Cambodian Genocide Essay

The True Impact of the Cambodian Genocide The Cambodian Genocide was a tragic event that took place in 1975 and lasted until about 1979. The genocide was led by Pol Pot and the communist party Kampuchea, also knowns as the Khmer Rouge. Millions of people were killed during this catastrophe. The Khmer Rouge was are the regime that controlled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Throughout the 196, the Khmer Rouge operated as the armed wing of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the name, the party used for Cambodia (“Khmer Rouge”). The group mainly operated in remote jungles and the mountain area, near the Vietnam Border. the Khmer Rouge did not have popular support across Cambodia, particularly in the cities, including the capital Phnom Penh (History.com). The Regime started to gain more support in 1970 when a military coup led to the expulsion of Cambodia’s monarch at the time; The Khmer Rouge took this opportunity and joined forces with the former leader in an effort to gain control of the country once again. The

Former civil servants, doctors, teachers and other professionals were stripped of their possessions and forced to toil in the fields as part of a re-education process (History.com). Pol Pot established many farm collectives and rice fields; workers “began to suffer from the effects of overwork and lack of food”(“Khmer Rouge”). Eventually every city in Cambodia had its own concentration camp; prisoners were in camps where most people died from starvation “damage to their bodies sustained during back-breaking work or abuse from the ruthless Khmer Rouge guards overseeing the camps” (history.com); the Khmer Rouge mainly targeted intellectuals and people who they thought would start a revolutionary movement. One famous camp was Tuol Sleng jail in Phnom Penh, where nearly 17,000 men, women, and children were imprisoned during the regime’s four years in