During the Cambodian genocide (Khmer: ហាយនភាពខ្មែរ or ការប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ខ្មែរ), between 1.5 million and 3 million Cambodians were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime (led by Pol Pot).[1][2][3] It lasted from 17 April 1975 to 7 January 1979.
| Cambodian genocide | |
|---|---|
| Part of the aftermath of the Cambodian Civil War | |
 Skulls of victims of the Cambodian genocide | |
| Location | Democratic Kampuchea |
| Date | 17 April 1975 – 7 January 1979 (3 years, 8 months and 20 days) |
| Target | Cambodia's previous military and political leadership, business leaders, journalists, students, doctors, lawyers, Buddhists, Chams, Chinese Cambodians, Christians, intellectuals, Thai Cambodians, Vietnamese Cambodians |
Attack type | Genocide, classicide, politicide, ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings, torture, famine, forced labor, human experimentation, forced disappearances, deportation, crimes against humanity |
| Deaths | 1.5 to 2 million |
| Perpetrators | Khmer Rouge |
| Motive | Anti-Buddhism, anti-Cham sentiment, classism, anti-Christianity, anti-intellectualism, anti-Thai sentiment, anti-Vietnamese sentiment, Islamophobia, Khmer ultra-nationalism, Sinophobia, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism |
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge wanted to return Cambodia to "Year Zero," a time when everyone in the country was a rural farmer. Soldiers made millions of people move from Cambodia's cities into forced labor camps in the countryside.[4] Hundreds of thousands died there from starvation, exhaustion, and disease.[4]
The Khmer Rouge murdered more than 1.3 million people in "killing fields," then buried them in mass graves. In secret prisons like S-21, they tortured and executed hundreds of thousands of people.[5][6]
In January 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and removed the Khmer Rouge from power. This ended the Cambodian genocide.
Cambodian Civil War
See the main article: Cambodian Civil War
Before 1953, Cambodia was part of French Indochina. It gained its independence in 1953, and became the Kingdom of Cambodia.[7]
The Communist Party of Kampuchea (commonly called the "Khmer Rouge") wanted to make Cambodia into a communist country.[7] During the 1960s, they built up an army (called the Kampuchea Revolutionary Army) in the country's eastern forests. They had help from the Viet Cong, the Pathet Lao, the North Vietnamese army, and the Chinese Communist Party.[8][9][10][11]
Beginning in 1967, the Khmer Rouge's army fought the Kingdom of Cambodia in the Cambodian Civil War. They wanted to take power from Prince Norodom Sihanouk and make Cambodia into a communist country.[7]
In 1970, Lon Nol led a coup and took control of the country.[7] He was not a communist. He was pro-American and pro-capitalist, and the United States supported his coup.[12]
The Vietnam War
See the main article: The Vietnam War
In 1970, the United States and South Vietnam were fighting the Vietnam War against North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. Lon Nol's new Cambodian government formed alliances with the United States and South Vietnam (two capitalist countries).[13] Meanwhile, the Khmer Rouge (a communist party) had alliances with North Vietnam and the Viet Cong (which were trying to make Vietnam a communist country).[1]
Between 1970 - 1973, the United States military bombed large areas of the Cambodian countryside.[12] Around 150,000 peasants were killed in these bombings.[14] The United States had also supported Lon Nol's rise to power.[1] The Khmer Rouge "used the United States' actions to recruit followers and as an excuse for [their] brutal policies," according to the Holocaust Museum Houston.[12]
The Khmer Rouge regime
Also see: Khmer Rouge
On 17 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh, and took control of the country.[15] They renamed it "Democratic Kampuchea." This ended the Cambodian Civil War and began the Cambodian genocide.[15]
Beliefs
The Khmer Rouge were a "fanatical Communist movement ... which imposed a ruthless agenda of forced labor, thought control, and mass execution" across Cambodia.[16] Most members were teenage peasant boys.[14]
The Khmer Rouge believed the people in Cambodia's cities had been poisoned and corrupted by the ideas of Western capitalism.[17] They wanted to return Cambodia to "Year Zero," a time when everybody in the country was a rural farmer. They thought this would create an agrarian socialist utopia - a perfect, farm-based society without social classes, where people would share property.[17]
They did not believe that money, free markets, or educated professions (like medicine, engineering, law, or teaching) should exist. To the Khmer Rouge, being a poor farm worker was the only acceptable lifestyle. They viewed educated people (including qualified professionals of all kinds) as a threat.[17]
The genocide
Forced migration
The Khmer Rouge began the genocide immediately after capturing Phnom Penh.[15] In just a few days, they forced everyone in the city into the countryside to do forced labor on farms.[18] Eventually, they did the same in every city and town in Cambodia.[19]
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:[15]
By the afternoon of that very first day, soldiers using bullhorns began ordering the city’s two million residents into the countryside. Houses and schools were emptied at gunpoint, with shots fired if people did not move fast enough. Not even hospitals were spared, with patients forced into the streets. Families split apart as children lost sight of parents in the confusion of the exodus. Thousands of people died in the chaos along jammed roads leading from the capital. Friends and relatives were made to leave behind the bodies and trudge on, carrying what few possessions they could.
