A: Hey buddy, did you know it's been 50 years since the Cambodia genocide started? Crazy right!

B: Nope, didn't hear about that! What happened?

A: Well, on May 20th every year, they remember the start of the Khmer Rouge atrocity. People gathered at a killing field in Phnom Penh for a memorial service.

B: Wow, that's heavy. Who were the Khmer Rouge led by?

A: Pol Pot and his crew! They enforced this extreme communism thing and forced labor, killing intellectuals which resulted in the death of over 1.7 million people. That's more than a fifth of Cambodia's population back then.

B: Whoa... that's terrible. What did they say about it now?

A: The current Senate President, Hun Sen, warned on social media that peace for Cambodia is fragile and we should be aware of the risk of returning to its dark past.

B: I can imagine. What about survivors? What did they say?

A: A 70-year-old survivor who attended the event said she wants younger generations to learn from this tragedy, not repeat it, and defend peace instead.

B: That's a powerful message! So, what's next for Cambodia?

A: Now they're figuring out how to pass on lessons of the genocide to future generations since more than 70% of the population was born after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime.
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People in Cambodia have marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge regime that claimed the lives of at least 1.7 million people.



May 20th is designated Cambodia's "National Day of Remembrance" to mark the beginning of the atrocity in 1975.



About 2,000 people took part in a memorial service at the site of one of the so-called "Killing Fields" in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Students from an art university staged a re-enactment of the brutality at the time.



The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, enforced an extreme form of communism until 1979. Forced labor and the systematic killing of intellectuals resulted in the death of more than a fifth of Cambodia's population.



Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen said in a message on social media that peace is fragile for Cambodia and that people should be aware of the risk of a return to its dark past.



A 70-year-old genocide survivor who took part in Tuesday's event said she wants the younger generations to take action to prevent such a thing happening again. She added, "Do not destroy peace. They must defend peace instead."



Cambodia is now facing the challenge of how to pass on the lessons of the genocide to future generations. More than 70 percent of the population was born after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime.