The Cambodian Genocide
According to George Orwell’s 1984
By: Hasan Abdallah
E.J Lajeunesse High School
Abstract
Many genocides have occurred throughout history killing thousands, even millions of innocent people. Most of us have probably heard about the Cambodian Genocide which took place during the Cold War. Cambodia is a small country located in Southeast Asia. Norodom Sihanouk, the leader of Cambodia was in a middle of a civil war when he was being overthrown by Lon Nol, the leader of the Khmer Republic. In order to regain power, Sihanouk joined forces with a communist organization called the Khmer Rouge. The leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, who strongly believed in a communist society where everyone was equal and
…show more content…
The Communist Party of Kampuchea, otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge were a group of communists who were led by Pol Pot, the leader of the communist party of Cambodia. Upon seizing power in 1975, Khmer Rouge and their leader Pol Pot began a murderous regime that lasted until 1979. Pol Pot was educated in France and deeply admired chinese communism. The Khmer Rouge believed that all intellectuals were a threat to communism and needed to be destroyed. The first part of the Cambodian genocide began with a mass Exodus. Everyone was forced to leave the cities, including the sick, elderly, and children. People who were too slow or refused to leave were killed on the spot. Pol Pot’s plan was to make Cambodia into an organization of farms, with the citizens as the laborers. The country’s name was changed to Kampuchea and all civil rights and liberties were immediately taken away. Basically everything was shut down; hospitals, colleges, and factories included. The Khmer Rouge believed that their biggest threats were intellectuals because they had the intelligence to question authority and possibly overthrow the regime. Thus, teachers, doctors, lawyers and even members of the army were immediately killed. Even wearing glasses was enough reason for the Khmer Rouge to murder civilians. They took eliminating intellectuals so seriously that even extended families were killed; for example, the second cousin of a doctor could be killed for his