many who look into Ireland think that we were the victims of English imperialism - which is of course true. But there is a darkerside to this that the Irish government for decades has not shown....Our armed forces have been ilegally occupying countries and helping to perform so-called "peacekeeping" missions in them...
We have been involved in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) basically meaning we showed support for a corrupt dictator who was in power sense the 1960's and plundered the countries tresaruey...bankroupting it.
We've also been in Israel, basically implying that were "peacekepping" there meaning help the Israeli's against the so-called Islamic terroists...
Despite the fact Israel is guilty of state-terrorism
we have been in Lebanon for decades and are still there
and Syria aswell...
We have no bussiness in ANY of those countries.
We are turning no better than the US
we just use "peacekeeping" as a smokescreen to help occupy the lands..
We've also been involved in Boliva and Liberya.
I issue a demand to the next Irish government to break up the IDF
(Irish defence forces) and to withdraw from lands that we are occuypying
it is amoral and finaically misguided aswell espically during this economic time period.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Vietnam vows economic overhaul
(Post taken from Al Jazeera's English website)
Vietnam vows economic overhaul
In its five-yearly convention, ruling communists admit serious instability in the economy as they map the way forward.
Last Modified: 12 Jan 2011 10:17 GMT
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Vietnam is one of Asia's fastest growing economies, but inflation rose to a 22-month high in December [EPA]
Vietnam's ruling communist party met on Wednesday to choose its next key leaders and chart a way forward for the next few years as the country faces high inflation and economic uncertainty .
The chosen leaders will "steer the course of Vietnam for the next five years," Al Jazeera's Steve Chao reported from the Hanoi, the country's capital.
The 1400 delegates are also expected to focus discussions on the country's unstable economy during the eight-day meeting that is held every five years.
"Specifically, everyone is looking at who the prime minister will be," said Chao.
Inside sources said the current Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, will keep his post, despite the fact that he has been blamed for much of Vietnam's economic instability over the last few months.
The country's last National Congress was held during the economic boom in 2006, when Vietnam was experiencing an annual growth of seven percent.
But since 2009, Vietnam has had to devalue its currency, the dong, three times, while its neighbouring countries have strengthened their currencies.
Double-digit inflation has also caused food prices to soar since the last meeting, and Vietnam's reputation for bureaucracy and corruption has not faded.
'Lack of moral example'
Truong Tan Sang, who is expected to become the new president, told delegates they must address the mismanagement and widespread corruption.
Sang said some senior party members "lack example in morality and lifestyle, having allowed their wives, children or their staff to abuse power for personal profits."
Leaders have pledged that they recognise challenges ahead, but many people are sceptical this congress will get anything done.
"What is ultimately at stake here is whether Vietnam can achieve the long-term goals that it has set out," said Chao, including its aim to be an industrial and modern nation by 2020 with an economic development average of seven to eight percent.
"But the economic challenges are massive," he added, with financial analysts based in Vietnam insisting that total reform is necessary in order for the country to move forward.
Tight media control
One of those reforms, reported Chao, is transferring Vietnam's economic support from conglomerates to foreign investments.
The Vietnamese government does not tolerate any challenges to its one-party rule and has recently tightened its control of Internet websites, including Facebook.
Vietnam's practise of silencing criticism has prompted several complaints from the US and other western countries, but relations between the former enemies have recently improved.
The US is now one of Vietnam's biggest trading partners and the two countries have worked to strengthen military ties as neighbouring China becomes more assertive with its own military might.
Vietnam vows economic overhaul
In its five-yearly convention, ruling communists admit serious instability in the economy as they map the way forward.
Last Modified: 12 Jan 2011 10:17 GMT
Email ArticlePrint ArticleShare ArticleSend Feedback
Vietnam is one of Asia's fastest growing economies, but inflation rose to a 22-month high in December [EPA]
Vietnam's ruling communist party met on Wednesday to choose its next key leaders and chart a way forward for the next few years as the country faces high inflation and economic uncertainty .
The chosen leaders will "steer the course of Vietnam for the next five years," Al Jazeera's Steve Chao reported from the Hanoi, the country's capital.
The 1400 delegates are also expected to focus discussions on the country's unstable economy during the eight-day meeting that is held every five years.
"Specifically, everyone is looking at who the prime minister will be," said Chao.
Inside sources said the current Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, will keep his post, despite the fact that he has been blamed for much of Vietnam's economic instability over the last few months.
The country's last National Congress was held during the economic boom in 2006, when Vietnam was experiencing an annual growth of seven percent.
But since 2009, Vietnam has had to devalue its currency, the dong, three times, while its neighbouring countries have strengthened their currencies.
Double-digit inflation has also caused food prices to soar since the last meeting, and Vietnam's reputation for bureaucracy and corruption has not faded.
'Lack of moral example'
Truong Tan Sang, who is expected to become the new president, told delegates they must address the mismanagement and widespread corruption.
Sang said some senior party members "lack example in morality and lifestyle, having allowed their wives, children or their staff to abuse power for personal profits."
Leaders have pledged that they recognise challenges ahead, but many people are sceptical this congress will get anything done.
"What is ultimately at stake here is whether Vietnam can achieve the long-term goals that it has set out," said Chao, including its aim to be an industrial and modern nation by 2020 with an economic development average of seven to eight percent.
"But the economic challenges are massive," he added, with financial analysts based in Vietnam insisting that total reform is necessary in order for the country to move forward.
Tight media control
One of those reforms, reported Chao, is transferring Vietnam's economic support from conglomerates to foreign investments.
The Vietnamese government does not tolerate any challenges to its one-party rule and has recently tightened its control of Internet websites, including Facebook.
Vietnam's practise of silencing criticism has prompted several complaints from the US and other western countries, but relations between the former enemies have recently improved.
The US is now one of Vietnam's biggest trading partners and the two countries have worked to strengthen military ties as neighbouring China becomes more assertive with its own military might.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Israel repeats calls for threat of force against Iran.
Israel has once again called on the U.S. to threaten Iran with a "convincing" act of millitary aggression if they do not stop their nuclear enrichment program...
The Obama administration has never fully ruled out a threat of force against Iran for a (possible) nuclear missiole program, which could also lead to the development of an atomic bomb according to Wasghtion (Japan, 1945 ring a bell anyone?)
However like Iraq under Saddam it is questionable weather or not Iran is building such weapons, the IAEA has in the past year or so inspected Iranian plants and has come to no soild evidence that Iran is building a nuclear bomb. There is no question that Iran is a corrupt religous police state but it does seem to be the victim of both U.S. and Israeli interests here...
It's a well established fact even in mainstream history that the U.S. has nuclear missioles and was the first country to use the atomic bomb, Israel herself sense it's foundation in 1948 has been in search of nuclear missioles (and has got them...)
According to US marine and medical sergen Warner D. Farr who has writen a histroy on Israel's nuclear program ( http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/farr.htm)
" Israel's involvement with nuclear technology starts at the founding of the state in 1948. Many talented Jewish scientists immigrated to Palestine during the thirties and forties, in particular, Ernst David Bergmann. He would become the director of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission and the founder of Israel's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Bergmann, a close friend and advisor of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, counseled that nuclear energy could compensate for Israel's poor natural resources and small pool of military manpower. He pointed out that there was just one nuclear energy, not two, suggesting nuclear weapons were part of the plan.[4] As early as 1948, Israeli scientists actively explored the Negev Desert for uranium deposits on orders from the Israeli Ministry of Defense. By 1950, they found low-grade deposits near Beersheba and Sidon and worked on a low power method of heavy water production.[5]" (Warner D. Farr, The Counterproliferation Papers, Air War College, Air University
Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, September 1999, "The Third temple's holy of holies: Israel's nuclear weapons.")
So if both the U.S. and Israel can freely develop nuclear missioles and atomic bombs (Farr later goes on to point out that Israel developed it's own atomic bombs)
Is Iran really breaking any laws? Actually according to treaty's signed with the UN Iran is allowed develop peaceful nuclear power for national use only,
so far we have seen no REAL evidence that Iran for it's political faults (which are numerous) wants to do otherwise....
Bush lied about Iraq, we shouldn't trust Obama on Iran...
The Obama administration has never fully ruled out a threat of force against Iran for a (possible) nuclear missiole program, which could also lead to the development of an atomic bomb according to Wasghtion (Japan, 1945 ring a bell anyone?)
However like Iraq under Saddam it is questionable weather or not Iran is building such weapons, the IAEA has in the past year or so inspected Iranian plants and has come to no soild evidence that Iran is building a nuclear bomb. There is no question that Iran is a corrupt religous police state but it does seem to be the victim of both U.S. and Israeli interests here...
It's a well established fact even in mainstream history that the U.S. has nuclear missioles and was the first country to use the atomic bomb, Israel herself sense it's foundation in 1948 has been in search of nuclear missioles (and has got them...)
According to US marine and medical sergen Warner D. Farr who has writen a histroy on Israel's nuclear program ( http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/farr.htm)
" Israel's involvement with nuclear technology starts at the founding of the state in 1948. Many talented Jewish scientists immigrated to Palestine during the thirties and forties, in particular, Ernst David Bergmann. He would become the director of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission and the founder of Israel's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Bergmann, a close friend and advisor of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, counseled that nuclear energy could compensate for Israel's poor natural resources and small pool of military manpower. He pointed out that there was just one nuclear energy, not two, suggesting nuclear weapons were part of the plan.[4] As early as 1948, Israeli scientists actively explored the Negev Desert for uranium deposits on orders from the Israeli Ministry of Defense. By 1950, they found low-grade deposits near Beersheba and Sidon and worked on a low power method of heavy water production.[5]" (Warner D. Farr, The Counterproliferation Papers, Air War College, Air University
Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, September 1999, "The Third temple's holy of holies: Israel's nuclear weapons.")
