a scholarship to study in Paris. In France, he devoted his time to radical
student politics and Marxism. After returning to Cambodia in 1953, he joined
the underground Cambodian Communist Party, eventually becoming the
party’s secretary-general. Beginning in 1963, Pot and the Khmer Rouge waged
war against Prince Sihanouk's government and later Lon Nol’s U.S.-backed
government. In 1975, Pol Pot became Prime Minister of Cambodia. An
estimated 2-3 million people died during the genocide under Pol Pot’s rule.
(Bergin 26) According to BBC News:
“He quickly set about transforming the country into his vision of an
!
agrarian utopia by emptying the cities, abolishing money, private
!
property and religion and setting up rural collectives. Pol Pot's radical
!
social experiment claimed the lives of countless Cambodians. Anyone
!
thought to be an intellectual of any sort was killed.”
Norodom Sihanouk
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Norodom Sihanouk was King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again
from 1993 until 2004. For much of his rule, he tried to maintain Cambodian
neutrality in foreign conflicts, including the Vietnam War. Under his rule,
Cambodia experienced 15 years of peace and mild prosperity. During the
Vietnam War, he allowed Vietnamese communists to operate in Cambodia and
rejected U.S. aid. This angered and frightened the US, leading to his overthrow
in 1970 when General Lon Nol, supported by the US, took control. Afterwards,
Sihanouk generally supported the Khmer Rouge in overthrowing Nol. Sihanouk
was president of an exile government until the monarchy of Cambodia was
restored in 1993. (Bergin 29)
Lon Nol
Lon Nol served as Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Cambodia. In
the 1940s, he was an associate of Norodom Sihanouk; he created a nationalist
political party, the Khmer Renovation Party, which serves as the core of
Sihanouk’s party when he won the 1955 elections. In 1968, as defense minister,
Lon Nol appointed a strongly anti-Sihanouk and pro-U.S. politician as his
deputy who forced him to comply with a planned coup against Sihanouk in
1970. When Sihanouk was overthrown, Lon Nol took power and became the
first President of Cambodia. In 1975, he resigned and fled the country after the
Khmer Rouge invaded the capital. (Koopmans)
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CHARACTER BIOGRAPHIES
Richard Nixon
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Richard Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from
January 1969 until his resignation in August 1974. In 1969, Nixon was convinced
by military commanders to bomb communist bases in Cambodia. Over 14
months his administration conducted 3,630 bombings of Cambodia. These
bombings killed an estimated 600,000 Cambodians. While Nixon’s goal was to
weaken communists, many historians argue that these US actions allowed Pol
Pot to take over in the following years—bombings inspired Cambodians’ antiU.S. sentiments which caused increased support the overthrow of Lon Nol. Peter
Hercombe notes, “Pol Pot can thank the Americans for his ticket to
power” (Koopmans 52).
Archeologists
The archeologists in this play are used as a fictitious vessel to uncover
specific evidence that prompts flashbacks through history. These characters,
who generally remain nameless, serve as a convenient story telling device, as
they allow the story to switch focus between characters and pursue a non-linear
storyline.
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Nuon Chea
Nuon Chea was Pol Pot’s deputy secretary general, and was second in
power to Pol Pot. In 1960, Chea was appointed Deputy Secretary of the
Communist Party (CPK), and in 1962, he allowed for Pol Pot’s appointment to
secretary of the Party. He was a powerful member of Pot’s government; Chea is
widely believed to have been in charge of the DK regime’s prisons, including
S-21. Journalist Nate Thayer describes Nuon Chea as "probably more guilty
than Pol Pot himself for the actual killings that went on while the Khmer Rouge
were in power." After Pol Pot’s death in 1998, Nuon Chea left the Khmer Rouge.
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UNCOVERING THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE
CHARACTER BIOGRAPHIES
Soy Gemza:
Soy Gemza is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime. She suffered the loss
of her family members, witnessed tortures and killings, and experienced
starvation and pain. In1970, when she was 8 years old the Khmer Rouge took
control of Cambodia and she was forced to flee. She was eventually put into
forced labor camps and separated from her family. Soy Gemza and her family
were able to escape Cambodian through the Thai border. Her story represents
what children during that time saw and experienced during the Cambodian
genocide, illustrating the pain and suffering people went through. (Gemza)
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Sarom Prak:
Sarom Prak worked in forced labor camps during the Khmer Rouge regime.
He experienced starvation, pain, hard work, and extreme fatigue. He also
remembers the suffering of the other labor camp victims. His story brings light to
the horrors of working in one of the forced labor camps, especially as a child. He
not only shares his story, he shares the stories of many others that did not survive
to tell it themselves. (Prak)
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Dave Lonh:
Dave Lonh worked in a forced labor camp but was able to escape and find
his mother. His story is slightly more uncommon than the others because he was
not caught; many people were caught trying to escape and were tortured and
killed. His story shows how determined and how hopeful victims could be during
this time. (Lonh)
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*Survivor head shots are anonymous
victims, as there are no photographs
of Gezma, Prak, and Lonh available
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