Dith Pran, a Cambodian who was portrayed in the award-winning movie "The Killing Fields," said education is the only way to stop such violent events from occurring again. The movie was played for the audience after the speech.
"Our goal is to teach more people so we can save more lives," Pran said.
When Cambodia gained its independence from France in 1953, it established a democratic form of government. The Khmer Rouge, or Red Cambodia, was a small group of Communist students at the time who could not gain recognition for their ideas within Cambodia. "Without war, there was no way the Khmer Rouge could grow," Pran said. "Peacefully, there was no way to change Cambodia because Cambodia was full of happiness."
The nation attempted to remain neutral during the Vietnam War but could not because the North Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and gained the support of the Khmer Rouge, Pran said.
The war ended in 1975 with the Khmer Rouge assuming power. The people paraded through the streets because they thought the Khmer Rouge, consisting of Cambodian people, would bring stability. "We refused to believe that real Cambodians would kill real Cambodians," Pran said.
Upon taking over the country, the Khmer Rouge evacuated the country's cities and sent everyone to the "killing fields" to establish their form of Communism, Pran said. "They were very extreme," he said. "They abolished everything -- culture, religion, schools."
The people in the camps were forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day while eating only a small soup ration. In addition, anyone who was considered a threat to the government was executed. "My brother was killed when he was only 15 years old because he was a student," Pran said, adding that he lost more than 50 relatives.
In 1979 the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and overturned the Khmer Rouge. He estimates that 2 to 3 million Cambodians were killed between 1975 and 1979.
Pran said he was astonished at the world's ability to ignore genocide throughout history. "It has nothing to do with race; it has to do with human beings," he said. "If we ignore (the murderers), we allow them to flourish."
