Khmer Rouge: Difference between revisions

Khmer Rouge
ខ្មែរក្រហម
The flag of Democratic Kampuchea. The design was used by Khmer guerrillas since the 1950s with the building design varying.
Leader	Pol Pot
Dates of operation	1951–1999
Headquarters	Phnom Penh
Ideology	Agrarian socialism Khmer nationalism

Template:Contains Khmer text The Khmer Rouge (

The regime was removed from power in 1979 when Vietnam invaded Cambodia and quickly destroyed most of the Khmer Rouge's army. The Khmer Rouge then fled to Thailand whose government saw them as a buffer force against the Communist Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge continued to fight the Vietnamese and the new People's Republic of Kampuchea government during the Cambodian–Vietnamese War which ended in 1991.

The Cambodian governments-in-exile (including the Khmer Rouge) held onto Cambodia's UN seat (with considerable international support) until 1993, when the monarchy was restored and the country's name was changed to the Kingdom of Cambodia. A year later, thousands of Khmer Rouge guerrillas surrendered themselves in a government amnesty.

In 1996, a new political party, the Democratic National Union Movement, was formed by Ieng Sary, who was granted amnesty for his role as the deputy leader of the Khmer Rouge.^[3] The organization (Khmer Rouge) was largely dissolved by the mid-1990s, and finally surrendered completely in 1999.^[4] In 2014, two Khmer Rouge leaders, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, were jailed for life by a UN-backed court, which found them guilty of crimes against humanity for their roles in the Khmer Rouge's genocidal campaign.

Name history

The term "Khmers rouges", French for "Red Khmers", was coined by Cambodian head of state Norodom Sihanouk^[5] and later adopted by English speakers (in the form of the corrupted version 'Khmer Rouge'). It was used to refer to a succession of communist parties in Cambodia which evolved into the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and later the Party of Democratic Kampuchea. The organization was also known as the Kampuchea or Khmer Communist Party and the National Army of Democratic Kampuchea.^[6]

Ideology

The Khmer Rouge's ideology combined elements of

The Khmer Rouge's social policy focused on working towards a purely agrarian society. Pol Pot strongly influenced the propagation of this policy. He was reportedly impressed with how the mountain tribes of Cambodia lived, which the party interpreted as a form of

The history of the communist movement in Cambodia can be divided into six phases: the emergence of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), whose members were almost exclusively Vietnamese, before World War II; the 10-year struggle for independence from the French, when a separate Cambodian communist party, the Kampuchean (or Khmer) People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), was established under Vietnamese auspices; the period following the Second Party Congress of the KPRP in 1960, when Saloth Sar (Pol Pot after 1976) and other future Khmer Rouge leaders gained control of its apparatus; the revolutionary struggle from the initiation of the Khmer Rouge insurgency in 1967–68 to the fall of the Lon Nol government in April 1975; the Democratic Kampuchea regime, from April 1975 to January 1979; and the period following the Third Party Congress of the KPRP in January 1979, when Hanoi effectively assumed control over Cambodia's government and communist party.^[14]

In 1930, Ho Chi Minh founded the Communist Party of Vietnam by unifying three smaller communist movements that had emerged in northern, central, and southern Vietnam during the late 1920s. Almost immediately, the party was renamed the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), ostensibly so it could include revolutionaries from Cambodia and Laos. Almost without exception, all of the earliest party members were Vietnamese. By the end of World War II, a handful of Cambodians had joined its ranks, but their influence on the Indochinese communist movement as well as their influence on developments within Cambodia was negligible.^[15]

According to Democratic Kampuchea's perspective of party history, the Viet Minh's failure to negotiate a political role for the KPRP at the 1954 Geneva Conference represented a betrayal of the Cambodian movement, which still controlled large areas of the countryside and which commanded at least 5,000 armed men. Following the conference, about 1,000 members of the KPRP, including Son Ngoc Minh, made a "Long March" into North Vietnam, where they remained in exile.^[15] In late 1954, those who stayed in Cambodia founded a legal political party, the Pracheachon Party, which participated in the 1955 and the 1958 National Assembly elections. In the September 1955 election, it won about four percent of the vote but did not secure a seat in the legislature.^[18] Members of the Pracheachon were subject to constant harassment and to arrests because the party remained outside Sihanouk's political organization, Sangkum. Government attacks prevented it from participating in the 1962 election and drove it underground. Sihanouk habitually labelled local leftists the Khmer Rouge, a term that later came to signify the party and the state headed by Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan, and their associates.^[14]

