The Killing Fields: Can there be redemption for a genocidal killer?

Today marks 50 years since the beginning of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror, during which 1.3 million people were killed and buried in the Cambodian Killing Fields. In looking at the history, Julia Cameron unearths a shocking story of God’s lavish grace

Today marks a sombre anniversary. It’s 50 years since the fall of Cambodia to the brutal Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army, so-called ‘Year Zero’. 

Cambodia is enchanting in its culture and its contrasts. Angkor Wat temple alone was visited by 2.6 million tourists last year. But just below the surface is hidden a recent history beyond our imagining, for its peaceful pastures became ‘killing fields’ when Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army turned the whole country into a nationwide ‘death camp’ in one of the most brutal regimes in modern history.

When Pol Pot captured Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, its entire population was driven into the countryside — patients in hospital were pulled from their beds and pushed into the streets, even those with drips attached to their arms. There was no mercy. 

The previous summer…