Of all the armed conflicts in East Asia post-World War II, the Cambodian Genocide orchestrated by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of dictator Pol Pott and the Party of Democratic Kampuchea between April 17, 1975 and January 7, 1979, was one of the bloodiest. The Khmer Rouge started as a small insurgency against Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s neutralist government and transformed into a terror regime. With an estimated 2 million dead through executions – the infamous legacy of which is the Killing Fields of Cambodia, exhaustion through overwork, and starvation, and with scores more displaced, the Genocide’s legacy, orchestrated with support from North Vietnam and China for the establishment of an Agrarian socialist republic built on ultra-Maoism, still lives on.
The West, led by the US wasn’t blameless in the ensuing bloody conflict, as American East Cambodia bombings to help overthrow Sihanouk and replace him with a pro-American right-wing general is considered by many to be the opening salvo in the initial armed conflict that would turn into a full-blown genocide. Western complacency in the Cambodian tragedy would live on for years in the halls of the UN Headquarters in New York, as Pol Pot’s regime would continue to be recognized as the rightful chair of Cambodia’s contested seat even after regime change in Phnom Penh, a travesty that would only be redressed in 1991.
Decades after the carnage that wrought Cambodia, many of those involved in the Genocide were brought to justice at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), was established in 2006, though it was too little too late for those who lost loved ones and continued to live with the horrors they witnessed during the dark period in Cambodian history. Infamous figures like Nuon Chea, Khmer Rouge’s second in command, made their appearance at the tribunal 29 years after the end of the Genocide. “Comrade Duch,” infamous for running a notorious torture center in Phnom Penh in which all but 12 out of a total 20,000 inmates died, was also among the convicted.
Unvarnished Truth
Many reports about the Genocide have since been published, documenting in excruciating detail the atrocities suffered by survivors, among them being various forms of sexual violence including rape and forced marriage. It has been widely documented that in times of conflict and natural disasters, gender and sexual minorities are at higher risk of being subjected to physical and sexual violence, but oftentimes, in documenting such atrocities, little if anything is ever documented about the physical and sexual violence suffered by LGBTQIA+ individuals in times of war and conflict. The documentation of Cambodia’s Genocide is no different.
Due to the unique nature of the code of conduct implemented under the Khmer Rouge, Gay men, Lesbians, and Trans women in particular lived in constant fear of being discovered and being facing execution for their sexual orientation. A report titled Gender-Based Violence Against Sexual Minorities During the Khmer Rouge Regime by Kasumi Nakagawa, in which LGBTQIA+ survivors of the Genocide were interviewed, first-hand accounts paint a harrowingly grim picture of the conditions under which LGBTQIA+ individuals lived under the Khmer Rouge regime. Of all the respondents interviewed for the report, 100 percent of self-identified Gay men and 61 percent of Trans women suffered at least one form of sexual violence.
According to the report, pre-Genocide patriarchal values coupled with whether one was a part of the Base People – people native to Khmer Rouge-controlled areas before the start of the war/genocide, or New People – those moved from the cities or other regions to join in the Agrarian Socialist republic efforts, dictated the treatment that gender and sexual minorities received. Generally, Base People received better treatment than New People, according to accounts by the survivors, and this extended to gender and sexual minorities who received some leniency where the New People were penalized.
“I knew a boy, a Base Person called Ah Ry, about 15-16 years old. He was also Gay nut I rarely saw that he was abused like me because he was a Base Person. I [was] Gay and so [was] Ah Ry. They [Khmer Rouge] did not hurt Ah Ry … but … the Khmer Rouge hurt me cruelly. That was discrimination based on class,” a Trans woman from Battambang Province was recorded in the report as saying. A Base Person Trans man also supported this claim saying that he rarely faced any harassment or threats of death from the Khmer Rouge in his area. A Base Person Trans woman even went so far as to claim that the officers showed “sympathy” toward her and “didn’t usually point out my mistakes or punish me,” while the same officers who were kind to her “killed some of my friends who lived with me.”
Code of Impunity
The 12 Codes of Conduct of the Combatants, one of which explicitly forbade the sexual abuse of women and engaging in consensual sex with a woman who wasn’t a combatant’s wife also further complicated matters for those under the Khmer Rouge’s rule. “We were not allowed to have love relationship(s) with others at all,” a Base Person Trans woman explained. “It was regarded as [a] moral offense. They would kill us if they found out …” Such prohibitions also led to soldiers and civilians alike turning to same-sex acts which were often non-consensual and clandestine for fear of punishment and death.
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“During Pol Pot’s regime, the relationship between man and woman without the permission of the Angkar was regarded as [a] moral offense, and the consequence would be death. The punishment would be more serious if you were Gay or Transgender because Khmer Rouge soldiers hated this kind of people so much,” said a New People Trans woman from the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. A Base People Trans woman recounted being forced to perform oral sex on four high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials who “did not dare to reveal it to others. Because if the Khmer Rouge leader knew that they [had] committed a moral offense, they would be killed.”
