"The Khmer Rouge lied."

  Excerpt from First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

  "The Khmer Rouge lied.  They have won the war, and we cannot go back.  You must stop thinking we can go back.  You have to forget Phnom Penh." Pa has never spoken so bluntly to me before, and slowly the reality of what he says sinks in.  My body trembles with fear and disbelief.  I am never going home...." 

  "As Pa continues to talk, I slide out of his arms and into Keav's.  Pa tries to make my brothers understand the history of politics in Cambodia.  Led by Prince Sihanouk, Cambodia, then a French colony, became an independent nation in 1953.  Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Cambodia prospered and was self-sufficient.  However, many people were not happy with Prince Sihanouk's government.  Many regarded the Sihanouk government as corrupt and self-serving, where the poor got poorer and the rich became richer.  Various nationalistic factions sprang up to demand reforms.  One of the groups, a secret Communist faction--the Khmer Rouge--launched an armed struggle against the Cambodian government.

  "The war in Vietnam spread to Cambodia when the United States bombed Cambodia's borders to try to destroy the North Vietnamese bases.  The bombings destroyed many villages and killed many people, allowing the Khmer Rouge to gain support from the peasants and farmers.  In 1970, Prince Sihanouk was overthrown by his top general, Lon Nol.  The United States-backed Lon Nol government was corrupt and weak and was easily defeated by the Khmer Rouge. 

  "Pa says many more things to my brothers, but I don't care much about politics.  All I know is that I am supposed to act dumb and never speak of our lives in the city.  I can never tell another soul that I miss home, that I want to go back to the way things were.  I rest my head on Keav's shoulder and close my eyes while gritting my teeth.  She softly strokes my hair and caresses my cheeks.

  "'Don't worry, your big sister will look after you," she whispers quietly into my hair.  Next to her, Ma sits on the mat, holding Geak, who sleeps quietly in her arms.  Chou is next to her, focusing on her red-and-white kroma, intently folding and refolding it."