PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen has recalled the values of peace and urged the people to participate in protecting peace from being lost because it has provided opportunities to develop society, family and community, and has allowed the nation to move forward. The Prime Minister raised this reminder on the occasion of the National Day of Remembrance on Friday, 20 May, a day for every Cambodian to remember what happened during the Democratic Kampuchea regime, also known as the genocidal regime of Pol Pot (17 April 1975 - 6 January 1979).

The Prime Minister wrote on his social media page on Friday morning that due to the Khmer Rouge regime, the vast majority of Cambodians know and understand the bitter tragedy that the Cambodian people went through for nearly three decades in the flames of war and tears, slaughter, destruction, forced evictions, and forced labor. He added that many Cambodians also died without medicine or food, without freedom or democracy, and without the right to live, which is a fundamental human right.

Prime Minister Hun Sen stated, "This day is a memorial to the souls of the more than 3 million victims who died during the genocidal regime of Pol Pot."

He further urged the people to participate in maintaining peace so that this regime does not ever return, and so that opportunities can continue to be provided for the development of society, family, community, and the growth of the nation.

The Khmer Rouge regime of the Democratic Kampuchea state designated 20 May 1973 as the date of its cooperation and continued the war until it came to power in Phnom Penh in 1975.

Remembrance Day, 20 May, is called the Day of Anger. This day was designated by the National Assembly of the People's Republic of Cambodia in 1983 as a day of rage against the Khmer Rouge regime, which persecuted and massacred millions of people in Cambodia.