No Age of Consent
Victims of such forms of abuse ranged in age with some even being pre-pubescent children. One such victim. A Trans woman, a Base Person from Siem Reap who was 10 years old at the time, recounted her experience with Khmer Rouge soldiers who demanded oral sex from her and also raped her. “The mobile unit leader called me… I was afraid when he called me but he said ‘don’t be afraid! Come sleep near me and I will give you [a] grilled sweet potato,” She said. She, like many other sexual violence victims, was enticed by the promise of food as well as preferential treatment. Such “rewards” for remaining silent and providing sex to the soldiers however made the sexual violence perpetrators feel entitled to loyalty and pleasure.
“During the nighttime, he ordered me to touch and play with his penis… If he didn’t reach climax, would he punish me or kill me next? When he reached climax, he forced me [to do it] again and again like a person who [is] addicted to sex… He did whatever he wanted.” A Gay man who was forced into a secret non-consensual sexual relationship with a married Khmer Rouge chief described how his abuser would first offer him rice before sexual assault. “He forced me to have sex with him. I was so hungry because I didn’t have enough food to eat, so I decided to follow what he needed in return for rice,” he said.
Another respondent who was also in her teens at the time described how she would also be forced by fellow Base People to perform sexual acts “because if a man had sex with a woman, the Khmer Rouge thought it was wrong or against morality,” but “a man sleeping with another man [was] normal and it was not against morality.” Some of the perpetrators of these violent acts were also young, as detailed by a New Person from Siem Reap Province who was gang-raped by a group of Khmer Rouge soldiers. “They were young, 16-17 years old… it was daytime. They were two to three soldiers… Only one person raped me. Other Khmer Rouge leaders seized me… for their top leader to rape me,” the Trans woman reported.
Union of Agony
Forced marriages by the directive and authorization of Khmer Rouge officials in various villages became the order of the day, putting the lives of Trans individuals in jeopardy, especially those who “passed” for natural-born men and women, for their birth genders risked being exposed leading to their execution. One Trans woman who was a Base Person from Siem Reap Province was forced to marry a cis woman. “Apparently I looked like a man but had a woman’s behavior as my nature. All of them didn’t know that I was ‘gay’ because I never told anyone about it because I was afraid that the Khmer Rouge would kill me,” she said in the report.
Another Trans woman from the same group and region was forced into an arranged marriage with a man even after voicing her objection to the plan. “He forced me,” she said of her new husband. “I told him [that I was a man], and it was okay with him. When he knew it, it was alright with him. We made love and he was fine.” Amid the turbulent times, another Trans woman from the same group and region secretly started a love affair with a man, for which they were both tortured. “We tried to keep it secret but the Khmer Rouge still found out… so they brought us to educate [torture] and they beat me. My husband tried to plead with the Khmer Rouge and said he would love me forever and would get married [to] me. After [the torture] we got married,” she said.
Rape within such marriages also occurred as partners used the threat of, or actual physical violence to get sexual compliance. In cases of non-compliance, Khmer Rouge officers themselves, who would routinely observe the consummation of the arranged marriages, would “re-educate” those who would refuse to cooperate, while some suffered violence at the hands of their partners if they refused to engage in sex. “My husband beat me if I refused to do it. So I didn’t refuse at all, I just let him do whatever he wanted so he wouldn’t hurt me,” said a New Person Trans woman from Siem Reap province.
Triumph in Suffering
Though the Cambodian Genocide was one large chapter written in blood and suffering, within it there were stories of courage, hope, and even love among the LGBTQIA+ who not only protected each other but fell in love. Houy Eang and Soth Yun are just such an example. Interviewed by the Al Jazeera English service in 2017, the two women recounted how they met amid hardship and managed to fall and remain in love over the years. Even after being separated for five years, the two were reunited shortly before the war ended and had been together ever since. They admitted that even though Cambodian society had changed, they – a Lesbian couple – were still not accepted by society. “Families want women to marry a man,” Yun told Al Jazeera.
Eang and Yun are among a large number of Cambodian Genocide survivors who have lived with the bitter memories of the past but also use their experiences to encourage a young crop of LGBTQIA+ individuals and activists to not only live authentically but to also fight for their rights. While on a visit to Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Battambang, UN independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Victor Madrigal-Borloz urged the country’s authorities to legally recognize LGBT families. Madrigal-Borloz recommended the adoption of a series of measures to allow for the LGBT community in the country to fully participate in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policy.
Homosexuality is not illegal in the country, however, gender and sexual minorities lack special protections against discrimination while same-sex marriage remains constitutionally banned. “Without exception, State agents with whom I held conversations acknowledged that diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity was a trait inherent to humankind and that all Cambodian citizens, including members of the LGBT community, were valued members of society who have the right to live in freedom and equality”, Madrigal-Borloz said.
Photos: Screenshot from YouTube, Peter Hansen on Unsplash
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