During the mid-1950s, KPRP factions, the "urban committee" (headed by

During the 1950s, Khmer students in Paris with KN as their leader organized their own communist movement, which had little, if any, connection to the hard-pressed party in their homeland. From their ranks came the men and women who returned home and took command of the party apparatus during the 1960s, led an effective insurgency against Lon Nol from 1968 until 1975, and established the regime of Democratic Kampuchea.[21]

Inside the KSA and its successor organizations, there was a secret organization known as the Cercle Marxiste (Marxist circle). The organization was composed of cells of three to six members with most members knowing nothing about the overall structure of the organization. In 1952 Pol Pot, Hou Yuon, Ieng Sary, and other leftists gained notoriety by sending an open letter to Sihanouk calling him the "strangler of infant democracy." A year later, the French authorities closed down the KSA. In 1956, however, Hou Yuon and Khieu Samphan helped to establish a new group, the Khmer Students Union. Inside, the group was still run by the Cercle Marxiste.[25]

The doctoral dissertations written by Hou Yuon and Khieu Samphan express basic themes that were later to become the cornerstones of the policy adopted by Democratic Kampuchea. The central role of the peasants in national development was espoused by Hou Yuon in his 1955 thesis, The Cambodian Peasants and Their Prospects for Modernization, which challenged the conventional view that urbanization and industrialization are necessary precursors of development.^[26]

The major argument in Khieu Samphan's 1959 thesis, Cambodia's Economy and Industrial Development, was that the country had to become self-reliant and end its economic dependency on the developed world. In its general contours, Khieu's work reflected the influence of a branch of the "dependency theory" school,^{[citation needed]} which blamed lack of development in the Third World on the economic domination of the industrialized nations.^[27]

Path to power and reign

KPRP Second Congress

After returning to Cambodia in 1953, Pol Pot threw himself into party work. At first he went to join with forces allied to the Viet Minh operating in the rural areas of

His comrades, Ieng Sary and Hou Yuon, became teachers at a new private high school, the Lycée Kambuboth, which Hou Yuon helped to establish. Khieu Samphan returned from Paris in 1959, taught as a member of the law faculty of the University of Phnom Penh, and started a left-wing, French-language publication, L'Observateur. The paper soon acquired a reputation in Phnom Penh's small academic circle. The following year, the government closed the paper, and Sihanouk's police publicly humiliated Khieu by beating, undressing and photographing him in public—as Shawcross notes, "not the sort of humiliation that men forgive or forget".^[29]

Yet the experience did not prevent Khieu from advocating cooperation with Sihanouk in order to promote a united front against United States activities in South Vietnam. As mentioned, Khieu Samphan, Hou Yuon, and Hu Nim were forced to "work through the system" by joining the Sangkum and by accepting posts in the prince's government.^[15]

In late September 1960, twenty-one leaders of the KPRP held a secret congress in a vacant room of the Phnom Penh railroad station. This pivotal event remains shrouded in mystery because its outcome has become an object of contention (and considerable historical rewriting) between pro-Vietnamese and anti-Vietnamese Khmer communist factions.^[15]

The question of cooperation with, or resistance to, Sihanouk was thoroughly discussed. Tou Samouth, who advocated a policy of cooperation, was elected general secretary of the KPRP that was renamed the

On July 20, 1962, Tou Samouth was murdered by the Cambodian government. In February 1963, at the WPK's second congress, Pol Pot was chosen to succeed Tou Samouth as the party's general secretary. Tou's allies, Nuon Chea and Keo Meas, were removed from the Central Committee and replaced by Son Sen and Vorn Vet. From then on, Pol Pot and loyal comrades from his Paris student days controlled the party centre, edging out older veterans whom they considered excessively pro-Vietnamese.^[30]

In July 1963, Pol Pot and most of the central committee left Phnom Penh to establish an insurgent base in

The region where Pol Pot and the others moved to was inhabited by tribal minorities, the Khmer Loeu, whose rough treatment (including resettlement and forced assimilation) at the hands of the central government made them willing recruits for a guerrilla struggle. In 1965, Pol Pot made a visit of several months to North Vietnam and China.^[25]

