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The case has gone to the courts but in the meantime the development company who ‘bought’ the land has been trying to start developing it by pushing the community off. Community members have been beaten and thrown in prison for resisting. Although obviously illegal, the developers have land title until the courts prove otherwise and in the meantime they are happy to use the weight of the law in their favour and the courts are in no hurry to act.

Around the same time as visiting Dey Krahom we had a good friend visit from NZ for a week. During that time he experienced life in Cambodia and some typical close encounters with crime, corruption and gastroenteritis. He also performed the usual tourist duty of visiting Tuol Sleng, the local genocide museum and made an interesting observation. He pointed out the lack of integrity in ‘highlighting’ the atrocities of the past (the Khmer Rouge genocide 1975-1979) while continuing with human rights atrocities in the present. It seems that as long as the government allows injustices, such as illegal land evictions, to continue, then Tuol Sleng is not a reminder – it is something unreal, something from another life, with no purpose but to entertain.  

A recent report on human rights stated that the governing party in Cambodia last year clamped down on 32 peaceful demonstrations and went on to warn that after elections this year freedoms may be further curtailed. Meanwhile in Cambodian schools the Khmer Rouge genocide, during which nearly 2 million people were murdered, gets barely a mention in Cambodia schools. This very significant time of Cambodian history only gets about ten lines in the school history books!

The message of the Good News of Jesus Christ is that as we acknowledge our mistakes and failures we can find forgiveness and a hope for a new way of living. Call it confession of sins, call it a truth and reconciliation commission, the fact remains that redemption, freedom, and hope for a better world in the future can only be found as we acknowledge our mistakes, admit to our own poverty and brokenness, and recognize the new hope and new way of living opened up to us by Jesus and affirmed by his resurrection.

This truth applies to Cambodia facing its recent history just as it applies to all people and all countries of the world. Without facing our sins, our past failures and mistakes, there can be no redemption. The old patterns will continue. Superpowers will continue to act like angry elephants attempting to trample a biting dog and the dog will continue to bite using whatever means it can. Violence, economic manipulation, bribery and corruption will continue as those with power abuse it using the rhetoric of democracy, freedom and national security as a thin veneer over single-minded self-interest. Small isolated poor communities will continue to be discarded like refuse as wealthy developers and corrupt governments seek more money, more power.

There is hope. The old patterns have been shown to fail. In the resurrection of Jesus we see his new way of living succeeds over the old patterns of violence and power-mongering. Signs of that new hope surround us. Dey Krahom is seeking a new way. Before leaving the community one of the community leaders passionately told us of the hope that they have, hope that is not based on fighting violently against the oppressors, as that is sure to fail. Likewise their hope is not based on simply packing up and leaving, or individually accepting whatever bribes come their way, as that only encourages the old patterns to continue. Their hope is found in a third way, in which people, both westerners and Cambodian, both wealthy and poor, band together, and use whatever gifts and abilities they have to creatively and non-violently resist the evil and stand up for what is good. The developer’s strategy is to isolate the community, to make it invisible and voiceless. In response, westerners moved in and stayed in the community to act as witnesses and an international voice. And the developers backed off.

Dey Krahom exists today because the community, with the help of Christian and human rights organizations, is recognizing the failures and mistakes of the past old patterns, and is learning to hope in a new way of life.