Thursday, February 19, 2009

A former Khmer Rouge official seeks God's forgiveness

Currently in Phnom Penh, Cambodia there is a trail taking place. It involves five former members of Pol Pots Khmer Rouge (Communist) murderous leadership. One in particular nick named Duch, Kaing Guek Eav was a former director of one of the prison camps involved in The Killing Fields, prison S21.

Background: Vietnam was divided between Communist North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. During the 1960s and early 1970s the United States of America was involved in that war as it was during the height of the Cold War to stop the spread of communism. The theory in Southeast Asia was called The Domino Theory. Meaning if one nation in Southeast Asia fell to the communist so would the other nations in the region.

When President Nixon got elected president he inherited the Vietnam War along with a Democratic Party controlled Congress. The Democrats in Congress withheld the funding for the war thus causing the withdrawal of American troops. Then the Democrats in Congress withheld the funding for the South Vietnamese Army, causing their collapse and the complete take over by the Communist in North Vietnam creating one country, Vietnam. Then the dominos started to fall and Cambodia fell to the Pol Pot and his communist Khmer Rouge.

These thugs tortured then murdered 1.7 million of their own people. The equivalency to that in todays terms would be as if 30 million Americans were murdered. While this murderous activity was going on, the world was silent. The same world that said never again, in reference to another holocaust. Only one nation intervened to stop the slaughter and it was the communist country of Vietnam. The Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and the war raged for about ten years. Then the UN (the worthless United Nations) got involved and negotiated a peace. This resulted in the complete withdrawal of Vietnamese troops and the creation of a Constitutional Monarchy in Cambodia. This caused many of the murders Khmer Rouge to go into hiding.

Duch Kaing Guek Eav ran into hiding. While on the run he came across Christian missionaries, became a born-again Christian. In 1999 he was discovered and arrested. Currently he is on trail for his crimes with four other former Khmer Rouge thugs. Kaing Guek Eav (Duch) is the only one who admits his crimes and expresses sorrow and asks for forgiveness. If this many truly in his heart his repentant for his crimes, then he will be forgiven by God when his time arrives to come fact to face with God. Duch should face the justice of the tribunal in Phnom Penh and meet the resulting faith. However whether he dies at the hands of the tribunal or a natural death, if he is truly sorry for his actions, he will be forgiven by God. That is what Christians believe in reference to forgiveness, even for a man such as this who committed such a horrendous atrocity being responsible for the death of 16,000 Cambodians.

No comments: