The Years of Zero, Coming of age under the Khmer Rouge
Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 12:52 pm
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/lo ... e_cambodia
Sounds like an interesting read. I'm still amazed how during so much starvation and death there aren't many (if any?) reports of people turning to cannibalism.The Angkar, or the "organization" as the Khmer Communist Party called itself, was merciless. The communists running the labor camp wanted children to work extra hours when there was moonlight. They would tie up children and beat them to death if they complained. So, then-9-year-old Ty would drag his exhausted body back to the fields for more work.
Then, for the first time in the day, Ty would break his silence — to the stars.
"Even with those children who were sleeping next to me and eating with me, I couldn't communicate," Ty said of the fearful atmosphere at the camp. "The stars were the only things I could tell what happened," Ty said. "I pretended (the bright star) was my mother and she was watching and guiding me."
He would vow to the stars: He would survive — and, one day, would tell the world what he went through in the killing fields where children's corpses floated in the canals.
Nearly four decades later, Ty kept his promise by publishing a book: "The Years of Zero, Coming of age under the Khmer Rouge."