So if both the U.S. and Israel can freely develop nuclear missioles and atomic bombs (Farr later goes on to point out that Israel developed it's own atomic bombs)
Is Iran really breaking any laws? Actually according to treaty's signed with the UN Iran is allowed develop peaceful nuclear power for national use only,
so far we have seen no REAL evidence that Iran for it's political faults (which are numerous) wants to do otherwise....
Bush lied about Iraq, we shouldn't trust Obama on Iran...
Friday, January 7, 2011
The forgotten holocaust: Cambodia (spell checked version)
The forgotten holocaust: Cambodia
Today on the 7th of January 1979 the Vietnamese People's Army
(VPA) entered Cambodia's capital city of Phonon Phenh - there they found a city on the brink of collapse, and almost completely neglected...They progressed through Cambodia and saw peasants working in fields, they also found a school house with blood stained corpses all over the floor and 7 people who were amazingly still alive inside it (although recent research suggests that possibly 196 people surrived the prison)...Then they found documents about the school house which showed that sense 1975 it had been used as a torture and execution chamber by one of the worst regime’s in history - the Khmer Rouge.
The Khmer Rouge under the command of Pol Pot (1925-1998)
came to power in war torn Cambodia on the 17th of April 1975.
Before that Cambodia had been graced with a U.S. puppet regime - "The Khemer Republic" under the leadership of Lon Nol and his brother Lon Non.
The Lon Nol government needless to say was extremely corrupt
and relied and like the "Republic of China" under Chaing Kai Shek constantly demanded US aid to prop itself up. The US had their own imperial agenda though in Cambodia, - the Vietcong.
The Vietcong were attempting to capture S. Vietnam at the time and as part of this attempt had pushed into Cambodia, sponsoring Pol Pot's Khemer Rouge guerilla’s as they went- then the "People's Republic of China" joined in and the Khemer Rouge had enough motovation to defeat the inept Lon Nol regime in April of 1975.
In 1973 Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of Cambodia, over 600,000 Cambodian's died in this bombing although Noam Chomsky claimed it was only 200,000 ---- Chomsky's views on Cambodia are less then trust worthy...
This angered and greatly radicalized the 'red Khmer’s' who would bitterly remember what the west did to them, and later take it out on their own people after 1975.
The Khemer Rouge's first move when they captured Cambodia was to order a mass evacuation to the countryside - because Pol Pot was inspired by Mao's evacuations in China during the "Cultural revolution" which Pol Pot partly witnessed.
Any Cambodian's who refused to move to the country were shot by the Khmer Rouge..
Lon Non, Lon Nol's brother and the other members of the "Khmer republic" were executed, with the Khmer Rouge claiming they were beheaded.
Lon Nol himself fled Cambodia on the 1st of April 1975 when it became all to obvious that the "Khmer republic" was doomed. However Lon Brett and Lon Non among with other ministers decided to try and negotiate a truce with the approaching Khmer Rouge forces, however Pol Pot's teenagers (the Khmer Rouge was mainly made up of children and teenagers) were not interested in a cease fire...
The Khmer Rouge then established their constitution in 1976 which was extremely vague and simply stated that all Cambodian's were 'equal' and some other vague half Marxist half ultra-nationalist rhetoric. In-between the 11th and 13th of April 1976, the Khmer Rouge healed a national assembly meeting where, Pol Pot was 'elected' prime minister, however Pol Pot didn't reveal himself as head of the country to his fellow country men or the world until 1977.
They renamed the country "Democratic Kampuchea" (DK)
though this title would soon prove contradictory.
They also renamed the CPK (Communist party of Kampuchea) "The Angkar" - "the organization" and now the killing could begin in earnest.
All intellectuals were rounded up and shot, all Cambodians who spoke either English and/or French were shot, although as some have pointed out this was hypocrtical as Pol Pot himself could speak French....Teachers were shot and education apart from basic mathematics was banned, instead Cambodian's were thought to love Angker; who became their, masters and family. Vietnamese, Laotians and Chinese minorities were either deported and/or shot. Actually the only Cambodian's not to be shot by the Angkar were peasant farmer's who the Khmer Rouge believed to be 'the real working class' - based on Maoist philosophy.
Instead of death the peasants were made to work in labor camps for over 16 hours a day, were thousands more died of starvation and sickness. Music was banned under the Khmer Rouge and artists either fled the country or were shot.
Buddhist monks (Buddhism was the primary religion in Cambodia up to 1975)faced persecution, with their religion been virtually banned by the Angkar
at least half the Buddhist population were murdered by 1979 along with other religious groups.
Political prisoners were tortured under the watchful eye of "Comrade Duch" who ran the school turned torture camp menthioned at the start, named S-21, were over 15,000 Cambodian's were killed by 1979. Those unfortunate enough to survive were made to dig their own graves in the infamous 'killing fields' were they were then hacked to death by pick axes - the Khmer Rouge wanted to save bullets....the primary killing field lay 15kl away from S-21 named “Boeung Choeung Ek,” or “Crow’s Feet Pond” where ten teenage Khmer Rouge soldiers led by “Teng” a Khmer officer in his early 20’s….Teng and his men would dig the graves after hearing about prisoners coming from S-21 so that their victims were ready for the slaughter as soon as they arrived.
Prior to this (before S-21 became to full of bodies and the killing field's were used) Duch's prisoner's were often hit over the head by metal bars and then their necks were broken, in a small backyard outside S-21. In another prison camp ("Camp of Choung" 17,000 were killed by 1979)..
in 1977 Pol Pot eventually revealed "Democratic Kampuchea" to the world, announcing himself as prime minister and talking about his plans for his country, in an interview with a Yugoslavian film crew he said "I want to rid Cambodia of it's past." , in 1978 the Pol Pot administration allowed a few Western journalists inside the country, mainly Elizabeth Becker; who for years along with Noam Chomsky and other left wing intellectual's had denied the rumors that there was genocide happening in Cambodia.
Becker was shocked to find that Pol Pot spoke in a calm voice but that he was "always ranting and raving" he wore a grey clad Mao like suit and "looked like a king" stretched out in his office.
Becker soon found she changed her mind about the Angkar as she saw the fear in peasants eyes as she travelled around Cambodia "under virtual house arrest" along with her companion Professor Caldwell.
The night, she had interviewed Pol Pot a group of Khmer Rouge soldiers burst into her room and shot Professor Caldwell dead, threatening her, the next day she was rushed out of the country as the Vietnamese had started their invasion.
Why did Vietnam invade Cambodia?
The Vietnamese were growing increasingly weary of the Khmer Rouge by 1978.
In 1975, shortly after taking power Pol Pot made it clear that Cambodian communism was different from Vietnamese communism, and that he considered the Vietnamese racial enemies of Cambodia. in 1977-78 the Khmer Rouge conducted border raids into Vietnam and kidnapped and killed over 500 Vietnamese citizens, burning down their villages as they went. Vietnam had up to this stage barely tolerated the Pol Pot government but this was the last straw...on the 22nd of December 1978 radio Hanoi - the state owned radio of Vietnam announced it would be building a force made up of anti-communists, Viet communists and Cambodian exiles who would invade Cambodia.
One of these Cambodian exiles, Hun Sen who up till 1977 was an officer in the Khmer Rouge, is now prime minister of Cambodia.
It took the Vietnamese little more then two weeks to capture all of Cambodia, finally taking the capital city on the 7th of January 1979. Pol Pot and the other Khmer leaders fled deep into Cambodia's jungles, were they would continue to launch a bloodthirsty guerilla war against the new Vietnamese puppet state in Cambodia
"The People's Republic of Kampuchea" (PRK). Hun Sen was installed as prime minister in the 1980's by the Vietnamese, who also shut down Pol Pot's labor camps and for the first time made the full contence of the Pol Pot regime available to the outside world - who did nothing...
Why did the UN not give aid to Cambodia for at least a decade?
The UN was sidelined in it's approach to Cambodia for at least the next decade or two. the Khmer Rouge continued to try and overthrow the Hun Sen administration which was been backed by Vietnam, who in turn was been backed by the USSR. In 1985, the Regan administration gave over $5 million in aid to the Khmer Rouge, the Thatcher administration in England also financed the Maoist movement and in 1989, the US and Japan both put political pressure on the UN not to send international aid to Cambodia. In short both the capitalist powers US and UK supported the Khmer Rouge because of geopolitics (and they claim to care about freedom?) the USSR was financing Vietnam who in turn was propping up the PRK, so the US and UK took the opposite role.
in 1984 in an interview with the British TV programme "Blue Peter" Margret Thatcher said she supported the "moderate factors" within the Khmer Rouge.
When asked what this meant, she replied that she was told by Khmer Rouge diplomats that they were more "moderate" then Pol Pot's supporters within the movement.
When one of these so-called moderate diplomats was asked what he thought the Khmer Rouge's greatest mistake was he replied "we failed to move quickly enough against our enemies" - hence they failed to kill enough people...
On the 1st of September 1989, the Vietnamess pulled out of Cambodia
and in 1991 peace talks took place between the Khmer Rouge and other countries.
Australia a country who had prior to 1991 refered to the Khmer regeme as "genocide" agreed to take the wording out of it's offical reference's.
Whilst the US and UK diplomats laughed and joked with KR offical's in their hotel rooms...