Pol Pot received some training in China, which had enhanced his prestige when he returned to the WPK's "liberated areas". Despite friendly relations between Norodom Sihanouk and the Chinese, the latter kept Pol Pot's visit a secret from Sihanouk. In September 1966, the party changed its name to the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK).^{[citation needed]}

The change in the name of the party was a closely guarded secret. Lower ranking members of the party and even the Vietnamese were not told of it and neither was the membership until many years later. The party leadership endorsed armed struggle against the government, then led by Sihanouk. In 1967, several small-scale attempts at insurgency were made by the CPK but they had little success.^{[citation needed]}

In 1968, the Khmer Rouge was officially formed and its forces launched a national insurgency across Cambodia. Though North Vietnam had not been informed of the decision, its forces provided shelter and weapons to the Khmer Rouge after the insurgency started. Vietnamese support for the insurgency made it impossible for the Cambodian military to effectively counter it. For the next two years the insurgency grew as Sihanouk did very little to stop it. As the insurgency grew stronger, the party finally openly declared itself to be the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK).^[25]

The political appeal of the Khmer Rouge was increased as a result of the situation created by the

On 29 March 1970, the North Vietnamese launched an offensive against the Cambodian army. Documents uncovered from the Soviet archives revealed that the invasion was launched at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge following negotiations with Nuon Chea.^[32] A force of North Vietnamese quickly overran large parts of eastern Cambodia reaching to within 15 miles (24 km) of Phnom Penh before being pushed back. By June, three months after the removal of Sihanouk, they had swept government forces from the entire northeastern third of the country. After defeating those forces, the North Vietnamese turned the newly won territories over to the local insurgents. The Khmer Rouge also established "liberated" areas in the south and the southwestern parts of the country, where they operated independently of the North Vietnamese.^[33]

After Sihanouk showed his support for the Khmer Rouge by visiting them in the field, their ranks swelled from 6,000 to 50,000 fighters. Many of the new recruits for the Khmer Rouge were apolitical peasants who fought in support of the King, not for communism, of which they had little understanding.^[34] Sihanouk's popular support in rural Cambodia allowed the Khmer Rouge to extend its power and influence to the point that by 1973 it exercised de facto control over the majority of Cambodian territory, although only a minority of its population. Many people in Cambodia who helped the Khmer Rouge against the Lon Nol government thought they were fighting for the restoration of Sihanouk.

By 1975, with the Lon Nol government running out of ammunition, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the government would collapse. On April 17, 1975 the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh.

Foreign involvement

The relationship between the massive carpet bombing of Cambodia by the United States and the growth of the Khmer Rouge, in terms of recruitment and popular support, has been a matter of interest to historians. Some historians have cited the U.S. intervention and bombing campaign (spanning 1965–1973) as a significant factor leading to increased support of the Khmer Rouge among the Cambodian peasantry.^[35] However, Pol Pot biographer David P. Chandler argues that the bombing "had the effect the Americans wanted – it broke the Communist encirclement of Phnom Penh".^[36][37] Peter Rodman and Eric Lind claimed that the US intervention saved the Lon Nol regime from collapse in 1970 and 1973.^[38][39] Craig Etcheson agreed that it was "untenable" to assert that US intervention caused the Khmer Rouge victory while acknowledging that it may have played a small role in boosting recruitment for the insurgents.^[40] William Shawcross, however, wrote that the US bombing and ground incursion plunged Cambodia into the chaos that Sihanouk had worked for years to avoid.^[41]

The North Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, launched at the request of the Khmer Rouge,^[42] has also been cited as a major factor in their eventual victory, including by Shawcross.^[43] Communist Vietnam later admitted that it played "a decisive role" in their seizure of power.^[44] China "armed and trained" the Khmer Rouge during the civil war and continued to aid them for years afterward.^[45]

The UN sided with the

The leadership of the Khmer Rouge remained largely unchanged from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. The leaders were mostly from middle-class families and had been educated at French universities.[46]

The Standing Committee of the Khmer Rouge's Central Committee during its period of power consisted of:

