The Cambodian Genocide
1975-1979: Cambodia
Genocide: Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge kill 25% of the Cambodian population
The twentieth century is known to have been one of the bloodiest and deadliest 100 years recorded in history as 187 million innocent souls have faced death first hand due to approximately 24 genocides. Without any doubt genocides are inexcusable and many people are being held accountable for war crimes that they have committed during these mass extermination of people such as the Holocaust, the Bosnian genocide and the Rwandan genocide. During the late 1970's a deadly Cambodian genocide erupted which led to the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam and the controversial involvement of the United States of America. Millions have been killed to no avail with various means of barbaric murder which has led it to be classified as one of the deadliest genocides that has taken place in the twentieth century.
WHAT WAS THE GOAL?
The Cambodian Genocide was the extermination of approximately 1.5-3 million people by the Khmer Rouge in the hopes of creating a form of agrarian socialism, a socio-economic political system which combines an agrarian way of life and socialist economic policies, which is formed upon the principles of Stalinism and Maoism. In other words, the Khmer Rouge party lead by "Pol Pot" aimed to create a farming society in accordance with the Chinese Communist agricultural model. Similar to Nazi Germany the Khmer Rouge aimed to purify the people and create a master race as a member of the Khmer Rouge described the genocide as "the purification of the populace."
HOW DID THIS ALL START?
Starting in the 1940's when Cambodia gained independence from France, the political structure of the state was slowly deteriorating and eventually lead to a coup d'etat where the country's monarch was overthrown by Lon Nol. Seeing this weakening government as an opportunity to come into power the Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, began various armed attacks against the government and eventually came into power in 1975. Upon coming into power the Khmer Rouge almost immediately began to purify the populace.
WHAT WERE THEIR IDEOLOGIES?
According to the Director of Genocide Studies at Yale University Ben Kiernan, the ideologies of the Khmer Rouge were similar to the ideologies of Nazi Germany and the Armenian Genocide. According to this professor one of the main ideologies of all three genocides was racism. All three of these regimes targeted religious minorities as the Holocaust targeted the Jews, and the Cambodian Genocide targeted Cham Muslims and Christians while also banning religion all together thus stopping the country from practising its national religion of Buddhism. According to Kiernan the methods of extermination were also similar as armed forces were used as well as torture, forced labour and mass executions.
WHAT WERE SOME METHODS THEY USED TO "PURIFY THE POPULACE"?
To successfully create such agrarian socialism the Khmer Rouge de-constructed Cambodia into a primitive "year zero" where all citizens must part take in rural work and all western innovations were removed. To achieve the ideal society everyone was forced into labour by working in large farms for tiresome hours and anyone who opposed this type of system was murdered. Professors, intellectuals, monks, Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians were relatively all eliminated as they were thought to potentially become opposer's to the new system and could possibly trigger a sort of revolution. Handicaps, elderly people and young children were also victims to the wrath of the Khmer Rouge as since they were physically incapable of taking part of the forced labour they had no use to live in that society therefore, were thought to have no use to live. Evidently, in 2008, it was mapped by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia that Pol Pot managed to create 20,000 mass graves during his time in power. Many survivors described how deadly the war was and how scared they were after the completion of the war as a survivor mentioned, "I thought that was the end of my life," he said, "In my room people kept dying, one or two everyday." Another survivor mentions, "We could not sit. If we wanted to sit we had to ask permission first . No talking , whispering or making noise."
WHAT WAS THE WORLD'S REACTION?
During the war it seemed as though much of the world remained quiet in such a crime against humanity although during the war China was very active in supporting the Khmer Rouge. They trained the guerilla and sent military aid to help in a genocide which killed twenty five percent of the nations population. On December 25, 1978 Vietnam launched a full scale invasion of Cambodia after being attacked by the Khmer Rouge on April 30, 1977. This subsequently led to the Khmer Rouge being removed from power and Vietnam occupying Cambodia until 1789 where they withdrew military presence under international pressure.
The Cambodian genocide was a deadly act upon 1.5-3 million people only to aim to start a brand new type of society. These innocent souls have faced injustice at the highest level and is incredibly difficult to imagine the traumatizing experience that they must have lived and is no surprised if sleep evades many of the survivors. Having to live with the memories of seeing loved ones and children being brutally murdered is no easy task and all that we can hope for is that the phrase "Never again means never again," becomes reality because it seems as though the world completely forgot what they promised after World War II.