The peace did not last and fighting continued in Cambodia,
in 1996, Pol Pot's brother in law switched sides and became part of the now "constitutional government" which was still led by Hun Sen, with Norodom Sihanouk; a figure who I have failed to mention in this history, but let's just say he had a complex relationship with the Khmer Rouge, as King (he was King of Cambodia in the 1950's won it independence from France, then became prime minister untill he was overthrown in 1970 by Lon Nol - he then fled into the jungle and lent his name to Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge...) so basically the so-called "democratic" government established in the Paris peace talks was made up of the same people, except now Hun Sen followed a free-market policy instead of a communist policy which he had done while in charge of the PRK. – It’s worth nothing that Hun Sen was only in charge at this time because he refused to give up power to one of Sihanouk’s sons, who on paper was the real prime minister of the new government, however Sen overthrew him in a military coup in 1997, clamming that he was saving Cambodia from ‘anarchy’.
Norodom Sihanouk; officially pardoned the Khmer Rouge in the 1990's
and in 1997 Pol Pot ordered the killing of Sen Senn (and his family) who was minister for defense in "Democratic Kampuchea" the KR staged a show trial for Pol Pot and put him under house arrest, where he died on the 15th of April 1998.
Today the west barely mentions the genocide
and compared to films, plays, musicals, books about the Nazi Holocoust there is really very little, apart from a few biography's of Pol Pot and some accademic boooks on the Khmer Rouge.
There is however an excellent 1984 film called "the killing fields" which tells the story of three real life journalists who found themselves trapped in Khmer Rouge Cambodia.
in 2004 Sihanouk claiming ill-health resigned as King
and moved to the DPRK and then to China, where he now lives in self-imposed exile.
Hun Sen was again elected prime minister of Cambodia in 2003 where he is now head of a coalition government with a royalist party.
in July of 2009 "Comrade Duch" was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Cambodian-UN war crimes/crimes against humanity court. However he has already served 11 of those 30 years so he will now only have to serve 19 years -- something which rightfully outrages many Cambodian's.
Other top leaders of the KR are awaiting trial's that might begin in 2011.
However Hun Sen has said that persecuting the KR leaders would only lead to a civil-war...
And that is the story of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
the U.S., UK and PRC still remain vague about their support for such monsters
and compared to Hitler's Holocaust the event is somewhat sidelined it seems,
rarely making it into school history books.
One can only hope that such monsters don't surface again
but then again that's what we hoped for after WWII.
I'm going to end this article
with a quote from Cambodian Photojournalist Dith Pran who was a surrivor of the 'killing fields' (and coined the name) and who is one of the central characters in the 1984 film of that name:
"Please help spread the word of the Cambodian genocide. I believe it needs to be told, the new generation needs to be educated and we want history not to repeat itself. We don't want to see the holocaust, the genocide, the killing fields keep returning to this planet".
P.S.
It is believed that 1.7 million (21% of the population) Cambodians were killed under the Khmer Rouge regime.....The Vietnamese conducted a survey after they captured Cambodia in which they came to the conclusion that 4 million died - the full population of Cambodia at the time was 8 million....However historian's say this figure is unlikely, Dith Pran himself said in a university lecture in the US some years later that 3 million were killed. Pol Pot said that 800,000 died however this figure is blatently propaganda, and other Khmer Rouge leaders said 1.4 million died.
Whatever the amount the genocide is clearly a degrading period in the history of humanity...I claim that's it's forgotten simply because, as far as I can see it is not as mainstream as other massacres - despite the fact that more people died in the Cambodian genocide than the Yugoslavian genocide in the 1990's.
Today on the 7th of January 1979 the Vietnamese People's Army
(VPA) entered Cambodia's capital city of Phonon Phenh - there they found a city on the brink of collapse, and almost completely neglected...They progressed through Cambodia and saw peasants working in fields, they also found a school house with blood stained corpses all over the floor and 7 people who were amazingly still alive inside it (although recent research suggests that possibly 196 people surrived the prison)...Then they found documents about the school house which showed that sense 1975 it had been used as a torture and execution chamber by one of the worst regime’s in history - the Khmer Rouge.
The Khmer Rouge under the command of Pol Pot (1925-1998)
came to power in war torn Cambodia on the 17th of April 1975.
Before that Cambodia had been graced with a U.S. puppet regime - "The Khemer Republic" under the leadership of Lon Nol and his brother Lon Non.
The Lon Nol government needless to say was extremely corrupt
and relied and like the "Republic of China" under Chaing Kai Shek constantly demanded US aid to prop itself up. The US had their own imperial agenda though in Cambodia, - the Vietcong.
The Vietcong were attempting to capture S. Vietnam at the time and as part of this attempt had pushed into Cambodia, sponsoring Pol Pot's Khemer Rouge guerilla’s as they went- then the "People's Republic of China" joined in and the Khemer Rouge had enough motovation to defeat the inept Lon Nol regime in April of 1975.
In 1973 Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of Cambodia, over 600,000 Cambodian's died in this bombing although Noam Chomsky claimed it was only 200,000 ---- Chomsky's views on Cambodia are less then trust worthy...
This angered and greatly radicalized the 'red Khmer’s' who would bitterly remember what the west did to them, and later take it out on their own people after 1975.
The Khemer Rouge's first move when they captured Cambodia was to order a mass evacuation to the countryside - because Pol Pot was inspired by Mao's evacuations in China during the "Cultural revolution" which Pol Pot partly witnessed.
Any Cambodian's who refused to move to the country were shot by the Khmer Rouge..
Lon Non, Lon Nol's brother and the other members of the "Khmer republic" were executed, with the Khmer Rouge claiming they were beheaded.
Lon Nol himself fled Cambodia on the 1st of April 1975 when it became all to obvious that the "Khmer republic" was doomed. However Lon Brett and Lon Non among with other ministers decided to try and negotiate a truce with the approaching Khmer Rouge forces, however Pol Pot's teenagers (the Khmer Rouge was mainly made up of children and teenagers) were not interested in a cease fire...
The Khmer Rouge then established their constitution in 1976 which was extremely vague and simply stated that all Cambodian's were 'equal' and some other vague half Marxist half ultra-nationalist rhetoric. In-between the 11th and 13th of April 1976, the Khmer Rouge healed a national assembly meeting where, Pol Pot was 'elected' prime minister, however Pol Pot didn't reveal himself as head of the country to his fellow country men or the world until 1977.
They renamed the country "Democratic Kampuchea" (DK)
though this title would soon prove contradictory.
They also renamed the CPK (Communist party of Kampuchea) "The Angkar" - "the organization" and now the killing could begin in earnest.
All intellectuals were rounded up and shot, all Cambodians who spoke either English and/or French were shot, although as some have pointed out this was hypocrtical as Pol Pot himself could speak French....Teachers were shot and education apart from basic mathematics was banned, instead Cambodian's were thought to love Angker; who became their, masters and family. Vietnamese, Laotians and Chinese minorities were either deported and/or shot. Actually the only Cambodian's not to be shot by the Angkar were peasant farmer's who the Khmer Rouge believed to be 'the real working class' - based on Maoist philosophy.
Instead of death the peasants were made to work in labor camps for over 16 hours a day, were thousands more died of starvation and sickness. Music was banned under the Khmer Rouge and artists either fled the country or were shot.
Buddhist monks (Buddhism was the primary religion in Cambodia up to 1975)faced persecution, with their religion been virtually banned by the Angkar
at least half the Buddhist population were murdered by 1979 along with other religious groups.
Political prisoners were tortured under the watchful eye of "Comrade Duch" who ran the school turned torture camp menthioned at the start, named S-21, were over 15,000 Cambodian's were killed by 1979. Those unfortunate enough to survive were made to dig their own graves in the infamous 'killing fields' were they were then hacked to death by pick axes - the Khmer Rouge wanted to save bullets....the primary killing field lay 15kl away from S-21 named “Boeung Choeung Ek,” or “Crow’s Feet Pond” where ten teenage Khmer Rouge soldiers led by “Teng” a Khmer officer in his early 20’s….Teng and his men would dig the graves after hearing about prisoners coming from S-21 so that their victims were ready for the slaughter as soon as they arrived.
Prior to this (before S-21 became to full of bodies and the killing field's were used) Duch's prisoner's were often hit over the head by metal bars and then their necks were broken, in a small backyard outside S-21. In another prison camp ("Camp of Choung" 17,000 were killed by 1979)..
in 1977 Pol Pot eventually revealed "Democratic Kampuchea" to the world, announcing himself as prime minister and talking about his plans for his country, in an interview with a Yugoslavian film crew he said "I want to rid Cambodia of it's past." , in 1978 the Pol Pot administration allowed a few Western journalists inside the country, mainly Elizabeth Becker; who for years along with Noam Chomsky and other left wing intellectual's had denied the rumors that there was genocide happening in Cambodia.
Becker was shocked to find that Pol Pot spoke in a calm voice but that he was "always ranting and raving" he wore a grey clad Mao like suit and "looked like a king" stretched out in his office.
Becker soon found she changed her mind about the Angkar as she saw the fear in peasants eyes as she travelled around Cambodia "under virtual house arrest" along with her companion Professor Caldwell.
The night, she had interviewed Pol Pot a group of Khmer Rouge soldiers burst into her room and shot Professor Caldwell dead, threatening her, the next day she was rushed out of the country as the Vietnamese had started their invasion.
Why did Vietnam invade Cambodia?
The Vietnamese were growing increasingly weary of the Khmer Rouge by 1978.
In 1975, shortly after taking power Pol Pot made it clear that Cambodian communism was different from Vietnamese communism, and that he considered the Vietnamese racial enemies of Cambodia. in 1977-78 the Khmer Rouge conducted border raids into Vietnam and kidnapped and killed over 500 Vietnamese citizens, burning down their villages as they went. Vietnam had up to this stage barely tolerated the Pol Pot government but this was the last straw...on the 22nd of December 1978 radio Hanoi - the state owned radio of Vietnam announced it would be building a force made up of anti-communists, Viet communists and Cambodian exiles who would invade Cambodia.