• Pol Pot (Saloth Sar) (died 1998), "Brother number 1", General Secretary from 1963 until his death, effectively the leader of the movement
• Nuon Chea (Long Bunruot), "Brother number 2", Prime Minister, arrested in 2007, high status made him Pol Pot's "righthand man", sentenced to life in prison on 7 Aug 2014
• Ieng Sary (Pol Pot's brother-in-law) (died in custody awaiting trial for genocide, March 14, 2013), "Brother number 3", Deputy Prime Minister, arrested in 2007
• Khieu Samphan, "Brother number 4", President of Democratic Kampuchea, arrested in 2007, sentenced to life in prison on 7 Aug 2014
• Ta Mok (Chhit Chhoeun) (died July 21, 2006), "Brother number 5", Southwest Regional Secretary, final Khmer Rouge leader, died in custody awaiting trial for genocide
• Son Sen (died 1997), "Brother number 89", Defense Minister, Superior of Kang Kek Iew. Assassinated on Pol Pot's orders for treason.
• Yun Yat (died 1997)
• Ke Pauk (died 2002), "Brother number 13", former secretary of the Northern zone
• Ieng Thirith, (died 2015) arrested in 2007, sister-in-law of Pol Pot, former Social Affairs Minister, deemed unfit to stand trial due to dementia in 2012.^[47]

Life under the Khmer Rouge

In power, the Khmer Rouge carried out a radical program that included isolating the country from all foreign influences, closing schools, hospitals, and factories, abolishing banking, finance, and currency, outlawing all religions, confiscating all

Commercial fishing was banned by the Khmer Rouge in 1976,[49] resulting in a loss of primary food sources for millions of Cambodians, 80% of whom rely on fish as their only source of animal protein.^[50]

Money was abolished, books were burned, teachers, merchants, and almost the entire intellectual elite of the country were murdered to make agricultural communism, as Pol Pot envisioned it, a reality. The planned relocation to the countryside resulted in the complete halting of almost all economic activity: even schools and hospitals were closed, as well as banks, industrial and service companies. Banks were raided and all currency and records were destroyed by fire thus eliminating any claim to funds.^[51]

During their four years in power, the Khmer Rouge overworked and starved the population, at the same time executing selected groups who they believed were enemies of the state or spies, or had the potential to undermine the new state. People who they perceived as

The Khmer language has a complex system of usages to define speakers' rank and social status. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, these usages were abolished. People were encouraged to call each other "friend" or "comrade" (មិត្ត; mitt), and to avoid traditional signs of deference such as bowing or folding the hands in salutation, known as samphea.^[25]

Language was also transformed in other ways. The Khmer Rouge invented new terms. People were told to "forge" (lot dam) a new revolutionary character, that they were the "instruments" (ឧបករណ៍; opokar) of the ruling body known as "Angkar" (អង្គការ, "The Organization"), and that nostalgia for pre-revolutionary times (chheu satek arom, or "memory sickness") could result in execution. Also, rural terms like Mae (ម៉ែ; mother) replaced urban terms like Mak (ម៉ាក់; mother).^{[citation needed]}

Many Cambodians crossed the border into

The Khmer Rouge government arrested, tortured, and eventually executed anyone suspected of belonging to several categories of supposed "enemies",^[25] including:

• Anyone with connections to the former Cambodian government or with foreign governments.
• Professionals and intellectuals – in practice this included almost everyone with an education, people who understood a foreign language and even people who required glasses (which, according to the regime, meant that they spent too much time reading books instead of working). Ironically, Pol Pot himself was an educated man with a taste for
  Pan Ron, and Sinn Sisamouth
  gained posthumous fame for their talents and are still popular with Khmers today.
• Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Thai, and other minorities in the Eastern Highlands, Cambodian Christians (most of whom were Catholic, and the
  imams
  were executed.
• "Economic saboteurs" – many former urban dwellers were deemed guilty of sabotage due to their lack of agricultural ability.

On 7 August 2014, when announcing convictions and handing down life sentences for two former Khmer Rouge leaders, Cambodian judge Nil Nonn said there were evidences of "a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Cambodia." He said the leaders, Nuon Chea, the regime's chief ideologue and former deputy to late leader Pol Pot, and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, together in a "joint criminal enterprise" were involved in murder, extermination, political persecution and other inhumane acts related to the mass eviction of city-dwellers, and executions of enemy soldiers.^[60]

Number of deaths

Modern research has located 20,000 mass graves from the Khmer Rouge era all over Cambodia. Various studies have estimated the death toll at between 740,000 and 3,000,000, most commonly between 1.4 million and 2.2 million, with perhaps half of those deaths being due to executions, and the rest from starvation and disease.^[61]

The Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University estimates the number of deaths at approximately 1.7 million (21% of the population of the country).^[62] A UN investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimates that 3 million had been killed.^[63] Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed,^[64] while Marek Sliwinski estimates that 1.8 million is a conservative figure.^[65] Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After five years of researching grave sites, he concluded that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution".^[61]

An additional 300,000 Cambodians starved to death between 1979 and 1980, largely as a result of the after-effects of Khmer Rouge policy.^[66]

Fall

On 18 April 1978, Pol Pot, fearing a Vietnamese attack, ordered a pre-emptive invasion of Vietnam. His Cambodian forces crossed the border and looted nearby villages, mostly in the border town of Ba Chúc. Of the 3,157 civilians who had lived in Ba Chúc,^[67] only two survived the massacre. These Cambodian forces were repelled by the Vietnamese.^[68]

By December 1978, due to several years of border conflict and the flood of

These Khmer Rouge bases were not self-sufficient and were funded by diamond and timber smuggling, by military assistance from China channeled by means of the Thai military, and by food smuggled from markets across the border in Thailand.[72]

Place in the United Nations

Despite its deposal, the Khmer Rouge retained its United Nations seat, which was occupied by Thiounn Prasith, an old compatriot of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary from their student days in Paris, and one of the 21 attendees at the 1960 KPRP Second Congress. The seat was retained under the name "Democratic Kampuchea" until 1982, and then under the name "Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea." Western governments voted in favor of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea retaining Cambodia's seat in the organization over the newly installed Vietnamese-backed PRK, even though it included the Khmer Rouge. Margaret Thatcher stated: "So, you'll find that the more reasonable ones of the Khmer Rouge will have to play some part in the future government, but only a minority part. I share your utter horror that these terrible things went on in Kampuchea."^[73] Sweden on the contrary changed its vote in the U.N. and withdrew its support for the Khmer Rouge after a large number of Swedish citizens wrote letters to their elected representatives demanding a policy change towards Pol Pot's regime.^[74]

Ramifications of Vietnamese victory

Vietnam's victory, supported by the

Eastern and central Cambodia were firmly under the control of Vietnam and its Cambodian allies by 1980, while the western part of the country continued to be a battlefield throughout the 1980s and millions of landmines were sown across the countryside. The Khmer Rouge, still led by Pol Pot, was the strongest of the three rebel groups in the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea which received extensive military aid from China, Britain, and the United States and intelligence from the Thai military. Britain and the United States in particular gave aid to the two non-Khmer Rouge members of the coalition.^[76]

In an attempt to broaden its support base, the Khmer Rouge formed the Patriotic and Democratic Front of the Great National Union of Kampuchea in 1979. In 1981, the Khmer Rouge went as far as to officially renounce Communism^[71] and somewhat moved their ideological emphasis to nationalism and anti-Vietnamese rhetoric instead. However, some analysts argue that this change meant little in practice, because, as historian Kelvin Rowley puts it: "CPK propaganda had always relied on nationalist rather than revolutionary appeals."^[74]

Although Pol Pot relinquished the Khmer Rouge leadership to Khieu Samphan in 1985, he continued to be the driving force behind the Khmer Rouge insurgency, giving speeches to his followers. Journalists such as Nate Thayer who spent some time with the Khmer Rouge during that period commented that, despite the international community's near-universal condemnation of the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule, a considerable number of Cambodians in Khmer Rouge-controlled areas seemed genuinely to support Pol Pot.^[77]

While Vietnam proposed to withdraw from Cambodia in return for a political settlement that would exclude the Khmer Rouge from power, the rebel coalition government, as well as ASEAN, China, and the US, insisted that such a condition was unacceptable.^[71] Nevertheless, in 1985 Vietnam declared that it would complete the withdrawal of its forces from Cambodia by 1990, and it did so in 1989, having allowed the government that it had installed there to consolidate its rule and gain sufficient military strength.^[74]

After a decade of inconclusive conflict, the pro-Vietnamese Cambodian government and the rebel coalition signed a treaty in 1991 calling for elections and disarmament. In 1992, however, the Khmer Rouge resumed fighting, boycotted the election and, in the following year, rejected its results. It now fought the new Cambodian coalition government which included the former Vietnamese-backed Communists (headed by

