Cambodian Genocide

Cambodia is a Southeast Asian country with important Indo-Chinese influence,

historically maintaining river-led commerce with both powers. The Cambodian or
Khmer empire was in its splendour around the 12th century, marked by the building
of the massive Angkor Wat temple complex. However, they suffered a period of
decline for over 400 years, and in 1863, Cambodia became a French protectorate.

Almost a century later, in 1954, Cambodia regained its complete independence and
established a monarchy led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk. It is worth mentioning that
Cambodia was not alone in its fight against French rule; a neighboring country,
Vietnam, following its independence, was divided in two: North (communist) Vietnam
and South (U.S supported) Vietnam. War ensued, and soon Cambodia became part
of the battlefield, even though Prince Sihanouk did not support either side.
Cambodia was being torn apart by a civil war of its own against the monarchy, which
became increasingly repressive. Cambodian communists, backed by the Viet Cong
group, rebelled against Sihanouk’s neutrality, longing for the same ideologies that
led Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to gain independence from France.

Whilst all of that happened, a young man fascinated by Marxism and Maoism
organized underground communist groups, and, under the pseudonym Pol Pot,
managed to become the leader of the Cambodian Communist Party renaming it
Khmer Rouge.

Prince Sihanouk was overthrown by Lon Nol, backed by the United States, which, in
fact, bombed Cambodian villages under suspect of being supply points for North
Vietnamese groups until 1973, killing up to 150,000 Cambodian peasants. Pol Pot
saw the opportunity and gained popular support using anti-U.S propaganda. In 1975,
the Khmer Rouge seized control of Cambodia. From the ashes of those villages rose
the Democratic Kampuchea regime.

Pol Pot attempted to build a classless agrarian utopia based on Mao’s China. He
believed he could return Cambodia to its pre-Buddhist grandeur. One of his first
measures was evacuating city dwellers into the countryside and forcing them to
perform excruciating physical labor. Children as young as eight were separated from
their parents and also forced to work. Due to Kampuchea’s poor economic and
social management, food and medicine shortages were quick to appear, thus leading
to untold amounts of people dying of starvation or preventable diseases.

Any type of western influence was extinguished. Soon, the media, press, foreign
languages, embassies and religions were prohibited or repurposed to favor state
interests. Education and healthcare vanished. Intellectuals, foreigners and even
dissident communist groups were among the first to be “purged”. Hence, Democratic
Kampuchea became sealed off from the rest of the world, in detriment of its people.

The following purges targeted religious and ethnic minorities. Ethnic Chinese,
Vietnamese and Thai were attacked, and also Cambodians with Chinese,
Vietnamese or Thai ancestry. The Chinese population was cut in half. The Cham
Muslim were almost eradicated, and 8,000 Christians were killed. Massacres were
committed in Buddhist monasteries. By 1977, you could not find any functioning
monastery in Cambodia.
In the last six months of the regime, the Khmer Rouge’s death toll was massive. And
particularly horrific was the fate of many groups of city dwellers deported to the
northwest part of the country after being deemed “new citizens” - city dwellers who
supported Lon Nol. As they approached Phnom Penh, the capital city, they were
marked as easterners and forced to wear a blue scarf, only to be later eliminated en
masse.

Approaching 1979, Pol Pot became increasingly paranoid, executing even some of
his closest colleagues. His plan had not worked out. The Vietnamese invaded
Kampuchea and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. The Vietnamese-imposed government
was relatively benign, but having almost all of its competent people dead, Cambodia
suffered and still suffers the side effects of the genocide that killed between 1.5 and
3 million people, nearly a quarter of Cambodians.

One cannot accurately know the intentions of young Pol Pot when he started
involving himself and leading communist groups. That element of eagerness towards
the “great old nation we once were” is almost ubiquitous amongst the cruelest
dictators, and is certainly relevant in Pol Pot’s case. Probably the most alarming
aspect of the Cambodian genocide is the indifference of the international community,
with the UN only acknowledging the genocide until the 1990s. Cambodia has not
received significant international aid, but its people still endure the historical baggage
of an event many people who live today can testify. And their testimonies are now
permanently written in red on the book of history.

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from https://www.britannica.com/place/Cambodia 18/09/18

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Cambodian Genocide: The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot's Regime. Retrieved from
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~amamendo/KhmerRouge.html 18/09/18

Ben, K. The Cambodian Genocide, 1975-1979 [Ebook] (1st ed.). Retrieved from
https://www.niod.nl/sites/niod.nl/files/Cambodian%20genocide.pdf 18/09/18

Chronology of Cambodian Events Since 1950 | Yale University Genocide Studies

Program. Retrieved from https://gsp.yale.edu/case-studies/cambodian-genocide-
program/publications/chronology-cambodian-events-1950 18/09/18

University of Minnesota - Cambodia. Retrieved from

https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/cambodia 18/09/18