Visit Website For the next five years, a civil war between the right-leaning military, which had led the coup, and those supporting the alliance of Prince Norodom and the Khmer Rouge raged in Cambodia.
In reality, they emptied the cities and evacuated millions of people to labor camps where they were starved and abused. Doctors, teachers and other educated people, as well as monks, the rich, and anyone perceived to be in opposition were tortured and killed.
It is estimated that between 1. The movement was fueled by the first Indochina War in the s, evolving into an official party in and grew over the next 20 years.
In MarchMarshal Lon Nol, backed by pro-American associates, staged a successful coup to depose Prince Sihanouk as the head of state. Their policies were radical adaptations of Maoist and Marxist-Leninist theories, attempting to transform Cambodia into a rural, classless society comprised of collectivized farms.
The hypocrisy of the Khmer Rouge can be directly seen in their leadership, as many of the higher ranking officials were university-educated.
Born as Saloth Sar inhe came from a small village roughly miles north of Phnom Penh. His family was relatively affluent and owned 50 acres of rice paddy, roughly 10 times the national average.
He attended a French Catholic primary school in Phnom Penh untilwhen he moved to Paris for post-secondary education and became active in communist groups. Genocide Begins The Khmer Rouge regime was extremely brutal. The regime generally singled out doctors, teachers, monks, journalists, the rich, artists, anyone with an education, and ethnic or religious minorities.
But they also executed people who could no longer work or make the journey to the camps, those perceived to be in opposition to the party whether or not this was trueas well as the families of those were deemed undesirable so that they could not be chased down for revenge.
Unlike in other genocides or conflicts, no one was immune from being branded an enemy of the state. Even if one was considered to be on the right side that could change the next day — many Khmer Rouge members were also killed during purges.
No evidence was needed in order to send one to prison and people often fabricated their confessions of various crimes, with the belief that this would end their torment.
In reality, they were more often than not executed once they gave up a list of names of new people to arrest.
Cambodian refugee children, who fled with their families after Khmer Rouge raids, wait for food at aid station outside of Phnom Penh in Money, free markets, schools, private property, foreign styles of clothing, religious practices, and other aspects of traditional Khmer culture were abolished, and buildings such as schools, pagodas, and government properties were turned into prisons, stables, camps, and granaries.
Child soldiers were a huge tool of the Khmer Rouge, as they were easy to control and would follow orders without hesitation, to the point where many were forced to shoot their own parents.
International Response The international community was largely silent during the course of the genocide. At this time the U. However, this still did not lead to an international investigation.
Today many of the killing fields have been excavated to give the victims a proper burial but some are also inaccessible due to landmines. Here people were taken for execution after enduring torture and interrogation at the S prison, a former high school.
It has been turned into a memorial site for visitors to learn about the genocide and pay their respects to the victims. It documented the horrifying conditions that Cambodians were forced to live in through the stories of American journalist Sydney Schanberg and his Cambodian colleague Dith Pran.
The movie shows the ordeal he is put through and his harrowing escape. For many outside of the country, this was their first look at what the Khmer Rouge regime was like.
The rest of the party fled west into the jungles along the Thai border, carrying out guerilla attacks against the Vietnamese. For another decade, the Khmer Rouge fought the Vietnam-backed government with support from China and the Soviet Union.
The violence and instability of this period result in the deaths of thousands of Cambodians, as well as a large influx of hundreds of thousands refugees into Thailand, still traumatized by their experiences under the Khmer Rouge and in search of food, medical care, and security.
InVietnam withdrew their troops due to economic sanctions the U. A temporary coalition government was formed and in a peace agreement was signed between opposing parties.Precursors to Genocide: Rise of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot.
The Communist Party of Kampuchea, informally known as the Khmer Rouge, referencing the majority ethnicity of the country and red as the color of communism, was originally born out of the struggle against French colonization and was influenced by the Vietnamese.
Asia Khmer Rouge genocide in the minds of Cambodian youth. A tradition of silence surrounds the horrific atrocities committed in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime during the s. In , Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen passed legislation that prohibits the denial of the Cambodian genocide and other war crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge.
The legislation was passed despite comments by opposition leader Kem Sokha, who is the deputy president of the Cambodian National Rescue Party. Khmer Rouge genocide in the minds of Cambodian youth. A tradition of silence surrounds the horrific atrocities committed in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime during the s.
Genocide in Cambodia () By April , a Communist group known as the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, seized control of Cambodia, renaming the country Democratic Kampuchea.
Civil war had existed in Cambodia since Nov 15, · Khmer Rouge’s Slaughter in Cambodia Is Ruled a Genocide Image Photographs of victims of the Khmer Rouge at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in .