Page 59 - All About History - Issue 52-17

Bluffer’s Guide
THE KHMER ROUGE REGIME

What was it?
The Khmer Rouge began as the paramilitary wing of
the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia in
the 1960s but rose to power during the five-year civil war
triggered by a right-wing coup in 1970. Once the Khmer
Rouge had successfully taken control of the country, their
leader, Pol Pot, immediately began implementing his vision
of a society consisting entirely of self-sufficient peasant
farmers. Cities were cleared and the inhabitants sent to
farms where they were forced to work for 12 hours a day
without taking a break.
The Khmer Rouge demanded that farms triple their
agricultural output, despite being run by former city-
dwellers who had absolutely no farming experience.
Families were split up so that children would be free
from the corrupting ideas of their parents. Money, private
property and religion were all abolished. Education was
banned, and being able to speak a foreign language or even
just wearing glasses were seen as criminally subversive.
It is estimated that 1 million people were executed
and another million either starved to death or died of
exhaustion in the labour camps.
What were the
consequences?
The Khmer Rouge were removed from power in
1979 after Vietnam invaded the country. But they
didn’t disappear completely. They retreated to the west
of Cambodia and retained control of the mountainous
region along the border with Thailand. Under the name
‘Democratic Kampuchea’, the Khmer Rouge kept a seat
at the United Nations until 1993 because of political
disagreements over legitimising the Vietnamese invasion.
Pol Pot was deposed by his own followers and died under
house arrest in a tiny jungle village in 1998.
By 1999, almost all the leadership had surrendered or
been captured and the Khmer Rouge ceased to exist. In
2014, Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s deputy, and Khieu Samphan,
Did the Khmer Rouge head of state, both in their eighties, were
found guilty of crimes against humanity by a UN court and
you know? given life sentences. The charges against less senior leaders
and camp commanders have so far all been dismissed.
In international law, Who was involved?
Cambodia’s mass killings
aren’t classed as genocide, Pol Pot
because they didn’t 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998
Leader of the Khmer Rouge. Despite being
target ethnic
fond of French literature, he brutally
groups.
suppressed all education in Cambodia.
Nuon Chea
7 July 1926 – present
Known as ’Brother Number Two’. He
18 APRIL 1978 25 DECEMBER 1978
negotiated the 1970 Vietnamese invasion
that triggered the Cambodian civil war.
Pol Pot orders an Vietnam inally loses
invasion of Vietnam patience with Cambodia
and his troops over the border raids Ieng Sary
massacre 3,157 and counterattacks. 24 October 1925 – 14 March 2013
civilians in the border Phnom Penh is Foreign minister and deputy prime minister
town of Ba Chúc, captured two weeks
before being repelled later and the Khmer of the Khmer Rouge. He died in prison while © Getty Images
by Vietnamese forces. Rouge lee. awaiting trial for war crimes.
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