Cancelling rights
According to the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, the Khmer Rouge "turned the country into a huge detention center".[20]
They cancelled all civil rights and human rights. Nobody had the right to vote, participate in the government, or even criticize the government. People who questioned the government were often tortured or killed.[16] All private property was taken away; the state now owned it all.[20]
People could not choose who to marry, where to work, or even what to wear: everybody had to wear peasant work clothes.[21] A person could only gather and talk with one other person at a time.[20] People were not allowed to have cars, there was no public transportation, and there were strict rules about leisure activities.[20]
In cities across the country, the Khmer Rouge closed banks, shops, offices, pagodas, mosques, churches, factories, hospitals, schools, and universities.[16][21] They made all of these things illegal:[14][17][20][22]
- Money
- Free markets
- Religion
- Music
- Radios
- Education
- Traditional Khmer culture
- Non-revolutionary entertainment
- Gathering and talking with more than one other person at a time
- Newspapers, mail, television, and clothing styles from other countries
Forced collectivization
Also see: Collectivization
Imitating Maoist China, the Khmer Rouge immediately collectivized Cambodia. They cancelled personal property rights and forced everybody to work on farms.[22]
Pol Pot wanted to double the amount of rice Cambodia was growing immediately, using the new collectivized farms.[21] Soldiers forced millions of people to march into the countryside and do slave labor from dawn to dusk (like digging canals, building dams, and growing crops).[16] They were given little food or training, and rarely had proper tools. Many people died from exhaustion or starvation.[22]
"Re-education"
According to the Holocaust Museum Houston:[12]
In an effort to create a society without competition, in which people worked for the common good, the Khmer Rouge placed people in collective living arrangements — or communes — and enacted “re-education” programs to encourage the commune lifestyle. People were divided into categories that reflected the trust that the Khmer Rouge had for them; the most trustworthy were called “old citizens.” The pro-West and [people who lived in cities] began as “new citizens” and could move up to “deportees,” then “candidates” and finally “full rights citizens”; however, most citizens never moved up.
Torture and murder
Soon after they took power, the Khmer Rouge murdered thousands of politicians, soldiers, and civilians who had worked for Lon Nol's government.[20]
The Khmer Rouge imprisoned, tortured, and murdered tens of thousands of Cambodians who refused to be "re-educated" or questioned the regime.[12] They killed large numbers of professionals (like doctors, lawyers, and teachers).[23] According to Encyclopedia Britannica, they also killed "anyone who could remotely be described as 'intellectual,' which included anyone wearing [eyeglasses] or who could speak a foreign language."[23]
At a single prison in Phnom Penh (called Security Prison 21), they executed at least 15,000 people.[21] The victims included many loyal Khmer Rouge members who who Pol Pot suspected of treason.
Targeting children
The Khmer Rouge deliberately broke families apart. They did not want Cambodians to be loyal to anyone or anything except the state. Starting at age 8, children were taken from their parents and put in labor camps.[24] There, they were taught that the state was now their parent.[17]
According to the Holocaust Day Memorial Trust:[17]
For the Khmer Rouge, children were central to the revolution as they believed they could be easily moulded, conditioned and indoctrinated. They could be taught to obey orders, become soldiers and kill enemies. Children were taught to believe that anyone not conforming to the Khmer laws were corrupt enemies.
Persecution
The Khmer Rouge made everybody in Cambodia follow its policies. However, they persecuted some specific groups. These included educated people (like doctors and lawyers); Christians; Buddhists; Muslims; Chinese Cambodians; Thai Cambodians; and Vietnamese Cambodians.[23]
Between 70% and 80% of all Muslims in Cambodia were killed during the genocide.[23]
Famine & shortages
The Khmer Rouge's policies led to a terrible famine. Between 500,000 to 1.5 million Cambodians died in this famine, according to some estimates.[22]
There were also shortages of medicine. Meanwhile, the country's doctors had been killed or sent to the countryside. Many people died from easily curable diseases.[22]
End
In January 1979, communist Vietnam invaded Cambodia. They wanted to remove Pol Pot from power because his army had been crossing the Cambodian-Vietnamese border and massacring people.[25] They removed the Khmer Rouge from power and created a pro-Vietnamese government.[25]
Hundreds of thousands of survivors fled to refugee camps in Thailand.[23] Many later immigrated to the United States.
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Trials
In 2006, the United Nations and the Cambodian government established a special court called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). This court has tried some former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity.[12]
Kaing Guek Eav (also called Comrade Duch) was the first to be tried before the ECCC. Eav was the head of Security Prison 21 during the genocide. The court found him guilty of crimes against humanity and breaking the Geneva Conventions of 1949.[26] He was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment.[27]
In 2011, the ECCC convicted two top Khmer Rouge officials, Noun Chea and Khieu Samphan, for crimes against humanity, genocide, and breaking the Geneva Conventions.[27]
Related pages
Other websites
Media related to Cambodian genocide at Wikimedia Commons- Nuon Chea's Guilty Convictions Stand thus making Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge Guilty of War Crimes and Genocide!
References
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