A specially equipped bus is driving through Cambodia to educate young students about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime, 50 years after its rise to power. Through survivor testimonies and interactive displays, this initiative ensures that the painful history of the Khmer Rouge is passed on to a predominantly young nation.
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00:00This bus, currently parked at a rural school in Cambodia's Kampong Thong province,
00:06is educating students about the atrocities committed during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.
00:13Team members put up posters, hand out learning kits and walk students through the Khmer Rouge timeline.
00:20The mobile museum is run by the ECCC, a hybrid court,
00:24set up in 2006 by Cambodia and the U.N. to put top Khmer Rouge leaders on trial.
00:41Inside the bus, audio-visual displays and photos capture key moments of the Khmer Rouge era.
00:48Chinsok Raksha flips through a graphic novel, especially made for the outreach program.
00:59Chinsok Raksha flips through a graphic novel especially made for the outreach program.
01:10Only three senior leaders have been convicted so far today,
01:13Today, the court's focus has shifted to education and efforts to keep Cambodia's history alive.
01:43But they did a great job, honestly, for me, as a Cambodian man.
01:48Nearly two-thirds of Cambodians are under 30, born long after the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, which claim nearly 2 million lives.
01:5550 years on, mobile initiatives like this bus, travelling from school to school, are ensuring that those with little to no knowledge of the dark past learn about the brutal history that shaped their nation.
02:07Set up last year, the bus is due to travel across all 25 provinces, combating misinformation about the Khmer Rouge regime and about their rule over Cambodia, which they named Democratic Kampushia.
02:37In this case, the
03:07We have a lot of people who are living in the country.
03:12We have a lot of people who are living in the country,
03:16and we have a lot of people who are living in the country.
03:27Survivors like 72-year-old Leng Nan are invited to share their stories.
03:32She was forcibly married under the regime.
03:35Later, her husband and in-laws were killed by the Khmer Rouge,
03:39and her infant child died of disease.
03:42Cambodia is a largely Buddhist country,
03:45and the past is often left unspoken.
03:48But she is speaking out.
03:50She is being raised by her husband and wife,
04:05and she served as an exile for her.
04:08The Khmer Rouge genocide was one of the deadliest of the 20th century.
04:28Led by Paul Pott, the regime ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.
04:34In a ruthless bid to build an agrarian utopia, they wiped out nearly a quarter of the population
04:41through executions, forced labor, starvation and disease.
04:4875-year-old survivor Kiyo Sukhara Terai was among the 17 April people,
04:54city dwellers forced out at gunpoint when the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh.
04:59And the
05:27This is a cure for the year.
05:29When I was the cure for two years,
05:36it was cure for three years.
05:40The cure for its cure.
05:42The cure for three years.
05:44First, the cure for one of the cases.
05:49It was cure for another cure.
05:52It's cure for a cure for the cure.
05:55Kiyo has never remarried and now participates in mental health programs with fellow survivors.
06:09Losing family has shaped her entire life.
06:13I learned of my own family.
06:20They learned how to live with the family.
06:26They learned how to live with the family.
06:31I learned how to live with the family.
06:35As Cambodia marks 50 years since the Khmer Rouge's rise, a commitment to remembrance
06:53can ensure history informs the future.