There was a mass defection from the Khmer Rouge in 1996, when around half of its remaining soldiers (about 4,000) left. In 1997, a conflict between the two main participants in the ruling coalition caused Prince Rannaridh to seek support from some of the Khmer Rouge leaders, while refusing to have any dealings with Pol Pot.[74]^[77] This resulted in bloody factional fighting among the Khmer Rouge leaders, ultimately leading to Pol Pot's trial and imprisonment by the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot died in April 1998. Khieu Samphan surrendered in December. ^{[citation needed]}

On December 29, 1998, the remaining leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologized for the 1970s genocide. By 1999, most members had surrendered or been captured. In December 1999,

Members of this younger generation may know of the Khmer Rouge only through word of mouth from parents and elders. In part, this is because the government does not require that educators teach children about Khmer Rouge atrocities in the schools.[79] However, Cambodia's Education Ministry started to teach Khmer Rouge history in high schools beginning in 2009.^[80][81] China has defended its ties with the Khmer Rouge. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said, "[T]he government of Democratic Kampuchea had a legal seat at the United Nations, and had established broad foreign relations with more than 70 countries".^[82]

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)

The ECCC was established as a Cambodian court with international participation and assistance to bring to trial senior leaders and those most responsible for crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime.^[83] It has been handling four cases since 2007.^[83] ECCC's efforts for outreach toward both national and international audience include public trial hearings, study tours, video screenings, school lectures, and video archives on the web site.^{[citation needed]}

At present^[

Both Duch and the prosecution appealed against the verdict. In February 2012, Judge Kong Srim dismissed his appeal, saying that Duch's crimes were "undoubtedly among the worst in recorded human history" and deserved "the highest penalty available". He increased Duch's sentence to life imprisonment.[88]

Public trial hearings in Phnom Penh are open to the people of Cambodia over the age of 18 including foreigners.^[89] In order to assist people's will to participate in the public hearings, the court provides free bus transportation for groups of Cambodians who want to visit the court.^[89] Since the commencement of Case 001 trial in 2009 through the end of 2011, 53,287 people have participated in the public hearings.^[83] ECCC also has hosted Study Tour Program to help villagers in rural areas understand the history of the Khmer Rouge regime. The court provides free transport for them to come to visit the court and meet with court officials to learn about its work, in addition to visits to the genocide museum and the killing fields.^[90] ECCC also has visited village to village to provide video screenings and school lectures to promote their understanding of the trial proceedings.^[83] Furthermore, trials and transcripts are partially available with English translation on the ECCC's website.^[91]

Museums

The

Tuol Sleng Museum

of Genocide and Choeng Ek Killing Fields are two major museums to learn the history of the Khmer Rouge.

The Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide is a former high school building, which was transformed into a torture, interrogation and execution center between 1976 and 1979.^[92] The Khmer Rouge called the center "S-21".^[92] Of the estimated 15,000 to 30,000 prisoners,^[93] only seven prisoners survived.^[92] The Khmer Rouge photographed the vast majority of the inmates and left a photographic archive, which enables visitors to see almost 6,000 S-21 portraits on the walls.^[92] Visitors can also learn how the inmates were tortured from the equipment and facilities exhibited in the buildings. In addition, one of the seven survivors shares his story with visitors at the museum.

The Choeng Ek killing fields are located about 15 kilometers outside of Phnom Penh.^[94] Most of the prisoners who were held captive at S-21 were taken to the fields to be executed and deposited in one of the approximately 129 mass graves.^[94] It is estimated that the graves contain the remains of over 20,000 victims.^[94] After the discovery of the site in 1979, the Vietnamese transformed the site into a memorial and stored skulls and bones in an open-walled wooden memorial pavilion.^[94] Eventually, these remains were showcased in the memorial's centerpiece stupa, or Buddhist shrine.^[94]

Publications

The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), an independent research institute,^[59] published A History of Democratic Kampuchea 1975 - 1979,^[95] the national first textbook on the Khmer Rouge history.^[96] The 74-page textbook was approved by the government as a supplementary text in 2007.^[97] The textbook is aiming at standardising and improving the information students receive about the Khmer Rouge years because the government-issued social studies textbook devotes eight or nine pages to the period.^[97] The publication was a part of their genocide education project that includes leading the design of a national genocide studies curriculum with the Ministry of Education, training thousands of teachers and 1700 high schools on how to teach about genocide, and working with universities across Cambodia.^[96]

