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Skulls from the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek |
When someone says genocide, the first country you probably associate this with is Rwanda. The events that transpired in the early 90’s are well known by most of the world and were extensively documented by the media.
But why was Rwanda chosen to be highlighted?
Was it worse than Cambodia?
More important?
To say if one genocide is worse than another is like asking if being shot dead is better than being stabbed to death. The extermination of one group of people is just as bad as the extermination of another group of people. But the media doesn’t see it this way.
The two genocides were in two very different media eras. The Cambodian genocide came just after the first televised war. War reporting was new and there was a lot of discomfort amongst audience members with the distressing images we associate with war. Westerner's weren't exactly welcome in Cambodia either, after the severe bombings that Cambodia suffered during the Vietnam War. Pol Pot also didn't want interference with his regime.
In Rwanda it was a completely different media era. It was the early 1990’s and the Internet was starting to take off. Television and movies had developed greatly, and slowly we were becoming desensitised to violent images. As Africa was on the other side of the world there was no issue to having war torn, horrible images broadcast on the nightly news. The UN also entered Rwanda and so were able to let journalists in to report on the events more safely than those who dared to enter Cambodia.
Although Rwanda is seen as one of the world’s worst genocides, the events that transpired in Cambodia over those four years were devastating. It is wrong to compare the two as they were decades apart. But Cambodians deserved the justice that the Rwandan people received. One year after the Rwandan genocide ended, trials began for those involved. It took thirty years for the Khmer Rouge to be brought to trial for their crimes.
While it seems that we learnt from the Cambodian genocide when we compare Cambodia and Rwanda, it is still not good enough. Only by demanding answers, demanding justice, can we help stop the murder, torture or harm to people based on nothing more than the colour of their skin, their beliefs or where they live.
No longer should there be an unspoken genocide!
