Cambodian Genocide

Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979)

Location 

Cambodia is a country in South East Asia

Historical background

The Cambodian Genocide  was carried out by the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime led by Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979. During this time 2-3 million people were murdered. The KR policies of forced relocation of the population from urban centers, mass executions, use of forced labor and malnutrition led to the deaths of an estimated 25 per cent of the total population. The Khmer Rouge had this desire to bring the nation back to a “mythic past.” Outside nations were considered a corrupting influence and by stopping entrance into the nation the KR was able to restore the country to an agrarian society.This new agrarian society was to be based on Stalinist ideals (See Holodomor for more details).The manner in which they tried to implement was one factor in the genocide.  Before the genocide occurred, the population of Cambodia was just over 7 million, with a predominate Buddhist population. Under Pol Pot's leadership, the Khmer Rouge began  on an organized mission; they ruthlessly imposed an extremist program to reconstruct Cambodia. The main goal of the mission was that the population was forced to work as labourers in one huge group of collective farms. Anyone who opposed was eliminated. Along with this; all educated people such as doctors and engineers  were seen as threat and were executed immediately. 

Important Dates

1975 – Year Zero, as it was called, marks the beginning of the Khmer Rouge regime.

1975 – Tortures and executions all across the country. The social categories in focus are intellectuals, teachers, doctors, former military police members, lawyers, and anybody else opposing the regime. This is the year with the most casualties.

1976 – The country is renamed Democratic Kampuchea, to mark the beginning of a new era. The name is the old form of the contemporary form Cambodia.

1977 – The Cambodian-Vietnamese War begins.

1978 – Cambodia is invaded by Vietnam.

1979, January – The Khmer Rouge rule is over.

Nations/Groups/Individuals involved

Religion was now banned and all Buddhist monks were killed and all temples were destroyed. The Khmer Rouge also targeted those of ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai descent. Half of the Muslim population was murdered along with 8,000 Christians.

Atrocities committed 

 Things such as music and radio were banned. An individual could be shot simply for knowing a foreign language, wearing glasses, laughing or even crying. Personal relationships were discouraged in the labor camp,along with expressions of affection.Peace Settlements/ UN Action. Those who managed to escape being murdered became unpaid workers who worked with minimal rations and for incredibly long hours daily. Prisoners soon became weak from malnutrition and over exhaustion. If one fell sick, there was no treatment seeing as doctors were all killed and hospitals shut down; and the individual was left for death. Survival in Cambodia was determined by one’s ability to work. Starvation played a large role in the Genocide as over 2 million people are estimated to have died from starvation during this time. 

The murders began with a warning from the KR in the labor camps. People receiving more than two warnings were sent for "re-education," which meant near-certain death. Prisoners were taken to mass-grave sites and were told that they  would be forgiven if they admitted to "pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes" which essentially meant any free-market activity or contact with foreigners. Prisoners were then taken away to prisons such as Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek for torture and/or execution. In order to save ammunition, the executions were often carried out using poison, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks. In some cases the children and infants of adult victims were killed by having their heads bashed against the trunks of Chankiri trees. Tuol Sleng translates into "Hill of the Poisonous Trees". 

Current status of the Nation 

These conditions of genocide continued for three years until 1978 when Vietnam invaded Kampuchea and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. Vietnam took control and set up a "puppet government" based off Vietnam's communist government founded mainly from KR members that had defected. This puppet government was Vietnam monitoring and advising the movements of Cambodia in order to ensure the country was restarted properly. Unfortunately Pol Pot's policies had ruined the economy. Cambodia lay in ruins under the newly-established Vietnamese regime as all professionals, engineers, technicians and planners who could reorganize and restart Cambodia had been murdered.

Before his suicide on April 15th 1998, Pol Pot stated that he had a clear conscience and denied being responsible for genocide in an interview. Pol Pot asserted that he "came to carry out the struggle, not to kill people.” Under international pressure, Vietnam finally withdrew its occupying army from Cambodia in 1989. In 2013, current Cambodian Prime Minister; Hun Sen passed legislation which made the denial of the Cambodian genocide and other war crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge illegal.  Researchers still discuss whether the events in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 can be referred to as genocide, because the massive killings which occurred there under the Khmer Rouge rule did not specifically target a certain ethnic or religious group. However, most agree that the term should be used, given the large number of casualties.