Youth for Peace,^[98] a Cambodian NGO that offers education in peace, leadership, conflict resolution, and reconciliation to Cambodian's youth, published a book titled "Behind the Darkness:Taking Responsibility or Acting Under Orders?" in 2011. The book is unique in that, instead of focusing on the victims as most books do, it collects the stories of former Khmer Rouge, giving insights into the functioning of the regime and approaching the question of how such a regime could take place.^[99]

Dialogues

While the tribunal contributes to the memorialization process at national level, some civil society groups promote memorialization at community level. The International Center for Conciliation (ICfC)^[100] began working in Cambodia in 2004 as a branch of the ICfC in Boston. ICfC launched the Justice and History Outreach (JHO) project in 2007 and has worked in villages in rural Cambodia with the goal of creating mutual understanding and empathy between victims and former members of the Khmer Rouge.^[101] Following the dialogues, villagers identify their own ways of memorialization such as collecting stories to be transmitted to the younger generations or building a memorial.^[102] Through the process, some villagers are beginning to accept the possibility of an alternative viewpoint to the traditional notions of evil associated with anyone who worked for the Khmer Rouge regime.^[101]

Media coverage

Radio National Kampuchea (RNK),^[103] as well as private and NGO radio stations, broadcast programmes on the Khmer Rouge and trials.^[104] ECCC has its own weekly radio program on RNK, which provides an opportunity for the public to interact with court officials and deepen their understanding of Cases.^[105]

Youth for Peace,^[98] a Cambodian NGO that offers education in peace, leadership, conflict resolution, and reconciliation to Cambodian's youth, has broadcast the weekly radio program "You also have a chance" since 2009.^[106] Aiming at preventing the passing on of hatred and violence to future generations, the program allows former Khmer Rouge to talk anonymously about their past experience.^[106]

All Cambodian television stations include regular coverage of the progress of the trials.^[104] The following stations feature special programming:

• Cambodian Television Network (CTN) (English/Khmer) maintains a special van at the court for live transmission of the proceedings.^[104]
• National Television Kampuchea (TVK) (Khmer)
• Apsara TV (English/French/Khmer) targets viewers in Europe, Australia, and North America.^[104]

International television stations such as the

Channel News Asia also cover the development of trials.^[104]

ECCC also uses various social media to update the development of the tribunal.[107]

Historic legacy

After taking power, the Khmer Rouge leadership renamed the country Democratic Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge subjected Cambodia to a radical social reform process that was aimed at creating a purely agrarian-based Communist society.^[108] The Khmer Rouge forced around two million people from the cities to the countryside to take up work in agriculture. They forced many people out of their homes and ignored many basic human freedoms; they controlled how Cambodians acted, what they wore, to whom they could talk, and many other aspects of their lives. Over the next three years, the Khmer Rouge killed many intellectuals, city-dwellers, minority people, and many of their own party members and soldiers who were suspected of being traitors.^[109]

The Khmer Rouge wanted to eliminate anyone suspected of "involvement in

free-market activities". Suspected capitalists encompassed professionals and almost everyone with an education, many urban dwellers, and people with connections to foreign governments.^[110]

The Khmer Rouge believed that parents were tainted with capitalism, so they separated children from their parents, indoctrinated them in communism, and taught them torture methods with animals. Children were a "dictatorial instrument of the party"^[111] and were given leadership in torture and executions.^[1]

One of their mottos, in reference to the New People (usually urban civilians), was: "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss."^[112] The philosophy of the Khmer Rouge had developed over time. It started as a communist party^[109] that was working together and searching for direction from the Vietnamese guerrillas who were fighting their own civil war.^[113]

The movement gained strength and support in the northeastern jungles and established firm footing when Cambodia's leader Prince Sihanouk was removed from office during a military coup in 1970. The former prince then looked to the Khmer Rouge for backing, and with the threat of civil war looming, the Khmer Rouge were able to supplant the Lon Nol led Khmer Republic in most of the Cambodian countryside.^[114]

After four years of rule, the Khmer Rouge regime was removed from power in 1979 as a result of an

peace agreement, their leader Pol Pot formally dissolved the organization. Pol Pot died on 15 April 1998,^[115] having never been put on trial.^[116]

See also

Allegations of United States support for the Khmer Rouge Alive in the Killing Fields (book) Cambodian Civil War Cambodian genocide denial Killing Fields Cambodia Tribunal Cham people Choeung Ek Cold War Command responsibility Crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity under Communist regimes Dap Prampi Mesa Chokchey

Democratic Kampuchea Dith Pran Genocides in history Stalinism Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Court for Khmer Rouge crimes, only five accused through this) Maoism Mass killings under Communist regimes Operation Menu S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine Theary Seng, president of the Center for Cambodian Civic Education (CIVICUS) Totalitarianism Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Enemies of the People, a documentary film depicting co-director Thet Sambath's quest to find truth and closure in the Killing Fields of Cambodia. The Missing Picture , a documentary film illustrating the cruelty inflicted upon Cambodians when Pol Pot came to power through news footage and clay figurines.

