Canons are generally a positive thing to be a part of, such as classical literature or Oscar-winning movies. However, a canon that exists in the collective history of humanity is the canon of genocide.
This sobering list includes events such as the Rwandan Genocide or the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany in Europe during WWII.
For our generation specifically, it almost seems as though the term genocide is antiquated and anachronistic. We have lived through relatively few genocidal events and have no reason to suspect we will face any in the near future.
This mindset is, I fear, a mistaken one.
For the purposes of this column, I will be focusing on an act of genocide which occurred in Cambodia from 1975-1978.
After the conclusion of the Vietnam War, the country of Cambodia was destabilized and virtually destroyed by a massive bombing campaign initiated by the United States in order to disrupt the movement of Vietnamese troops through Cambodia using the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Once American military presence had vacated Southeastern Asia, a brutal Communist regime known as the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia.
For the next three years the country essentially disappeared off the face of the Earth.
No one was officially allowed to leave, and very few people were granted permission to enter the country.
Eventually the brutal government of the Khmer Rouge, backed by a shady dictator known only as Pol Pot, instigated a brief war with Vietnam.
Vietnamese forces entered the country and liberated it from repression in 1978.
Once full reports of the horror began to emerge from the Vietnamese forces in Cambodia, it became obvious the Khmer Rouge Regime had killed close to two million citizens over the preceding three years.
This is an extremely brief overview of the entire tragic event; however, it is also a lesson we can learn from, especially in the current climate.
Essentially, the world was faced with a walled off, hermit-like country that offered almost no information as to the structure of its government or inner workings of its society.
When reporters were allowed into the country, it was obvious all the meetings that took place – and the sights they were allowed to see – were staged.
Public outcry against the regime was apparent during the three years it was in power.
Calls for international intervention were raised, citing reports from Cambodian refugees who managed to escape the country.
If any of this sounds familiar, it should.
What occurred in Cambodia during the mid-to-late 70s is being eerily mirrored by another country today – North Korea.
Not much is known about the inner workings of North Korea. There is little to no admittance of outside citizens into the country and no citizens of North Korea (officially referred to as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by its own government) are allowed to leave.
However, we do know for certain that human rights violations are occurring there.
A recent report published by Human Rights Watch indicated that torture, executions and brutal labor camps are commonplace in the small East Asian country. All three were prevalent during the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia.
According to the Human Rights Watch website, citizens can be executed for vaguely defined offenses such as “crimes against the state” and “crimes against the people.”
As is noted in Samantha Powers book “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” citizens in Cambodia deemed disloyal to the Khmer Rouge regime were either tortured – often until death – or executed on the spot.
One of the most frustrating aspects of genocidal acts is it can be extremely difficult to recognize a possible genocide when it is occurring, rather than simply define a past event as genocide at a later date.
Right now North Korea is in the news mainly for either the development of its nuclear program, or something exceedingly silly such as current leader, Kim Jong Un, ordering all male students attending North Korea University to cut their hair in the same style as his.
As bafflingly ridiculous as such news can be, the reality of it is events such as Kim Jon Un’s haircut mandate are the telling symptoms of what will most likely end up being a horrifying diagnosis.
North Korea will be known as our generation’s first major genocide. It will be added to the current “Genocide Canon” and years from now, college students enrolled in Professor Nevin Aiken’s “Comparative Genocide” seminar will study the brutal regime’s actions – and the lack of international response – which resulted in the deaths of at least hundreds of thousands of North Korean citizens.
Now, this writer’s goal is not to criticize or condemn the international community for a lack of response in North Korea. Some sort of military liberation of the country is impossible. While Vietnam was able to essentially “save” Cambodia, the current situation is much different. Cambodia did not possess nuclear weapons, and the ballistic missiles with which to deliver them.
The truth is that there will be no “saving” of North Korea until the brutal and repressive Kim Regime has been toppled, most likely from internal revolution.
However, our generation will not have the luxury of claiming we didn’t know it was happening when asked by our children why no one tried to save all the people in North Korea. We know what’s happening there, we just can’t do anything about it.