One of these Cambodian exiles, Hun Sen who up till 1977 was an officer in the Khmer Rouge, is now prime minister of Cambodia.
It took the Vietnamese little more then two weeks to capture all of Cambodia, finally taking the capital city on the 7th of January 1979. Pol Pot and the other Khmer leaders fled deep into Cambodia's jungles, were they would continue to launch a bloodthirsty guerilla war against the new Vietnamese puppet state in Cambodia
"The People's Republic of Kampuchea" (PRK). Hun Sen was installed as prime minister in the 1980's by the Vietnamese, who also shut down Pol Pot's labor camps and for the first time made the full contence of the Pol Pot regime available to the outside world - who did nothing...
Why did the UN not give aid to Cambodia for at least a decade?
The UN was sidelined in it's approach to Cambodia for at least the next decade or two. the Khmer Rouge continued to try and overthrow the Hun Sen administration which was been backed by Vietnam, who in turn was been backed by the USSR. In 1985, the Regan administration gave over $5 million in aid to the Khmer Rouge, the Thatcher administration in England also financed the Maoist movement and in 1989, the US and Japan both put political pressure on the UN not to send international aid to Cambodia. In short both the capitalist powers US and UK supported the Khmer Rouge because of geopolitics (and they claim to care about freedom?) the USSR was financing Vietnam who in turn was propping up the PRK, so the US and UK took the opposite role.
in 1984 in an interview with the British TV programme "Blue Peter" Margret Thatcher said she supported the "moderate factors" within the Khmer Rouge.
When asked what this meant, she replied that she was told by Khmer Rouge diplomats that they were more "moderate" then Pol Pot's supporters within the movement.
When one of these so-called moderate diplomats was asked what he thought the Khmer Rouge's greatest mistake was he replied "we failed to move quickly enough against our enemies" - hence they failed to kill enough people...
On the 1st of September 1989, the Vietnamess pulled out of Cambodia
and in 1991 peace talks took place between the Khmer Rouge and other countries.
Australia a country who had prior to 1991 refered to the Khmer regeme as "genocide" agreed to take the wording out of it's offical reference's.
Whilst the US and UK diplomats laughed and joked with KR offical's in their hotel rooms...
The peace did not last and fighting continued in Cambodia,
in 1996, Pol Pot's brother in law switched sides and became part of the now "constitutional government" which was still led by Hun Sen, with Norodom Sihanouk; a figure who I have failed to mention in this history, but let's just say he had a complex relationship with the Khmer Rouge, as King (he was King of Cambodia in the 1950's won it independence from France, then became prime minister untill he was overthrown in 1970 by Lon Nol - he then fled into the jungle and lent his name to Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge...) so basically the so-called "democratic" government established in the Paris peace talks was made up of the same people, except now Hun Sen followed a free-market policy instead of a communist policy which he had done while in charge of the PRK. – It’s worth nothing that Hun Sen was only in charge at this time because he refused to give up power to one of Sihanouk’s sons, who on paper was the real prime minister of the new government, however Sen overthrew him in a military coup in 1997, clamming that he was saving Cambodia from ‘anarchy’.
Norodom Sihanouk; officially pardoned the Khmer Rouge in the 1990's
and in 1997 Pol Pot ordered the killing of Sen Senn (and his family) who was minister for defense in "Democratic Kampuchea" the KR staged a show trial for Pol Pot and put him under house arrest, where he died on the 15th of April 1998.
Today the west barely mentions the genocide
and compared to films, plays, musicals, books about the Nazi Holocoust there is really very little, apart from a few biography's of Pol Pot and some accademic boooks on the Khmer Rouge.
There is however an excellent 1984 film called "the killing fields" which tells the story of three real life journalists who found themselves trapped in Khmer Rouge Cambodia.
in 2004 Sihanouk claiming ill-health resigned as King
and moved to the DPRK and then to China, where he now lives in self-imposed exile.
Hun Sen was again elected prime minister of Cambodia in 2003 where he is now head of a coalition government with a royalist party.
in July of 2009 "Comrade Duch" was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Cambodian-UN war crimes/crimes against humanity court. However he has already served 11 of those 30 years so he will now only have to serve 19 years -- something which rightfully outrages many Cambodian's.
Other top leaders of the KR are awaiting trial's that might begin in 2011.
However Hun Sen has said that persecuting the KR leaders would only lead to a civil-war...
And that is the story of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
the U.S., UK and PRC still remain vague about their support for such monsters
and compared to Hitler's Holocaust the event is somewhat sidelined it seems,
rarely making it into school history books.
One can only hope that such monsters don't surface again
but then again that's what we hoped for after WWII.
I'm going to end this article
with a quote from Cambodian Photojournalist Dith Pran who was a surrivor of the 'killing fields' (and coined the name) and who is one of the central characters in the 1984 film of that name:
"Please help spread the word of the Cambodian genocide. I believe it needs to be told, the new generation needs to be educated and we want history not to repeat itself. We don't want to see the holocaust, the genocide, the killing fields keep returning to this planet".
P.S.
It is believed that 1.7 million (21% of the population) Cambodians were killed under the Khmer Rouge regime.....The Vietnamese conducted a survey after they captured Cambodia in which they came to the conclusion that 4 million died - the full population of Cambodia at the time was 8 million....However historian's say this figure is unlikely, Dith Pran himself said in a university lecture in the US some years later that 3 million were killed. Pol Pot said that 800,000 died however this figure is blatently propaganda, and other Khmer Rouge leaders said 1.4 million died.
Whatever the amount the genocide is clearly a degrading period in the history of humanity...I claim that's it's forgotten simply because, as far as I can see it is not as mainstream as other massacres - despite the fact that more people died in the Cambodian genocide than the Yugoslavian genocide in the 1990's.
the forgotten holocoust: Cambodia
Today on the 7th of January 1979 the Vietnamess People's Army
(VPA) entered Cambodia's capital city of Phennon Phenh - there they found a city on the brink of collapse, and almost completely neglected...They progressed through Cambodia and saw peasants working in fields, they also found a school house with blood stained corpses all over the floor and 11 people who were amazingly still alive inside it...Then they found documents about the school house which showed that sense 1975 it had been used as a torture and execution chamber by one of the worst regeme's in history - the Khemer Rouge.
The Khemer Rouge under the command of Pol Pot (1925-1998)
came to power in war torn Cambodia on the 17th of April 1975.
Before that Cambodia had been graced with a U.S. puppet regeme - "The Khemer Republic" under the leadership of Lon Nol and his brother Lon Non.
The Lon Nol government needless to say was extremely corrupt
and relied and like the "Republic of China" under Chaing Kai Shek constantly demanded US aid to prop itself up. The US had their own imperial agenda though in Cambodia, - the Vietcong.
The Vietcong were attempting to capture S. Vietnam at the time and as part of this attempt had pushed into Cambodia, sponsering Pol Pot's Khemer Rouge gueriella's as they went- then the "People's Republic of China" joined in and the Khemer Rouge had enough motovation to defeat the inepth Lon Nol regeme in April of 1975.
In 1973 Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of Cambodia, over 600,000 Cambodian's died in this bombing although Noam Chomsky claimed it was only 200,000 ---- Chomsky's views on Cambodia are less then trust worthy...
This angered and greatly radicalized the 'red Khemer's' who would bitterly remember what the west did to them, and later take it out on their own people after 1975.
The Khemer Rouge's first move when they captured Cambodia was to order a mass evacuation to the countryside - because Pol Pot was insipired by Mao's evacuations in China during the "Cultural revolution" which Pol Pot partly withnessed.
Any Cambodian's who refused to move to the country were shot by the Khmer Rouge..
Lon Non, Lon Nol's brother and the other members of the "Khmer republic" were executed, with the Khmer Rouge claiming they were beheaded.
Lon Nol himself fled Cambodia on the 1st of April 1975 when it became all to obvious that the "Khmer republic" was doomed. However Lon Brett and Lon Non among with other ministers decided to try and negoieate a truce with the approaching Khmer Rouge forces, however Pol Pot's teenagers (the Khmer Rouge was mainly made up of children and teenagers) were not interested in a cease fire...
The Khmer Rouge then established their constituon in 1976 which was extremely vauge and simply stated that all Cambodian's were 'equal' and some other vauge half Marxist half ultra-nationalist rehtoric. Inbetween the 11th and 13th of April 1976, the Khmer Rouge healed a national assembely meeting where, Pol Pot was 'elected' prime minister, however Pol Pot didn't reveal himself as head of the country to his fellow country men or the world untill 1977.
They renamed the country "Democratic Kampouchea" (DK)
though this title would soon prove contadictory.
They also renamed the CPK (Communist party of Kampouchea) "The Angker" - "the organization" and now the killing could begin in earnest.
All intellectuals were rounded up and shot, all Cambodians who spoke either English and/or French were shot, although as some have pointed out this was hypocrtical as Pol Pot himself could speak French....Teachers were shot and education apart from basic mathamatics was banned, insted Cambodian's were thought to love Angker; who became their, masters and family. Vietnamess, Laosians and Chiness miniorites were either deported and/or shot. Actually the only Cambodian's not to be shot by the Angker were peseant farmer's who the Khmer Rouge believed to be 'the real working class' - based on Maoist phillosphy.
Insted of death the pesants were made to work in labour camps for over 16 hours a day, were thousands more died of starvation and sicknesss. Music was banned under the Khmer Rouge and artists either fled the country or were shot.
Budhist monks (Budhism was the primary religion in Cambodia up to 1975)faced persactuion, with their religion been virtually banned by the Ankger
at least half the budhist population were murdered by 1979 along with other religious groups.
