The Village of Kompong Ko

Our first diocesan project in Cambodia was to build a learning centre at Ta Om, near Siem Reap in the northern part of our twin diocese of Battambang. Our next three projects were all focused further south on a village near Kompong Thom, the village of Kompong Ko. For the community there, we are to build a middle school, train two nurses and restore their kindergarten. So why is this village so special? Kompong Ko is about eight miles from Kompong Thom, on the banks of the Stun Sen river. In 1916 there was nothing there except an area cleared for landing oxen by boat. It was a 'forest' of spiny bamboo, the domain of wild buffalo, elephants, snakes and turtles. In the dry season, it was a wilderness. In the rainy season, it all but disappeared. Father Pierre Guesdon managed to acquire some land there, and established a small community of five Catholic Cambodian families. Gradually they were joined by others, especially relatives of the original five families. Fr Pierre was in charge of many parishes, and was often absent from Kompong Ko (much like East Anglia in the future, perhaps). He sent for a Christian family from Phnom Penh, the capital, to live in the village. Villagers came each evening to listen to them speaking about Jesus. A small school was opened to teach the Khmer (Cambodian) alphabet, as well as prayers and religious songs. Then the children went home and taught their parents. After several years the villagers asked to become Catholics. In 1934, Fr Pierre and another priest baptised 150 adults, then the teenagers, then the children. This community became the most important of all native Cambodian parishes in the country. There have never been many Catholics in Cambodia. It is an overwhelmingly Buddhist country. At the moment, there are only about 35,000 Catholics in Cambodia, but 30,000 of those are Vietnamese. Only about 5,000 are native Khmer Catholics. Kompong Ko was a wholly Khmer village, but whenever Vietnamese people in Cambodia have been badly treated, Catholics have suffered as well, simply because it has been presumed all Catholics must be Vietnamese. In the early 1970s, the American-backed military government of Lon Nol tried to expel all Vietnamese from the country. Many were killed. At the same time, the Maoist Cambodian communists, the Khmer Rouge (or 'Red Cambodians') were increasingly taking over the country. Support for the communists was increased by U.S. carpet-bombing of the east of the country, killing at very least 150,000 Cambodians. In 1972, the new concrete Catholic Church in Kompong Ko was destroyed by U.S. bombing. During this time of savage civil war, Kompong Ko was at the heart of the suffering. By 1970, despite tremendous difficulties, the village had become a large Catholic community of 900 people. In 1970 the parish priest, Fr Robert Venet, was forced to leave. In July 1972, nearly 2,000 Khmer Rouge soldiers besieged the village, isolating it from the river. Finally reduced to drinking their own urine, they were forced to surrender. The village was set on fire, and the villagers were led away to dig ditches and build canals. Lay Catholic leaders were executed. Choeung Chum, a catechist, was forced to dig his own trench before being clubbed to death. Joseph Man Sarou, another catechist, was suspended by his feet from a tree while Khmer Rouge women soldiers beat him to death with canes. On 17th April 1975 the victorious Khmer Rouge entered the capital Phnom Penh, and three years of hell began until the Vietnamese army invaded on Christmas Day 1978, liberating the country from the Khmer Rouge. Once the Vietnamese had invaded, people were allowed to return to their villages. The Catholics of Kompong Ko tried to find their old village. Of the original 900, there were now only 400, including 40 widows. Public worship was still forbidden, so Catholics met together in their houses. They were forbidden to wear Catholic symbols, or have them up in their houses. One widow kept the faith alive, and baptised the children. In 1989 the Vietnamese left, although the Khmer Rouge were still very active in parts of the country, including the area near Kompong Ko. In 1990, Christians were given permission to meet together and worship openly. All Cambodian priests had been killed. Foreign priests were allowed to return in 1992. Kompong Ko now has a wooden church, with Mass every Sunday. It is no longer an all- Catholic community, and the Catholics seek to serve all the local people who are still very poor. Our three new projects - the middle school, the kindergarten and the two nurses - will serve the whole village community at Kompong Ko. We can show them real friendship by supporting these projects, but we have much to learn as Catholics in East Anglia from the example and witness of the Catholics of Kompong Ko.