Rwanda and Cambodian Genocide Essay

The definition of genocide is killing a large group of people of a certain origin. The Holocaust was in Germany and started in 1933. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were in charge of the Holocaust. The Cambodian Genocide took place in Cambodia. Cambodia is in Southeast Asia (“Cambodian”). Pol Pot was the leader of Khmer Rouge and the group was in charge of the Cambodian Genocide (“Cambodian”). The Cambodian Genocide started in 1975 and ended in 1978 because Khmer Rouge was ended by Vietnam (“Cambodian”). The Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocide are similar in the administrations’ treatment of their victims and in the fact that their victims were desperate for a leader, but different in U.S. involvement and government motivation.

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.

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 .

Along with the Belgians support toward the Hutu came the Hutu Revolution in 1959. It all started with the Belgians getting the Hutu more political positions, getting them into secondary schools, and getting them to just participate in more public life. This scared the Tutsi. The Tutsi, feeling that there power was being jeopardized, decided they had to do something. Feeling that they were in a desperate situation they ended up killing a Hutu sub-chief. The vivid Hutu, feeling that it was time to take a stand, attacked Tutsi officials, who in return attacked the Hutu. This turned into one of many small

A genocide is the systematic extermination of an entire social, racial, or political group or nation, specifically those of a particular ethnicity. While the genocide in Cambodia is not as widely recognized as that of Rwanda or the Holocaust, millions of Cambodian citizens were murdered between the years of 1975 and 1979 under the control of the Khmer Rouge. The government depopulated cities and forcibly relocated citizens to collective farms known as Killing Fields because of the unspeakable amount of deaths of all ages that occurred there. Approximately 14,000 lives were taken in these fields due to the stringent rules placed upon the citizens. The Khmer Rouge advocated for social equality and transformed Cambodia into a pre-industrialized nation centered around agriculture. The loss of millions of lives led to significant demographic changes, ranging from an increase in the amount of elderly, homeless citizens, and to a decrease in ethnic diversity across the nation. The dictatorship simultaneously lessened the culture and identity of coming generations due to the execution of artists and musicians who brought forth important aspects of tradition. The destruction of infrastructure also contributed to the limitations of postwar Cambodia. In summary, The Khmer Rouge carried out a genocide that strongly influenced the demographics, culture, and infrastructure of Cambodian society.

In 1965, Pol Pot was summoned to North Vietnam by their government. For two months, he walked until he arrived at Hanoi. Le Duan, the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party, informed it would be better for Cambodia to ignore its own interests and help Vietnam destroy the invading Americans. He wanted an armed struggle against the leader of Cambodia, Sihanouk, to be held off until the "time was ripe," or until Vietnam had its victory against the United States. (Chandler, 1999)

The Cambodian war lasted eight years, from 1967 to 1975, the Cambodian genocide was four years long starting in 1975 until 1979. According to History, “Pol Pot was a political leader whose communist Khmer Rouge government led Cambodia from 1975 to 1979” (Pol Pot). As shown Pol Pot was the leader during this time, whether it was in the background or upfront. He believed in communism and thought it was what was best for Cambodia.

There is a genocide that is happening and there is nothing that we did about it. There are nations like the United States that are seen as leaders though they don’t seem to do anything to intervene in this situation. Every minute that passed in the Rwanda genocide there was someone who was killed and during the span of 100 days there were more than 800,000 (Mostly Tutsis) deaths. The United Nation sent peace keepers to Rwanda but that didn’t resolve anything but just monitor cease-fire. No force was allowed to be used and Rwanda had to resolve their own problem.

They couldn’t get jobs or get a well education like the Tutsis and health care was low. The Tutsis assassinated the Hutus president by a plane explosion which made them furious and started a massacre. The Tutsis had majority of the weapons while only the farmers of the Hutus had weapons. They wiped out forty-five percent of Hutus teachers, students and five percent of the population were killed (Cause and effects,n.d).

In April 1975, Cambodia history would be changed forever. This was the start of Cambodia genocide. Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, became the ruler of Cambodia. He did not like the idea of them influenced by other countries. Khmer Rouge persecuted all the educated citizens. They persecuted doctors, lawyers, police, and former military. They even prosecuted Buddhists, Christians and Muslims. Khmer Rouge then put all the citizens in living arrangements according to their trust. The “old citizens” were the most trust worthy. Then, the pro-west and city dwellers were called “new citizens”. The last groups were the “candidates” and “full right citizens”. Anybody that refused re-education were killed in the fields or at the prison camp Tuol Sleng Centre. Khmer Rouge killed over 1.7 million people. In January 1979, Khmer Rouge was removed from power by Vietnam communist. Ever since the genocide, Cambodia became one of the least developed countries in the world. According to United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking,” Poverty, lack of education, and employment opportunities have left many Cambodians, particularly women and children, in extremely vulnerable situations”. This would cause people to find many different ways to make money. Families would sell their daughters to brothels to pay off debts. Girls who are forced to work in brothels endure rape, abuse and torture.

The Cambodian Genocide started in 1975 and ended in 1979. During that period of time the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. About 1.7 million people died out of a total population of seven to eight million. People died of starvation, disease, overwork and or execution. Unlike in other genocides or conflicts, no one was immune from being branded an enemy of the country. Even if someone was on the right side that could change the next day. The Khmer Rouge attempted to socially engineer a classless peasant society. The Khmer Rouge targeted certain groups. People the leader of the Khmer Rouge Lon Nol thought was weak and different. The Khmer Rouge had a lot to do with what happened in Cambodia. The Cambodian Genocide was based of the Khmer Rouge and how they took over cambodia in 1975. The Khmer Rouge saw cities as the heart of capitalism and therefore they had to be eliminated. 1.7 million people died during the cambodian genocide. The Khmer rouge targeted certain people of class to pray on such as people of education, different race, ethnicity, and even people who wore glasses. The Khmer Rouge planned to create a form of agrarian socialism meaning they wanted them to be more of farmers and have more agriculture instead of a society where

On January 7, 1979, Phnom Penh fell and Pol Pot was deposed. These events were later to be known as the Cambodian Genocide.

This made the Hutus alter their strategy completely and they decided to exterminate the Tutsis completely to get ride of opposition, so that they will remain in power.

During the 1970s, Cambodia was under the communist government and started to have the war within the own nation. Begin of 1975 Khmer Rouge (pol pot) got the chance to control the whole nation and started to evacuate all the rich and educated residents from the capital city (Phnom Penh) to live in every far villages from the city. The prime minister of Khmer Rouge put the order for the soldiers killed all the educated such as professors, singers, actors, reporters, and included the doctors.