References

Further reading

• Affonço, Denise. To the End of Hell: One Woman's Struggle to Survive Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. London: Reportage Press, 2007.
• Becker, Elizabeth. When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution. New York: PublicAffairs, 1998.
• Bizot, Francois
  . The Gate. New York: Knopf, 2003.
• Bultmann, Daniel. "Irrigating a Socialist Utopia: Disciplinary Space and Population Control under the Khmer Rouge, 1975–1979," Transcience, vol. 3, no. 1 (2012), pp. 40–52.
• Chanda, Nayan, Brother Enemy: The War After the War. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986.
• ISBN 0-8133-3511-6
  .
• Chandler, David P. Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1992.
  ISBN 0-8133-3510-8
• Criddle, JoAn D. To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987.
  ISBN 978-0-9632205-1-6
• Him, Chanrithy. When Broken Glass Floats: Growing up under the Khmer Rouge, A Memoir. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.
• ISBN 0-300-09649-6
  .
• Kiernan, Ben. How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975. 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
  ISBN 0-300-10262-3
  .
• Ngor, Haing
  . A Cambodian Odyssey. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
• Nhem, Boraden. Khmer Rouge: Ideology, Militarism, and the Revolution that Consumed a Generation Praeger, 2013.
  ISBN 978-0-313-39337-2
  .
• Pran, Dith (Comp.). Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997.
• Panh, Rithy with Bataille, Christopher. The Elimination: a Survivor of the Khmer Rouge Confronts his Past. Clerkenwell, 2013. A dispassionate interview and analysis of "Duch", who was head of security for the Khmer regime. Written by a surviving victim.
• Shawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979.
• ISBN 0-425-16805-0
  .
• ISBN 0-06-093138-8
• Olivier Weber, Les Impunis, Un voyage dans la banali té du mal (Robert Laffont, 2013)
• Piergiorgio Pescali, S-21 Nella prigione di Pol Pot La Ponga Edizioni, Milan, 2015.
  ISBN 978-8897823308

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Khmer Rouge.

• The Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force
• Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)
• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia
• Selected Documents of the Khmer Rouge
• Cambodia Tribunal Monitor
• Khmer Rouge S21 art exhibition at Tuol Sleng Jan 26, 2011 – Apr 26, 2011 by Peter Klashorst

Other online sources

• Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, a consortium of academic, philanthropic, and non-profit organizations, provides free access to videos of the proceedings, relevant news and statements, as well as an overview of each case.
• Cambodian Genocide Program (CGP) at Yale University offers a comprehensive set of resources on the Khmer Rouge and the tribunal including news updates, photographs, databases, literature, maps, overview of US involvement in the Cambodian war and genocide, and links to other organizations.
• Cambodian Genocide Project by Genocide Watch updates the development of the tribunal on the website.
• Best Movies About Cambodia that you can watch online via Amazon Instant Video.

Genocide

• Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Genocide from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
• Yale University: Cambodian Genocide Program
• Digital Archive of Cambodian Holocaust Survivors
• PBS Frontline/World: Pol Pot's Shadow
• Survivor of the killing fields describes her experience, from the
  Deacon of death
• Cambodia Tales: Khmer Rouge torture and killing paintings
• Khmer Rouge Tribunal Updates from
  Genocide Watch
• Genocide of Cham Muslims
• PROSECUTING STARVATION AT THE EXTRAORDINARY CHAMBERS IN THE COURTS OF CAMBODIA
• A Search For Justice by the Women Forced to Marry Strangers
• State Violence in Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979) and Retribution (1979-2004)

Uncategorized

• Documentation Center of Cambodia Accessed February 6, 2005
• Chigas, George (2000). "Building a Case Against the Khmer Rouge: Evidence from the Tuol Sleng and Santebal Archives". Harvard Asia Quarterly. 4 (1): 44–49.