Cambodian Genocide Research Paper

Ever since the actions in Cambodia occurred, it has been debated whether it was an actual genocide. The general definition of genocide is the purposeful and methodical execution of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia demonstrated that a government can be guilty of genocide against its own nation. The radical communist party led by Pol Pot took over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. After 1979, the Khmer Rouge left a traumatized Cambodian culture that continues to undergo the repercussions of the genocide. People over the age of forty in Cambodia have stories to tell of fear, cruelty, hunger and the loss of family members. However, the Cambodian government is not making an effort to recognize the negative occurrences that have posed itself in the history of their culture.

The investigation assesses “Was the main reason for the genocide in Cambodia political or economic?”. In order to classify the main cause of the genocide as political or economic, the investigation will look at the events leading up to or causes of the Cambodian genocide. The forming of a Communist peasant farming society, the U.S. involvement due to the military coup, and the joining of Prince Sihanouk with Pol Pot. Speeches and survivor accounts of the Cambodian genocide are used to decided upon the classification for the main cause of the genocide. Two sources that are used, “Cambodian Genocide: World Without Genocide”and “Origins-Anatomy of a Genocide: Cambodia”are assessed for their origins, purposes, values, and limitations.

Later that same year, Pot and the Khmer Rouge took control over Cambodia. Pot wasted no time in starting his mission to reconstruct Cambodia. He thought that all the educated people needed to be killed (Melicharova). Also he thought that all noncommunist aspects of Cambodia needed to be wiped out. All rights you had were now gone. Religion was banned and if you were any kind of leader among the Buddhist monks, you were killed instantly (Melicharova). All kids were taken away and sent to work in the fields (Melicharova). If anyone was currently working and had a job, they were immediately killed along with their family members. It got so bad that you could be killed for just laughing, crying, and knowing another language. The Khmer Rouge motto was “To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss” (Melicharova). If you were lucky enough to escape death, you were put into the fields working usually from 4am to 10pm unpaid (“Pol”). From lack of food and sleep, people often became very ill which sadly led to death.

The Cambodian genocide occurred in the late twentieth century in Cambodia; the Holocaust took place in the beginning of the twentieth century in Germany and Eastern Europe. In the Cambodian Genocide and the Holocaust, individuals experienced a lack of allies because people were more concerned about self-preservation than they were about the other party. Bystanders, such as the United States and characters in Night, did not help because they valued their own safety over the safety of others. Allies were only motivated to help if they were sure it would disadvantage them.

The Khmer Rouge forces took over Cambodia, and evacuated the nation's cities. They emptied schools, hospitals, factories and abolished all forms of money and wages. Religion, popular culture, and all forms of self expression were forbidden. They were forced into the countryside to do forced labor, and got less than 90 grams of rice a day. Where most people died from fatigue, disease, execution, and starvation. Now people of Cambodia are exchanging this terrible genocide for healing. Trying to find peace and a resolution for all those who have lost loved ones, or encountered this terrible genocide

Cambodia, my small country bordering Thailand, has recently descended into a grisly crisis of outright genocide of innocent citizens, my innocent neighbors. This genocide is very different from any other genocide because it isn't driven by racial or religious reasons, but by poisonous ideology, the ideology of my own neighbors. As of today a little less than a million Cambodians have died either from starvation, torture, disease, execution, and even exhaustion from hard labor carried out by their own families, by my own neighbors.

During times of trouble it is the structure of families which bring stability and fuel resilience. Families often support each other to survive a trauma because they are support systems. The Cambodian genocide led by the Khmer Rouge regime attempted to tear apart families and exploit their special bond. The Khmer Rouge soldiers took towns captive or burned them, and recruited youths to join their cause (Pran IX). From 1975 to 1979, all Cambodians were forced to live in labor camps and were forced to work fourteen to eighteen hours a day with only a single bowl of rice to eat. Family members were separated from one another purposefully to lower morale. During this period an estimated one-third of Cambodian’s population died due to malnutrition, illness, and execution (Pran X). Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors compiled by Dith Pran is important because it confirms the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime, explains how the Khmer Rouge gained power, and how the Khmer Rouge attempted to indoctrinate young children against their parents.

The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up

From the time humans began to exist in this world, hatred seemed to be a superior attribute that one comes accustomed to. This inevitable emotion has the ability to provoke people to engage in acts without thinking; but it is the acts that are premeditated that should be be classified as evil and brutal. This appalling endeavor is known as genocide, the deliberate destruction of a particular national, racial or religious group. Between the years of 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge party leader, Pol Pot seized power of Cambodia and forced civilians of urban regions into rural lands for labor in order to build his own agrarian utopia. Over the course of these four years, the Cambodians and other minor ethnic groups suffered through labor camps, starvation, and torture which all led up to their demise. As a result of these mass killings, the country 's population depleted by over 20 percent in just a few years. The country went through hardship during and even before the genocide began including wars, torment, and considerable numbers of deaths.

The Cambodian Genocide of 1975 was a horrific event that will never be forgotten or forgiven in the Cambodia society. However, this event could have been prevented, had less killings, and the victims still can receive justice. After analyzing articles covering this topic, we can see the 8 stages of genocide, how other countries contributed, and the process of the current conviction of former Khmer Rouge members. This genocide showed many signs in the Eight Stages of Genocide including, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial.

The Khmer Rouge wanted to start over and isolate the country from western ideas and to create a classless society for all who resided within. They aimed to reteach and reform the minds and lifestyles of Cambodian people. They would separate children from their family’s and sometimes separate men and women into different camps. To be separated from parents at a young age plays a huge role in the psychological development of a child. Children are vulnerable and the Khmer Rouge took advantage of them.

Cambodia is a small country of Southeast Asia, less than half the size of the state of California (“World Without Genocide: Cambodian Genocide”). The Cambodian government in the mid 1970’s was unstable as Lon Nol, the Cambodian prime minister, and his forces were being stretched dealing with conflicts of Vietnamese communists, and a rising group of Cambodian communists called the Khmer Rouge Party. (Peace Pledge Union) As the government grew weaker and began to loose control, The Khmer Rouge Party overthrew the country. They began killing for their cause in 1975. The Khmer Rouge Party, under the rule of a man called Pol Pot, enforced a new way of life following values and rules similar to Maoist-Communism (“World Without Genocide: Cambodian Genocide”). The Khmer Party attempted, in simplistic terms, to nationally centralize the middle or farming class of Cambodia (“World Without Genocide: Cambodian

The Cambodian Genocide involved two parties, the old people and the new people, otherwise known as the rural peasant class and the urban city-dwellers. The rural peasant class consisted of the Khmer Rouge who desired a classless society where no property or resources were owned by an individual, a pure Cambodia.

The Cambodian Genocide happened between 1975 and 1979 in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge, a guerrilla group, over threw the government and started a regime to bring Cambodia back to year zero . The Khmer Rouge called this the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea . Their aim was to purify society from the influence of the west, and to create a communist country . The Khmer Rouge started this by destroying what was left of the old society and executing the wealthy, educated and military people. They banned all outside languages and religion. An estimated figure of 1.7 million Cambodians where killed during this period by the Khmer Rouge .

In the late 70’s, nearly 2 million Cambodians died of overwork, starvation, torture, and execution in what became known as the Cambodian genocide. A group known as the Khmer Rouge took control of the country in April 1975. Over the course of