Political prisoners were tortured under the watchful eye of "Comrade Duch" who ran the school turned torture camp menthioned at the start, named S-21, were over 15,000 Cambodian's were killed by 1979. Those unfourtunate enough to surrive were made to dig their own graves in the infamous 'killing fields' were they were then hacked to death by pick axes - the Khmer Rouge wanted to save bullets....
Duch's prisoner's were often hit over the head by metal bars and then their necks were broken, in a small backyard outside S-21. In another prison camp ("camp of Choung" 17,000 were killed by 1979)..
in 1977 Pol Pot eventually revealed "Democratic Kampuchea" to the world, announcing himself as prime minister and talking about his plans for his country, in an interview with a Yugoslavian film crew he said "I want to rid Cambodia of it's past." , in 1978 the Pol Pot administration allowed a few Westeren journalists inside the country, mainly Elizabeth Becker; who for years along with Noam Chomsky and other left wing intellectual's had denied the rumours that there was genocide happening in Cambodia.
Becker was shocked to find that Pol Pot spoke in a calm voice but that he was "always ranting and raving" he wore a grey clad Mao like suit and "looked like a king" strechted out in his office.
Becker soon found she changed her mind about the Ankger as she saw the fear in pesants eyes as she travelled around Cambodia "under virtual house arrest" along with her companion Professor Caldwell.
The night, she had interviewed Pol Pot a group of Khmer Rouge soldiers burst into her room and shot Professor Caldwell dead, threatining her, the next day she was rushed out of the country as the Vietnamess had started their invasion.
Why did Vietnam invade Cambodia?
The Vietnmaess were growing increasingly weary of the Khmer Rouge by 1978.
In 1975, shortly after taking power Pol Pot made it clear that Cambodian communism was different from Vietnamess communism, and that he considered the Vietnamess racesial enimes of Cambodia. in 1977-78 the Khmer Rouge conducted border rades into Vietnam and kiddnapped and killed over 500 Vietnmaess citizens, burning down their villages as they went. Vietnam had up to this stage barely tolerated the Pol Pot government but this was the last straw...on the 22nd of December 1978 radio Hanoi - the state owned radio of Vietnam announced it would be building a force made up of anti-communists, Viet communists and Cambodian exiles who would invade Cambodia.
One of these Cambodian exiles, Hun Sen who up till 1977 was an officer in the Khmer Rouge, is now prime minister of Cambodia.
It took the Vietnamess little more then two weeks to capture all of Cambodia, finally taking the capital city on the 7th of January 1979. Pol Pot and the other Khmer leaders fled deep into Cambodia's jungles, were they would continue to launch a bloodthristy gureilla war against the new Vietnamess puppet state in Cambodia
"The People's Republic of Kampuchea" (PRK). Hun Sen was installed as prime minister in the 1980's by the Vietnamess, who also shut down Pol Pot's labour camps and for the first time made the full contence of the Pol Pot regeme avaliable to the outside world - who did nothing...
Why did the UN not give aid to Cambodia for at least two decades?
The UN was sidelined in it's approch to Cambodia for at least the next decade or two. the Khmer Rouge continued to try and overthrow the Hun Sen administration which was been backed by Vietnam, who in turn was been backed by the USSR. In 1985, the Regan administration gave over $5 million in aid to the Khmer Rouge, the Thatcher administration in England also financed the Maoist movement and in 1989, the US and Japan both put political pressure on the UN not to send international aid to Cambodia. In short both the capitalist powers US and UK supported the Khmer Rouge beause of geopolitics (and they claim to care about freedom?) the USSR was financing Vietnam who in turn was proping up the PRK, so the US and UK took the opposite role.
in 1984 in an interview with the British TV programe "Blue Peter" Margret Thatcher said she supported the "moderate factors" within the Khmer Rouge.
When asked what this meant, she replied that she was told by Khmer Rouge diplomats that they were more "moderate" then Pol Pot's supporters within the movement.
When one of these so-called moderate diplomats was asked what he thought the Khmer Rouge's greatest mistake was he replied "we failed to move quickly enough against our enimes" - hence they failed to kill enough people...
On the 1st of September 1989, the Vietnamess pulled out of Cambodia
and in 1991 peace talks took place between the Khmer Rouge and other countries.
Austrillia a country who had prior to 1991 refered to the Khmer regeme as "genocide" agreed to take the wording out of it's offical reference's.
Whilst the US and UK diplomats laughed and joked with KR offical's in their hotel rooms...
The peace did not last and fighting continued in Cambodia,
in 1996, Pol Pot's brother in law switched sides and became part of the now "constituional government" which was sitll led by Hun Sen, with Norodom Sihanouk; a figure who I have failed to mention in this history, but let's just say he had a complex relationship with the Khmer Rouge, as King (he was King of Cambodia in the 1950's won it independence from France, then became prime minister untill he was overthrown in 1970 by Lon Nol - he then fled into the jungle and lent his name to Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge...) so basically the so-called "democratic" government established in the Paris peace talks was made up of the same people, except now Hun Sen follwed a free-market policy insted of a communist policy which he had done while in charge of the PRK.
Norodom Sihanouk; officaly pardoned the Khmer Rouge in the 1990's
and in 1997 Pol Pot ordered the killing of Sen Senn (and his family) who was minister for defense in "Democratic Kampuchea" the KR staged a show trial for Pol Pot and put him under house arrest, where he died on the 15th of April 1998.
Today the west barely mentions the genocide
and compared to films, plays, musicals, books about the Nazi Holocoust there is really very little, apart from a few biography's of Pol Pot and some accademic boooks on the Khmer Rouge.
There is however an excellent 1984 film called "the killing fields" which tells the story of three real life journalists who found themselves trapped in Khmer Rouge Cambodia.
in 2004 Sihanouk claiming ill-health resgined as King
and moved to the DPRK and then to China, where he now lives in self-imposed exile.
Hun Sen was again elected prime minister of Cambodia in 2003 where he is now head of a coalition government with a royalist party.
in July of 2009 "Comrade Duch" was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Cambodian-UN war crimes/crimes against humanity court. However he has already served 11 of those 30 years so he will now only have to serve 19 years -- something which rightfully outrages many Cambodian's.
Other top leaders of the KR are awaiting trial's that might begin in 2011.
However Hun Sen has said that persacuting the KR leaders would only lead to a civil-war...
And that is the story of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
the U.S., UK and PRC still remain vauge about their support for such monsters
and compared to Hitler's Holocoust the event is somewhat sidelined it seems,
rarely making it into school history books.
One can only hope that such monsters don't surface again
but then again that's what we hoped for after WWII.
I'm going to end this articale
with a quote from Cambodian Photojournalist Dith Pran who was a surrivor of the 'killing fields' (and coined the name) and who is one of the central characters in the 1984 film of that name:
"Please help spread the word of the Cambodian genocide. I believe it needs to be told, the new generation needs to be educated and we want history not to repeat itself. We don't want to see the holocaust, the genocide, the killing fields keep returning to this planet".
P.S.
It is believed that 1.7 million (21% of the population) Cambodians were killed under the Khmer Rouge regeme.....The Vietnamess conducted a survey after they captured Cambodia in which they came to the conculsuion that 4 million died - the full population of Cambodia at the time was 8 million....However historian's say this figure is unlikely, Dith Pran himself said in a universaty lecture in the US some years later that 3 million were killed. Pol Pot said that 800,000 died however this figure is blatently propaganda, and other Khmer Rouge leaders said 1.4 million died.
Whatever the amount the genocide is clearly a degrading period in the history of humanity...I claim that's it's forgotten simply because, as far as I can see it is not as mainstream as other masscures - despite the fact that more people died in the Cambodian genocide than the Yugoslavian genocide in the 1990's.
(VPA) entered Cambodia's capital city of Phennon Phenh - there they found a city on the brink of collapse, and almost completely neglected...They progressed through Cambodia and saw peasants working in fields, they also found a school house with blood stained corpses all over the floor and 11 people who were amazingly still alive inside it...Then they found documents about the school house which showed that sense 1975 it had been used as a torture and execution chamber by one of the worst regeme's in history - the Khemer Rouge.
The Khemer Rouge under the command of Pol Pot (1925-1998)
came to power in war torn Cambodia on the 17th of April 1975.
Before that Cambodia had been graced with a U.S. puppet regeme - "The Khemer Republic" under the leadership of Lon Nol and his brother Lon Non.
The Lon Nol government needless to say was extremely corrupt
and relied and like the "Republic of China" under Chaing Kai Shek constantly demanded US aid to prop itself up. The US had their own imperial agenda though in Cambodia, - the Vietcong.
The Vietcong were attempting to capture S. Vietnam at the time and as part of this attempt had pushed into Cambodia, sponsering Pol Pot's Khemer Rouge gueriella's as they went- then the "People's Republic of China" joined in and the Khemer Rouge had enough motovation to defeat the inepth Lon Nol regeme in April of 1975.
In 1973 Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of Cambodia, over 600,000 Cambodian's died in this bombing although Noam Chomsky claimed it was only 200,000 ---- Chomsky's views on Cambodia are less then trust worthy...
This angered and greatly radicalized the 'red Khemer's' who would bitterly remember what the west did to them, and later take it out on their own people after 1975.
The Khemer Rouge's first move when they captured Cambodia was to order a mass evacuation to the countryside - because Pol Pot was insipired by Mao's evacuations in China during the "Cultural revolution" which Pol Pot partly withnessed.
Any Cambodian's who refused to move to the country were shot by the Khmer Rouge..
Lon Non, Lon Nol's brother and the other members of the "Khmer republic" were executed, with the Khmer Rouge claiming they were beheaded.
