Cambodia Genocide

By: Ben Elliott, Jeremy Long, Nick Gross, Julia Bloomfield

When did it happen?

1975 - 1979

1975 - Khmer Rouge obtain total power

1976 - Pol Pot becomes prime minister Cambodia named

Democratic of Kampuchea

1977- Fight with Vietnam

1978 - Vietnamese invade

1979 - Vietnamese take over Phnom Penh Khmer Rouge flee

Where did it happen?

Cambodia

The invasion of Cambodias capital city, Phnom Penh was the

beginning of the genocide
Who committed the Genocide?

Khmer Rouge

Communist party

Led by Pol Pot, a Cambodian politician and revolutionary

Killed anyone against communism

Killed or removed anyone unable to work to their full potential

Who was the target of the Genocide?

Pol Pot comes into power and the Khmer Rouge mission begins

Wanted to become a communist country

Wanted everyone to be farmers and labor workers

Pol Pot (died at 73 1998)

Anyone opposed to communism and intellectuals were killed

The ill, disabled and elderly were forced out or killed.

What were the motives/reasons for the Genocide?

During the Vietnamese war the United States used Cambodia as a regrouping place

United States president at the time Richard Nixon then proceeded to make a B-52 carpet
bombing campaign against Cambodia

This lead to instability in the Country

The Communist Party of Kampuchea or the Khmer Rouge, took power due to the
struggle in cambodia against colonization of France

By 1975 Khmer Rouge took power.

How was the Genocide carried out?

Political and civil rights were taken away

Children were placed in labor camps

Factories and schools were shut down

Lawyers, doctors, teacher or any professional job holders including people in the military were killed

People with Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai, along with Cambodians with Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai ancestry

were killed

Religion was banned and temples were burnt down

Symbolization

Doctors, scientists, and other intellectuals stripped of rights

Infirm catalogued and removed

Religious minorities separated

All enemies of the state eliminated

Dehumanization

People forced to work in labor camps

All jobs were standardized

Individualism punished with death

Courts and trials no longer occurred

Family relationships a punishable occurrence

Organization

Citizens lived in government housing

Standardized jobs, food, clothing options, etc.

Citizens rounded up and sent to jail for fake crimes

Special prisons

Labor Camps converted into killing fields by government

Polarization
Prince Sihanouk and monarchy deposed

military coup

Lieutenant Lon Nol takes over Prince Sihanouk

Prince Sihanouk joins Khmer Rouge

With supporters

Khmer Rouge Attacks Lon Nol

Civil war starts

Khmer Rouge wins Lon Nol

Preparation
Different kind of genocide

Auto-Genocide

They were killing themselves

Khmer Rouge changes things

Urban citizens go to rural areas

All forms of intelligence/ class distinction are bad

No death lists created

Targeted people who symbolized anti-Communism

Extermination
Estimated between 1.7 and 2 million
Cambodians died

Happened during a 4 year period

Anyone perceived as the opposition was killed-

doctors,teachers, the rich, monks etc.

An effective way of killing was starvation

Worked people to death in labor camps

Many people murdered in killing fields

Denial
Many Khmer Rouge leaders deny
responsibility for the atrocities

Nuon Chea and ex. Head of State

Khieu Samphan denied their
crimes in court

They both insisted they were unaware

of what the regime was doing
How did the United States respond to the Genocide?

United States response was very

limited

Didnt want to send in military-

involvement in Vietnam

President Carter recognized them to

be the worst violator of human
rights in the world today
Works Cited
http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_cambodia1.html

http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/the-cambodian-genocide/

http://combatgenocide.org/?page_id=68