Textbook sheds light on Khmer Rouge era教科書闡明赤柬時代史實

◎俞智敏

Textbook sheds light on Khmer Rouge era

教科書闡明赤柬時代史實

Three decades have passed since the fall of the Khmer Rouge government. Yet only now are Cambodian schoolchildren finally starting to learn about what happened during the Pol Pot era.

赤柬政府垮台已長達30年，但直到現在柬埔寨學童才開始學習波布時代的歷史。

As many as two million people died in the late 1970s from forced labour, malnutrition and the summary execution of so-called "enemies of the revolution".

1970年代晚期，有高達兩百萬人因為強制勞動、營養不良，以及對所謂「革命敵人」的即時處決而喪命。

But official information has been thin on the ground. Until now the official school text contained a mere five lines on the Pol Pot era.

但對此議題的官方資訊卻非常稀少。直到目前為止，官方教科書裡對波布時代的歷史只用5行字草草帶過。

Khamboly Dy has expanded that paragraph to an entire textbook for the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, an organisation which gathers evidence about Khmer Rouge atrocities.

作者Khamboly Dy則把那一段話擴大成替柬埔寨史料中心所寫作的一整本教科書，該組織專門蒐集有關赤柬政權暴行的證據。

"After the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia was so damaged and fragile - like broken glass," he says. "The young generation has the responsibility to repair this broken glass. They need to understand what happened in their country before they can move forward to build up democracy, peace and reconciliation.

「在赤柬政權垮台後，柬埔寨元氣大傷、脆弱不堪，好像一塊破掉的玻璃，」他說。「年輕世代有責任修補這塊破玻璃。他們必須先瞭解國家到底曾經發生過什麼事，然後才能往前邁進，建立民主制度、和平與和解。」

新聞辭典

cast/shed/throw light on sth：對某事提出解釋或說明、啟發，如Let’s see if she can throw any light on this question.（看看她能否對這個問題提出任何解釋。）

summary：形容詞，指即時的、草率的、即決的，如summary arrest（當場逮捕），summary dismissal（即決解僱），summary execution尤指未經法庭合法程序審理、立即處決人犯。

be thin on the ground：片語（常見於英國與澳洲英語），指某事或某人數量不多、少見，如Bears are getting rather thin on the ground in European forests.（歐洲森林裡的熊數量愈來愈少了。）