1975-1979: Cambodia
Genocide: Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge kill 25% of the Cambodian population
The twentieth century is known to have been one of the bloodiest and deadliest 100 years recorded in history as 187 million innocent souls have faced death first hand due to approximately 24 genocides. Without any doubt genocides are inexcusable and many people are being held accountable for war crimes that they have committed during these mass extermination of people such as the Holocaust, the Bosnian genocide and the Rwandan genocide. During the late 1970's a deadly Cambodian genocide erupted which led to the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam and the controversial involvement of the United States of America. Millions have been killed to no avail with various means of barbaric murder which has led it to be classified as one of the deadliest genocides that has taken place in the twentieth century.
WHAT WAS THE GOAL?
The Cambodian Genocide was the extermination of approximately 1.5-3 million people by the Khmer Rouge in the hopes of creating a form of agrarian socialism, a socio-economic political system which combines an agrarian way of life and socialist economic policies, which is formed upon the principles of Stalinism and Maoism. In other words, the Khmer Rouge party lead by "Pol Pot" aimed to create a farming society in accordance with the Chinese Communist agricultural model. Similar to Nazi Germany the Khmer Rouge aimed to purify the people and create a master race as a member of the Khmer Rouge described the genocide as "the purification of the populace."
HOW DID THIS ALL START?
Starting in the 1940's when Cambodia gained independence from France, the political structure of the state was slowly deteriorating and eventually lead to a coup d'etat where the country's monarch was overthrown by Lon Nol. Seeing this weakening government as an opportunity to come into power the Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, began various armed attacks against the government and eventually came into power in 1975. Upon coming into power the Khmer Rouge almost immediately began to purify the populace.
WHAT WERE THEIR IDEOLOGIES?
According to the Director of Genocide Studies at Yale University Ben Kiernan, the ideologies of the Khmer Rouge were similar to the ideologies of Nazi Germany and the Armenian Genocide. According to this professor one of the main ideologies of all three genocides was racism. All three of these regimes targeted religious minorities as the Holocaust targeted the Jews, and the Cambodian Genocide targeted Cham Muslims and Christians while also banning religion all together thus stopping the country from practising its national religion of Buddhism. According to Kiernan the methods of extermination were also similar as armed forces were used as well as torture, forced labour and mass executions.
WHAT WERE SOME METHODS THEY USED TO "PURIFY THE POPULACE"?
To successfully create such agrarian socialism the Khmer Rouge de-constructed Cambodia into a primitive "year zero" where all citizens must part take in rural work and all western innovations were removed. To achieve the ideal society everyone was forced into labour by working in large farms for tiresome hours and anyone who opposed this type of system was murdered. Professors, intellectuals, monks, Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians were relatively all eliminated as they were thought to potentially become opposer's to the new system and could possibly trigger a sort of revolution. Handicaps, elderly people and young children were also victims to the wrath of the Khmer Rouge as since they were physically incapable of taking part of the forced labour they had no use to live in that society therefore, were thought to have no use to live. Evidently, in 2008, it was mapped by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia that Pol Pot managed to create 20,000 mass graves during his time in power. Many survivors described how deadly the war was and how scared they were after the completion of the war as a survivor mentioned, "I thought that was the end of my life," he said, "In my room people kept dying, one or two everyday." Another survivor mentions, "We could not sit. If we wanted to sit we had to ask permission first . No talking , whispering or making noise."
WHAT WAS THE WORLD'S REACTION?
During the war it seemed as though much of the world remained quiet in such a crime against humanity although during the war China was very active in supporting the Khmer Rouge. They trained the guerilla and sent military aid to help in a genocide which killed twenty five percent of the nations population. On December 25, 1978 Vietnam launched a full scale invasion of Cambodia after being attacked by the Khmer Rouge on April 30, 1977. This subsequently led to the Khmer Rouge being removed from power and Vietnam occupying Cambodia until 1789 where they withdrew military presence under international pressure.
The Cambodian genocide was a deadly act upon 1.5-3 million people only to aim to start a brand new type of society. These innocent souls have faced injustice at the highest level and is incredibly difficult to imagine the traumatizing experience that they must have lived and is no surprised if sleep evades many of the survivors. Having to live with the memories of seeing loved ones and children being brutally murdered is no easy task and all that we can hope for is that the phrase "Never again means never again," becomes reality because it seems as though the world completely forgot what they promised after World War II.