Lon Nol himself fled Cambodia on the 1st of April 1975 when it became all to obvious that the "Khmer republic" was doomed. However Lon Brett and Lon Non among with other ministers decided to try and negoieate a truce with the approaching Khmer Rouge forces, however Pol Pot's teenagers (the Khmer Rouge was mainly made up of children and teenagers) were not interested in a cease fire...
The Khmer Rouge then established their constituon in 1976 which was extremely vauge and simply stated that all Cambodian's were 'equal' and some other vauge half Marxist half ultra-nationalist rehtoric. Inbetween the 11th and 13th of April 1976, the Khmer Rouge healed a national assembely meeting where, Pol Pot was 'elected' prime minister, however Pol Pot didn't reveal himself as head of the country to his fellow country men or the world untill 1977.
They renamed the country "Democratic Kampouchea" (DK)
though this title would soon prove contadictory.
They also renamed the CPK (Communist party of Kampouchea) "The Angker" - "the organization" and now the killing could begin in earnest.
All intellectuals were rounded up and shot, all Cambodians who spoke either English and/or French were shot, although as some have pointed out this was hypocrtical as Pol Pot himself could speak French....Teachers were shot and education apart from basic mathamatics was banned, insted Cambodian's were thought to love Angker; who became their, masters and family. Vietnamess, Laosians and Chiness miniorites were either deported and/or shot. Actually the only Cambodian's not to be shot by the Angker were peseant farmer's who the Khmer Rouge believed to be 'the real working class' - based on Maoist phillosphy.
Insted of death the pesants were made to work in labour camps for over 16 hours a day, were thousands more died of starvation and sicknesss. Music was banned under the Khmer Rouge and artists either fled the country or were shot.
Budhist monks (Budhism was the primary religion in Cambodia up to 1975)faced persactuion, with their religion been virtually banned by the Ankger
at least half the budhist population were murdered by 1979 along with other religious groups.
Political prisoners were tortured under the watchful eye of "Comrade Duch" who ran the school turned torture camp menthioned at the start, named S-21, were over 15,000 Cambodian's were killed by 1979. Those unfourtunate enough to surrive were made to dig their own graves in the infamous 'killing fields' were they were then hacked to death by pick axes - the Khmer Rouge wanted to save bullets....
Duch's prisoner's were often hit over the head by metal bars and then their necks were broken, in a small backyard outside S-21. In another prison camp ("camp of Choung" 17,000 were killed by 1979)..
in 1977 Pol Pot eventually revealed "Democratic Kampuchea" to the world, announcing himself as prime minister and talking about his plans for his country, in an interview with a Yugoslavian film crew he said "I want to rid Cambodia of it's past." , in 1978 the Pol Pot administration allowed a few Westeren journalists inside the country, mainly Elizabeth Becker; who for years along with Noam Chomsky and other left wing intellectual's had denied the rumours that there was genocide happening in Cambodia.
Becker was shocked to find that Pol Pot spoke in a calm voice but that he was "always ranting and raving" he wore a grey clad Mao like suit and "looked like a king" strechted out in his office.
Becker soon found she changed her mind about the Ankger as she saw the fear in pesants eyes as she travelled around Cambodia "under virtual house arrest" along with her companion Professor Caldwell.
The night, she had interviewed Pol Pot a group of Khmer Rouge soldiers burst into her room and shot Professor Caldwell dead, threatining her, the next day she was rushed out of the country as the Vietnamess had started their invasion.
Why did Vietnam invade Cambodia?
The Vietnmaess were growing increasingly weary of the Khmer Rouge by 1978.
In 1975, shortly after taking power Pol Pot made it clear that Cambodian communism was different from Vietnamess communism, and that he considered the Vietnamess racesial enimes of Cambodia. in 1977-78 the Khmer Rouge conducted border rades into Vietnam and kiddnapped and killed over 500 Vietnmaess citizens, burning down their villages as they went. Vietnam had up to this stage barely tolerated the Pol Pot government but this was the last straw...on the 22nd of December 1978 radio Hanoi - the state owned radio of Vietnam announced it would be building a force made up of anti-communists, Viet communists and Cambodian exiles who would invade Cambodia.
One of these Cambodian exiles, Hun Sen who up till 1977 was an officer in the Khmer Rouge, is now prime minister of Cambodia.
It took the Vietnamess little more then two weeks to capture all of Cambodia, finally taking the capital city on the 7th of January 1979. Pol Pot and the other Khmer leaders fled deep into Cambodia's jungles, were they would continue to launch a bloodthristy gureilla war against the new Vietnamess puppet state in Cambodia
"The People's Republic of Kampuchea" (PRK). Hun Sen was installed as prime minister in the 1980's by the Vietnamess, who also shut down Pol Pot's labour camps and for the first time made the full contence of the Pol Pot regeme avaliable to the outside world - who did nothing...
Why did the UN not give aid to Cambodia for at least two decades?
The UN was sidelined in it's approch to Cambodia for at least the next decade or two. the Khmer Rouge continued to try and overthrow the Hun Sen administration which was been backed by Vietnam, who in turn was been backed by the USSR. In 1985, the Regan administration gave over $5 million in aid to the Khmer Rouge, the Thatcher administration in England also financed the Maoist movement and in 1989, the US and Japan both put political pressure on the UN not to send international aid to Cambodia. In short both the capitalist powers US and UK supported the Khmer Rouge beause of geopolitics (and they claim to care about freedom?) the USSR was financing Vietnam who in turn was proping up the PRK, so the US and UK took the opposite role.
in 1984 in an interview with the British TV programe "Blue Peter" Margret Thatcher said she supported the "moderate factors" within the Khmer Rouge.
When asked what this meant, she replied that she was told by Khmer Rouge diplomats that they were more "moderate" then Pol Pot's supporters within the movement.
When one of these so-called moderate diplomats was asked what he thought the Khmer Rouge's greatest mistake was he replied "we failed to move quickly enough against our enimes" - hence they failed to kill enough people...
On the 1st of September 1989, the Vietnamess pulled out of Cambodia
and in 1991 peace talks took place between the Khmer Rouge and other countries.
Austrillia a country who had prior to 1991 refered to the Khmer regeme as "genocide" agreed to take the wording out of it's offical reference's.
Whilst the US and UK diplomats laughed and joked with KR offical's in their hotel rooms...
The peace did not last and fighting continued in Cambodia,
in 1996, Pol Pot's brother in law switched sides and became part of the now "constituional government" which was sitll led by Hun Sen, with Norodom Sihanouk; a figure who I have failed to mention in this history, but let's just say he had a complex relationship with the Khmer Rouge, as King (he was King of Cambodia in the 1950's won it independence from France, then became prime minister untill he was overthrown in 1970 by Lon Nol - he then fled into the jungle and lent his name to Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge...) so basically the so-called "democratic" government established in the Paris peace talks was made up of the same people, except now Hun Sen follwed a free-market policy insted of a communist policy which he had done while in charge of the PRK.
Norodom Sihanouk; officaly pardoned the Khmer Rouge in the 1990's
and in 1997 Pol Pot ordered the killing of Sen Senn (and his family) who was minister for defense in "Democratic Kampuchea" the KR staged a show trial for Pol Pot and put him under house arrest, where he died on the 15th of April 1998.
Today the west barely mentions the genocide
and compared to films, plays, musicals, books about the Nazi Holocoust there is really very little, apart from a few biography's of Pol Pot and some accademic boooks on the Khmer Rouge.
There is however an excellent 1984 film called "the killing fields" which tells the story of three real life journalists who found themselves trapped in Khmer Rouge Cambodia.
in 2004 Sihanouk claiming ill-health resgined as King
and moved to the DPRK and then to China, where he now lives in self-imposed exile.
Hun Sen was again elected prime minister of Cambodia in 2003 where he is now head of a coalition government with a royalist party.
in July of 2009 "Comrade Duch" was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Cambodian-UN war crimes/crimes against humanity court. However he has already served 11 of those 30 years so he will now only have to serve 19 years -- something which rightfully outrages many Cambodian's.
Other top leaders of the KR are awaiting trial's that might begin in 2011.
However Hun Sen has said that persacuting the KR leaders would only lead to a civil-war...
And that is the story of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
the U.S., UK and PRC still remain vauge about their support for such monsters
and compared to Hitler's Holocoust the event is somewhat sidelined it seems,
rarely making it into school history books.
One can only hope that such monsters don't surface again
but then again that's what we hoped for after WWII.
I'm going to end this articale
with a quote from Cambodian Photojournalist Dith Pran who was a surrivor of the 'killing fields' (and coined the name) and who is one of the central characters in the 1984 film of that name:
"Please help spread the word of the Cambodian genocide. I believe it needs to be told, the new generation needs to be educated and we want history not to repeat itself. We don't want to see the holocaust, the genocide, the killing fields keep returning to this planet".
P.S.
It is believed that 1.7 million (21% of the population) Cambodians were killed under the Khmer Rouge regeme.....The Vietnamess conducted a survey after they captured Cambodia in which they came to the conculsuion that 4 million died - the full population of Cambodia at the time was 8 million....However historian's say this figure is unlikely, Dith Pran himself said in a universaty lecture in the US some years later that 3 million were killed. Pol Pot said that 800,000 died however this figure is blatently propaganda, and other Khmer Rouge leaders said 1.4 million died.
Whatever the amount the genocide is clearly a degrading period in the history of humanity...I claim that's it's forgotten simply because, as far as I can see it is not as mainstream as other masscures - despite the fact that more people died in the Cambodian genocide than the Yugoslavian genocide in the 1990's.
Friday, December 31, 2010
2010 from the view point of journalists.
