Khmer Rouge Modern History Concepts

After they seized power in Cambodia in April 1975, Saloth "Pol Pot" Sar and the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the death of 1.5-3 million Cambodian's and were perhaps one of the most ruthless regimes of the 20th century. The aim of this investigation is to evaluate Pol Pot's means of maintaining power from 1975 to 1979. An account of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge's drastic internal reforms including the slaughter of millions, economic reorganization, political restructuring, and the cultivation of social/ethnic groups will appear in section B. External forces including funding from China and the United States and repressive measures such as censorship, torture, and execution will be assessed. This

The Cambodian Genocide took place from 1975 to 1979 in the Southeastern Asian country of Cambodia. The genocide was a brutal massacre that killed 1.4 to 2.2 million people, about 21% of Cambodia’s population. This essay, will discuss the history of the Cambodian genocide, specifically, what happened, the victims and the perpetrators and the world’s response to the genocide.

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.

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

In just three years of its power in control, Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge turned the country of Cambodia into a living hell. “By 1976 approximately twenty-five hundred prisoners had passed through the bloody corridors of S21, and each year that followed saw increased numbers of tortured prisoners, until they totaled around seventeen thousand by 1979, when the Vietnamese Army liberated Phnom Penh.”（8 Asma) Most prisoners brought to S21 was innocent, they were brought here only because the people in power believe they were enemies of the revolution or associated with western culture. Ironically, the torture chamber used to be a school. People associate hope and bright future with school, especially with

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

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.

To many Americans the Cambodian Genocide was the most unknown genocide that took place. Just like the catastrophic event known as the Rwandan Genocide, this genocide is also not known. The Khmer Rouge committed the same crimes. Some of their murderous methods were very similar. During this time the Khmer Rouge put local Cambodians in prison, hospitals, and some schools to be executed or just to stay there to slowly suffer and eventually die.

In 1975, The Khmer Rouge became the ruling political party of Cambodia after overthrowing the Lon Nol government. Following their leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge imposed an extreme form of social engineering on Cambodian society. They wanted to form an anti-modern, anti-Western ideal of a restructured “classless agrarian society'', a radical form of agrarian communism where the whole population had to work in collective farms or forced labor projects. The Khmer Rouge revolutionary army enforced this mostly with extreme violence. The book “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers”, written by Luong Ung, is the author’s story of growing up during this time period. She was five years old when the Khmer Rouge came

Some negatives impacts are, The Khmer Rouge control, roughly Eighty-percent of the people live in rural areas; lack trained medical personnel, facilities and medical supplies, a weaken economy, approximately ninety-percent of the population adherents of Buddhism and various other religion and ethnic minorities were targets of genocide for western influences; discrimination practices, and decline of conflict caused significant damage to Cambodia’s economy (Aliprandini). Donovan (1993) in 1975, the Khmer Rouge destroyed the Cambodian legal system. Legislators, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, and law professors were killed or forced to flee the country. Law books were destroyed and the buildings that had housed to courts and the law schools were converted to other uses. The situation has improved slightly since then. The Cambodians have suffered and endured decades of control under a dictatorship form of government that prohibited currency, marriage, and religious beliefs. The Cambodians have endured murder of its people and military soldiers, warring countries and the demolishing of cities and villages, resulting in the mental and physical decomposition of the of the

The symbolization of Cambodia was that rich individuals were called new people, and the poor were the best individuals of the country because of their lack of knowledge (Stanton.) Cambodians faced discrimination as they couldn’t have their own religion because again, everyone had to be exactly the same. They became resigned with dehumanization, in which they were treated like animals by the Khmer Rouge. Polarization is shown in this genocide, for they drove people away, and made them leave Cambodia Plans were made in order to wipe out the population. At the point of the killings, a genocide emergency was supposed to be declared, but no one noticed because the Khmer Rouge were the representatives for the United Nations for the country of Cambodia.

On April 17, 1975, in the small state of Southeast Asia Cambodia, a powerful leader known as Pol Pot began a murderous regime under a Communist Party of Kampuchea. According to Key facts on the Khmer Rouge, “the party's aim was to establish a classless communist state based on a rural agrarian economy and a complete rejection of the free market and capitalism” (“Key facts on the Khmer Rouge”). Commonly identified as Khmer Rouge, the holocaust lasted nearly four years and took the lives of millions leaving only a few survivors. Survivors, such as, Sisowath Doung Chanto, Samnang Shawn Vann, and Sophal Leng Stagg Sisowath Doung Chanto begins his story by recounting the experience as “uncomprehending,” and focused on describing the final days and death of his father, Sisowath Doung Kara.

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 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.

In 1976, after massacring hundreds of thousands of former government officials and supporters of the previous government, the Khmer Rouge began purging their own ranks. They utilized brutal tactics such as, “’the victory pole’ where four people would be tied together, their backs to the pole, facing opposite directions. Then a guard would shoot one in the head covering the others in blood and brains.” (Dunlop 87). They converted city schools into prisons and arrested people for any slight charge perceived against the revolution. Distrust with each other became so rampant among members inside the party that “vanquishing the enemies” became the most important task of the Khmer Rouge Regime. Food shortages occurred, electricity became scarce, and disease became a major problem for the population. Even the most useful resource for the Khmer Rouge executioners became scarce; they sometimes ran out of bullets after a heavy night of prison executions.