DEATH ANNIVERSARY

Ba Chúc, Vietnam, 2013 - Leica M7, Summilux 35, Kodak Tri-X Ba Chúc killings started on 18 April 1978 and lasted nearly two weeks. Red Khmer forces slaughtered more than 3,100 people. Rarely talked about in Vietnam or Cambodia, the Ba Chúc massacre was committed against the Vietnamese and ethnic Khmer living in the same area. Only two survived the massacre which was one of the events or excuses that prompted the Vietnamese full-scale invasion of Cambodia on 25 December 1978. That event marked a turning point in the first and only extended war between two communist regimes. At this symbolic small bone temple I by chance came across a family celebrating their painful death anniversary.