(Thies text is taken from "reporters without borders")
Journalists in 2010 targets and bargaining chips
Published on 30 December 2010. View this article in .Figures in 2010
57 journalists killed (25% fewer than in 2009)
51 journalists kidnapped
535 journalists arrested
1374 physically attacked or threatened
504 media censored
127 journalists fled their country
152 bloggers and netizens arrested
52 physically attacked
62 countries affected by Internet censorship
Fewer killed in war zones
Fifty-seven journalists were killed in connection with their work in 2010, 25% fewer than in 2009, when the total was 76. The number of journalists killed in war zo- nes has fallen in recent years. Significantly, it is becoming more and more difficult to identify those responsible in cases in which journalists were killed by criminal gangs, armed groups, religious organizations or state agents. “Fewer journalists were killed in war zones than in preceding years,” Reporters Without Borders secretary- general Jean-François Julliard said. “Media workers are above all being murdered by criminals and traffickers of various kinds. Organized crime groups and militias are their leading killers worldwide. The challenge now is to rein in this phenomenon. The authorities of the countries concerned have a direct duty to combat the impunity surrounding these murders. If governments do not make every effort to punish the murderers of journalists, they become their accomplices.”
Journalists as bargaining chips
Another distinguishing feature of 2010 was the major increase in kidnappings of journalists. There were 29 cases in 2008, 33 in 2009 and 51 in 2010. Journalists are seen less and less as outside observers. Their neutrality and the nature of their work are no longer respected. “Abductions of journalists are becoming more and more frequent and are taking place in more countries.” Reporters Without Borders said. “For the first time, no continent escaped this evil in 2010. Journalists are turning into bargaining chips. Kidnappers take hostages in order to finance their criminal activities, make governments comply with their demands, and send a message to the public. Abduction provides them with a form of publicity. Here again, governments must do more to identify them and bring them to justice. Otherwise reporters – national or foreign – will no longer venture into certain regions and will abandon the local population to their sad fate.” Journalists were particularly exposed to this kind of risk in Afghanistan and Nigeria in 2010. The case of French TV journalists Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier and their three Afghan assistants, held hostage in Afghanistan since 29 December 2009, is the longest abduction in the history of the French media since the end of the 1980s.
No region of the world spared
Journalists were killed in 25 countries in 2010. This is the first time since Reporters Without Borders began keeping these tallies that journalists have been murdered in so many countries. Almost 30% of the countries (7 in total) were African countries: Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda. But the deadliest continent by far was Asia with 20 cases, and this was due above all to the heavy toll in Pakistan, where 11 journalists were killed in 2010. Of the 67 countries where there have been murders of journalists in the past 10 years, there are eight where they keep recurring: Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, and Somalia. These countries have not evolved; a culture of violence against the press has become deeply rooted there. Pakistan, Iraq and Mexico have been the three most violent countries for journalists during the past decade. The passing years have brought no changes to Pakistan, with journalists continuing to be targeted by Islamists groups or to be the collateral victims of suicide bombings. This total of 11 killed was the highest of the year. Iraq saw a return to earlier levels of violence with a total of seven journalists killed in 2010 as against four in 2009. Most of them were killed after the United States announced that all of its combat troops had been withdrawn in August. Journalists are caught in a trap between the different sectors – including local authorities, those involved in corruption and religious groups that refuse to accept media independence. In Mexico, the extreme violence of the drug traffickers affects the entire population including journalists, who are particularly exposed. This has a major impact on reporting, with journalists reducing their coverage of crime stories to the minimum in order to take as few risks as possible. In Central America, three were killed in Honduras in 2010 in connection with their work. Politically-motivated violence since the June 2008 coup d’état has com pounded the “traditional violence” of organized crime, a major phenomenon in this part of the world. In Thailand, where newspapers are able to enjoy relative independence despite recurring press freedom violations, 2010 was a very tough year. Two foreign journalists, Fabio Polenghi of Italy and Hiroyuki Muramoto of Japan, were killed in clashes between government forces and Red Shirts (supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra) in Bangkok in April and May. The shots that killed them were very probably fired by the members of the army.
Two journalists killed in Europe
Two journalists were murdered in European Union countries – Greece and Latvia. Neither murder has so far been solved. Social and political instability is having an impact on the work of the media in Greece, where Socratis Guiolias, the manager of Radio Thema 98.9, was gunned down with an automatic weapon outside his home in southeast Athens on 19 July. The police suspect a far- left group calling itself Sehta Epanastaton (Revolutionary Sect) that emerged in 2009. In Latvia, a country with a calmer environment for the press, Grigorijs Nemcovs, the publisher and editor of the regional newspaper Million and owner of a local TV station of the same name, was shot twice in the head in the southeastern city of Daugavpils while on his way to a meeting on 16 April.
Even the internet no longer a refuge
Reporters Without Borders is continuing to investigate the June 2010 death of the young netizen Khaled Mohammed Said, who was arrested by two plain-clothes police officers in an Internet café, taken outside and beaten to death in the street. There were reports that his death was prompted by a video posted online that incriminated the police in a drug deal. Autopsy reports attributed his death to a drug overdose, but this was belied by photos of his body. The number of arrests and physical attacks on netizens in 2010 was similar to previous years. Harassment of bloggers and censorship of the Internet have become commonplace. There are no longer any taboos about online filtering. Censorship is taking new forms: more aggres- sive online propaganda and increasingly frequent use of cyber-attacks as way to silence bothersome Internet users. Significantly, online censorship is no longer necessarily the work of repressive regimes. Democracies are now examining and adopting new laws that pose a threat to free speech on the Internet.
Journalists killed
(graph shown on reporters without borders page)
Exile – the last resort
Many journalists flee abroad to escape violence and oppression. A total of 127 journalists from 23 countries did this in 2010. The exodus from Iran continues. For the second year running, it was the biggest source of fugitive journalists – 30 cases registered by Reporters Without Borders in 2010. The Horn of Africa continues to shed journalists. Around 15 fled Eritrea and Somalia in 2010. The year also saw the forced exile of 18 Cuban journa- lists, who had been jailed since March 2003 and who were released on condition that they immediately leave for Spain.
Journalists in 2010 targets and bargaining chips
Published on 30 December 2010. View this article in .Figures in 2010
57 journalists killed (25% fewer than in 2009)
51 journalists kidnapped
535 journalists arrested
1374 physically attacked or threatened
504 media censored
127 journalists fled their country
152 bloggers and netizens arrested
52 physically attacked
62 countries affected by Internet censorship
Fewer killed in war zones
Fifty-seven journalists were killed in connection with their work in 2010, 25% fewer than in 2009, when the total was 76. The number of journalists killed in war zo- nes has fallen in recent years. Significantly, it is becoming more and more difficult to identify those responsible in cases in which journalists were killed by criminal gangs, armed groups, religious organizations or state agents. “Fewer journalists were killed in war zones than in preceding years,” Reporters Without Borders secretary- general Jean-François Julliard said. “Media workers are above all being murdered by criminals and traffickers of various kinds. Organized crime groups and militias are their leading killers worldwide. The challenge now is to rein in this phenomenon. The authorities of the countries concerned have a direct duty to combat the impunity surrounding these murders. If governments do not make every effort to punish the murderers of journalists, they become their accomplices.”
Journalists as bargaining chips
Another distinguishing feature of 2010 was the major increase in kidnappings of journalists. There were 29 cases in 2008, 33 in 2009 and 51 in 2010. Journalists are seen less and less as outside observers. Their neutrality and the nature of their work are no longer respected. “Abductions of journalists are becoming more and more frequent and are taking place in more countries.” Reporters Without Borders said. “For the first time, no continent escaped this evil in 2010. Journalists are turning into bargaining chips. Kidnappers take hostages in order to finance their criminal activities, make governments comply with their demands, and send a message to the public. Abduction provides them with a form of publicity. Here again, governments must do more to identify them and bring them to justice. Otherwise reporters – national or foreign – will no longer venture into certain regions and will abandon the local population to their sad fate.” Journalists were particularly exposed to this kind of risk in Afghanistan and Nigeria in 2010. The case of French TV journalists Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier and their three Afghan assistants, held hostage in Afghanistan since 29 December 2009, is the longest abduction in the history of the French media since the end of the 1980s.
No region of the world spared
Journalists were killed in 25 countries in 2010. This is the first time since Reporters Without Borders began keeping these tallies that journalists have been murdered in so many countries. Almost 30% of the countries (7 in total) were African countries: Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda. But the deadliest continent by far was Asia with 20 cases, and this was due above all to the heavy toll in Pakistan, where 11 journalists were killed in 2010. Of the 67 countries where there have been murders of journalists in the past 10 years, there are eight where they keep recurring: Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, and Somalia. These countries have not evolved; a culture of violence against the press has become deeply rooted there. Pakistan, Iraq and Mexico have been the three most violent countries for journalists during the past decade. The passing years have brought no changes to Pakistan, with journalists continuing to be targeted by Islamists groups or to be the collateral victims of suicide bombings. This total of 11 killed was the highest of the year. Iraq saw a return to earlier levels of violence with a total of seven journalists killed in 2010 as against four in 2009. Most of them were killed after the United States announced that all of its combat troops had been withdrawn in August. Journalists are caught in a trap between the different sectors – including local authorities, those involved in corruption and religious groups that refuse to accept media independence. In Mexico, the extreme violence of the drug traffickers affects the entire population including journalists, who are particularly exposed. This has a major impact on reporting, with journalists reducing their coverage of crime stories to the minimum in order to take as few risks as possible. In Central America, three were killed in Honduras in 2010 in connection with their work. Politically-motivated violence since the June 2008 coup d’état has com pounded the “traditional violence” of organized crime, a major phenomenon in this part of the world. In Thailand, where newspapers are able to enjoy relative independence despite recurring press freedom violations, 2010 was a very tough year. Two foreign journalists, Fabio Polenghi of Italy and Hiroyuki Muramoto of Japan, were killed in clashes between government forces and Red Shirts (supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra) in Bangkok in April and May. The shots that killed them were very probably fired by the members of the army.
Two journalists killed in Europe
Two journalists were murdered in European Union countries – Greece and Latvia. Neither murder has so far been solved. Social and political instability is having an impact on the work of the media in Greece, where Socratis Guiolias, the manager of Radio Thema 98.9, was gunned down with an automatic weapon outside his home in southeast Athens on 19 July. The police suspect a far- left group calling itself Sehta Epanastaton (Revolutionary Sect) that emerged in 2009. In Latvia, a country with a calmer environment for the press, Grigorijs Nemcovs, the publisher and editor of the regional newspaper Million and owner of a local TV station of the same name, was shot twice in the head in the southeastern city of Daugavpils while on his way to a meeting on 16 April.
Even the internet no longer a refuge
Reporters Without Borders is continuing to investigate the June 2010 death of the young netizen Khaled Mohammed Said, who was arrested by two plain-clothes police officers in an Internet café, taken outside and beaten to death in the street. There were reports that his death was prompted by a video posted online that incriminated the police in a drug deal. Autopsy reports attributed his death to a drug overdose, but this was belied by photos of his body. The number of arrests and physical attacks on netizens in 2010 was similar to previous years. Harassment of bloggers and censorship of the Internet have become commonplace. There are no longer any taboos about online filtering. Censorship is taking new forms: more aggres- sive online propaganda and increasingly frequent use of cyber-attacks as way to silence bothersome Internet users. Significantly, online censorship is no longer necessarily the work of repressive regimes. Democracies are now examining and adopting new laws that pose a threat to free speech on the Internet.
Journalists killed
(graph shown on reporters without borders page)
Exile – the last resort
Many journalists flee abroad to escape violence and oppression. A total of 127 journalists from 23 countries did this in 2010. The exodus from Iran continues. For the second year running, it was the biggest source of fugitive journalists – 30 cases registered by Reporters Without Borders in 2010. The Horn of Africa continues to shed journalists. Around 15 fled Eritrea and Somalia in 2010. The year also saw the forced exile of 18 Cuban journa- lists, who had been jailed since March 2003 and who were released on condition that they immediately leave for Spain.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Fintan O'Toole and his Ten 'radical' points for political change in Ireland.
The Irish time's coloumnist Fintan O'Toole on November 26th published a list of "ten radical reforms" needed to jumpstart the Irish economy again.
And to give Ireland back some pride....
But how radical are these "reforms" and would they really help our sick green fields?
O'Toole's so-called reforms include:
1. SHARE THE PAIN
No one paid from the public purse should earn more than €100,000 during the period of the emergency. --Prettey good judgement here however I would have put this somewhere else on the list (another spot) perhaps Mr. O'Toole is limiting himself here by only having ten "radical reforms."
2. PUT THE PARISH PUMP BACK IN THE PARISH
Real local democracy, paid for by local taxes, and using direct democracy at every level, must be established. -- Well Mr. O'Toole we do have county councils but I would have to admmit they are pretty inaffective and redundent, local democracy could work but it shouldn't contradict the decsions made by those who are higher up.
3. END CLIENTILISM
Change the electoral system that turns TDs into constituency fixers. Replace it with a mix of direct election and a list system similar to that used for the Scottish parliament. -- I'm not sure what exact system the Scottish parliament uses so I can't really say a lot about this reform.
4. CUT THE FAT
Reduce the Dail to 100 members. Either transform the Senate within 12 months into a genuine forum for civic society or abolish it. -- This I agree with we need less Dail memebers but I disagree, we shouldn't even bother to reform the senate we should abolish it De Valera got rid of the senate during the 1930's because of the problem's it was causing politically we don't really need one it is anti-productive.
5. MAKE PARLIAMENT WORK.
Stop the use of the guillotine system to pass laws that have not been scrutinised. Give Dail committees the powers to examine proposals for spending before it happens and to hold those who spend public money accountable. Make senior public servants responsible for their decisions and actions. -- Mr. O'Toole's intentions are right here however this seems a bit fantastic to work, on paper you can "make" anything work....But parliament is always gonna be divided over things which is why I'm wondering should we even have one during this time period.
6. BRING WOMEN INTO POLITICS
Cut public subsidies to political parties unless at least 30 per cent of their candidates are female. -- I agree with this point but it is not needed here in these "radical" points, this has always been a problem that we don't have enough female political figures but having them or not having them won't help to save our nation, if this was the 1950's this comment may make a bit more sense and have more susbatnace to it.
7. END IMPUNITY
Conduct an urgent review of company law to ensure that white collar criminals are brought to justice. -- Again like point #6 this is a good suggestion for reform but during economic turmoil how will this help us? Mr. O'Toole should focous more on the subsequent difficuiltes the nation is facing with the IMF/EU takeover and points to reform us in that context, these reforms he is suggesting would have been perfect in the boom.
8. GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS
Ban all significant private donations to political parties. Make parties publish annual accounts. Register and control lobbyists. Protect whistleblowers. - Same argument here again, it's a very vaild and excellent point but I don't see us escaping the IMF with it.
9. RESTORE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
Bring back the original Freedom of Information Act. -- Again this should just happen in general, at this stage I find it interesting that Mr. O'Toole never seemed to mention any of these 'radical' reform's when we were still an independent Republic, why now?
10. NO MORE CRONYISM
Make all appointments to State and public bodies open to public competition and Dail scrutiny. Ban any individual from being a director of more than three companies or public bodies. -- This I admit could have saved us a bit if we had implimentaed it during the boom and it is right but it not going to stop (like the majoirity of O'Toole's points) the IMF from taking us over.
in conclusion; these points are useful but the large bulk of them should be included in a working system in general, at the minute it is our system that is damaged and Mr. O'Toole doesn't seem to grasp this he suggests a few vauge reforms for the Dail and that's about it, we should take the good points out of his suggestions BUT come up with our own points and plan for action.
When I have studied the situation a bit more, I will try and put some of my own radical suggestons down on paper.
I respect Mr. O'Tooles views but I question how they would save our national identity.
And to give Ireland back some pride....
But how radical are these "reforms" and would they really help our sick green fields?
O'Toole's so-called reforms include:
1. SHARE THE PAIN
No one paid from the public purse should earn more than €100,000 during the period of the emergency. --Prettey good judgement here however I would have put this somewhere else on the list (another spot) perhaps Mr. O'Toole is limiting himself here by only having ten "radical reforms."
2. PUT THE PARISH PUMP BACK IN THE PARISH
Real local democracy, paid for by local taxes, and using direct democracy at every level, must be established. -- Well Mr. O'Toole we do have county councils but I would have to admmit they are pretty inaffective and redundent, local democracy could work but it shouldn't contradict the decsions made by those who are higher up.
3. END CLIENTILISM
Change the electoral system that turns TDs into constituency fixers. Replace it with a mix of direct election and a list system similar to that used for the Scottish parliament. -- I'm not sure what exact system the Scottish parliament uses so I can't really say a lot about this reform.
4. CUT THE FAT
Reduce the Dail to 100 members. Either transform the Senate within 12 months into a genuine forum for civic society or abolish it. -- This I agree with we need less Dail memebers but I disagree, we shouldn't even bother to reform the senate we should abolish it De Valera got rid of the senate during the 1930's because of the problem's it was causing politically we don't really need one it is anti-productive.
5. MAKE PARLIAMENT WORK.
Stop the use of the guillotine system to pass laws that have not been scrutinised. Give Dail committees the powers to examine proposals for spending before it happens and to hold those who spend public money accountable. Make senior public servants responsible for their decisions and actions. -- Mr. O'Toole's intentions are right here however this seems a bit fantastic to work, on paper you can "make" anything work....But parliament is always gonna be divided over things which is why I'm wondering should we even have one during this time period.
6. BRING WOMEN INTO POLITICS
Cut public subsidies to political parties unless at least 30 per cent of their candidates are female. -- I agree with this point but it is not needed here in these "radical" points, this has always been a problem that we don't have enough female political figures but having them or not having them won't help to save our nation, if this was the 1950's this comment may make a bit more sense and have more susbatnace to it.
7. END IMPUNITY
Conduct an urgent review of company law to ensure that white collar criminals are brought to justice. -- Again like point #6 this is a good suggestion for reform but during economic turmoil how will this help us? Mr. O'Toole should focous more on the subsequent difficuiltes the nation is facing with the IMF/EU takeover and points to reform us in that context, these reforms he is suggesting would have been perfect in the boom.
8. GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS
Ban all significant private donations to political parties. Make parties publish annual accounts. Register and control lobbyists. Protect whistleblowers. - Same argument here again, it's a very vaild and excellent point but I don't see us escaping the IMF with it.
9. RESTORE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
Bring back the original Freedom of Information Act. -- Again this should just happen in general, at this stage I find it interesting that Mr. O'Toole never seemed to mention any of these 'radical' reform's when we were still an independent Republic, why now?
10. NO MORE CRONYISM
Make all appointments to State and public bodies open to public competition and Dail scrutiny. Ban any individual from being a director of more than three companies or public bodies. -- This I admit could have saved us a bit if we had implimentaed it during the boom and it is right but it not going to stop (like the majoirity of O'Toole's points) the IMF from taking us over.
in conclusion; these points are useful but the large bulk of them should be included in a working system in general, at the minute it is our system that is damaged and Mr. O'Toole doesn't seem to grasp this he suggests a few vauge reforms for the Dail and that's about it, we should take the good points out of his suggestions BUT come up with our own points and plan for action.
When I have studied the situation a bit more, I will try and put some of my own radical suggestons down on paper.
I respect Mr. O'Tooles views but I question how they would save our national identity.
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