The Causes And Consequences Of The Cambodian Genocide

The Cambodian Genocide and Holocaust are two significant events remembered in history. During the Cambodian Genocide and the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot targeted minorities that had unique identities that would put them in danger and make them weak to resist. There were several planned events that led up to the occurrence of both genocides. Both Hitler and Pol Pot aimed to take control of their country by organizing ways to kill off multiple people at once. Hitler created concentration and extermination camps while Pol Pot had killing fields. These two leaders killed millions of lives because they practiced a religion that was disliked or had a job that made too much money for the leader’s liking.

The killing of so many Cambodian people fueled the Khmer Rouge to begin a power grab, where they staged a coup to take control of the government. They succeeded and

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.

Dead bodies everywhere you turn. The smell of gunpowder, filth, and death choke your lungs. You wonder everyday whether it will be your last. All your body feels is pain; all your heart feels is emptiness. One might think this is how life was for Jews during the Jewish Holocaust. In reality, this is how life was for many Cambodians during the reign of Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979. This event, known to many as the Cambodian genocide, left a profound mark on the world around us.

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 .

The definition of genocide, according to the United Nations, was the attempt to destroy “a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group” by killing members, causing mental or bodily harm, harsh living conditions, prevention of births, and separating children from their families. There are four patterns of genocide, which do not always occur in every genocide since they’re not all the same. The four patterns include persecution, which is hostility and ill-treatment, especially toward a specific race, political, or religious belief done by the ruler or government. Next is displacement or when a group of people is forced to leave their native country. Continuing, public humiliation is another pattern that freely shows off a group of people being tortured or persecuted in plain sight. Finally when selective groups of people face at terrible fate while another group is spared the same fate as them is selective murder. Those were the four, very cruel and unfair, patterns of genocide.

Throughout the course of history, mankind has had a desire to become rich and powerful. Infamously, men have tried nearly every tactic to acquire such goals. Concentration camps, massacres, and famines are just simply some of the tactics used. As seen in both the Cambodian, and Rwandan Genocides, manual labor, along with malnutrition were primarily the cause of death amongst the captives.

In the 1950s Cambodia gained its independence from France and became peacefully ruled by Prince Sihanouk. In the 1960s, Cambodia was dragged into the Vietnam War and in 1970, the prime minister General Lon Nol assumed power and announced the implementation of the Khmer Republic and sent the Khmer Republic’s army to fight the North Vietnamese in Cambodia (Smith-Hefner 264). Prince Sihanouk formed a communist guerrilla

Cambodian is one of the newest influxes of immigrants from Southeast Asia. The beauty and the darkness of Cambodia imprinted in history. Cambodia, a country of fertile land and dotted rice fields, of famous and breath taking monuments and ancient temples, of arts and crafts, cultural attractions, and most definitely a history like no other. This is the country that exhibits one of the seven wonders of the world- that is the famous Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument that had ever built, significantly in Cambodia. This ancient ruin attracts millions of tourist from all over the world.

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 Holocaust is something that we must never forget. Its occurrence relied only “upon the indifference of bystanders in every land” (Zukier). Even today we stand by while innocent lives are taken. The recent conflicts in Rwanda or Bosnia, or past conflicts in Cambodia, are merely three examples. Wherever genocide occurs one thing is sure to happen– individual lives become lost in massive numbers and the tolls are so large

Parallel to the happenings of Night, victims of the Cambodian genocide also had to work for long hours, regardless of the weather and the condition they were in. “Sometimes, when I refused to work, they would torture me by wipping me and making me worked over time without rest of drink. I work like an animal during a hot sunny day which the temperature sometimes reached up to 120 degrees” (Shawn). Here, Shawn writes about the conditions he was forced to work under. He describes them as being cruelly hot and long. He also mentions that when he refused, he would be beaten. In both Night and the Cambodian genocide, victims were forced to work under harsh conditions and were beaten if they refused. To the leaders of the Cambodian genocide, it did

The response to the Cambodian genocide did not result in the assistance of ending the horror but rather was not dealt with. Some foreign journalist wrote about the atrocities of what was occurring in the beginning. This led the Khmer Rouge to seal off Cambodia from the rest of the world, although some of the terror was still being revealed. People who interview refugees in Thailand were able to get shine light into the situation with stories of starvation, disease, and mass executions. Eventually, the United States denounced all the things that the Khmer Rouge was doing. Many people in the south of Asia, however, did not believe all of what the United States said the Khmer Rouge was doing and thought they were trying to dramatize the situation.

The Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975, which lasted until January 1979. For their three-year, eight-month, and twenty-one day rule of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge committed some of the most heinous crimes in current history. The main leader who orchestrated these crimes was a man named Pol Pot. In 1962, Pol Pot had become the coordinator of the Cambodian Communist Party. The Prince of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, did not approve of the Party and forced Pol Pot to flee to exile in the jungle. There, Pol formed a fortified resistance movement, which became known as the Khmer Rouge, and pursued a guerrilla war against Sihanouk’s government. As Pol Pot began to accumulate power,

In 1975, the Communist Party of Kampuchea, led by Pol Pot, invaded Phnom Penh and overthrew Lon Nol’s U.S. supported military dictatorship. The Communist Party of Kampuchea, otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge, was a Cambodian political party that based its ideals on nationalism, communism, and agrarian socialism. The Khmer Rouge first gained attention during communist movement that emerged from the anti-colonial struggle against France. During French rule, Cambodia was under the influence of western ideas and culture. Because Cambodia had been a French Protectorate since 1863, many aspects of Cambodian culture and identity were lost within French colonial rule. After seizing power over Cambodia in 1975 and it was renamed as Democratic Kampuchea. The Cambodian genocide occurred because a radical idea of nationalism and ended up wiping out one-third of Cambodia’s population. A debate surrounding Cambodian nationalism has been argued while investigating the history of the Khmer Rouge. Michael Vickery, the author of the book Cambodia 1975-1982, argued that the Khmer Rouge was inspired by the peasants to create a nation in which everyone had the same living standards.Ben Kiernan, director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University, argued that by favoring the peasants, the Khmer Rouge destroyed the working class. Kiernan also argues that “Pol Potism” rose from the idea of Cambodian nationalism. In 1976, Pol Pot created the “Four Year Plan” to build socialism in