THE KILLING FIELDS OF CAMBODIA

     After the Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge, a communists group and led by SalothSar aka Pol Pot conquered the capital city of Phnom Penh in Cambodia in 1975. After that, they changed the name of country to Democratic Kampuchea. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge’s ideas were based on an extreme form of Maoism and they planned to bring the country back to the “Year Zero” by creating an equal society comprised of an agricultural class. They believed Cambodia should become self-sufficient because Cambodia was corrupted due to foreign influences and modern ideas. The genocide in Cambodia which lasted from 1975 to 1979 was started by Khmer Rouge when they  implemented  their plans.

   In 1976, Pol Pot became the prime minister of Democratic Kampuchea with the help of the Khmer Rouge. Their purposes were to make Cambodia pure and destroy all things which were  non-Cambodian. Therefore, they tried to save Cambodia from “the evils” of  capitalism. People were killed simply for knowing another language or meeting some foreign friends. If people lived in a city or held a job except farming, they would be tortured in prisons. People in cities were forced to live in villages and work in the fields. Families were killed if they were against the government. As a result, it is estimated that 2 million people died during this period because of the policy of Pol Pot and hunger and diseases which were caused by the collapse of the economic system in the country.

   Neighbouring communist nation Vietnam decided to invade Cambodia so as to put Khmer Rouge to flight and end their reign of terror. In 1979, Vietnamese groups and Cambodian communists who were pro-Vietnam ended the Pol Pot regime and Pol Pot escaped to China and the soldiers of Khmer Rouge had to retreat into the tips of the country. The genocide was finished but guerrilla wars continued until 1998. In 1992, Khmer Rouge and other groups signed an agreement to end the civil war in Paris after Vietnamese groups retreated from the country but Khmer Rouge continued to make trouble to prevent the  implementation of the treaty. When Pol Pot died in 1998, Khmer Rouge dispersed. All members of Khmer Rouge were captured or surrendered after the death of Khieu Samphan, their second leader.

   However, a tragic incident happened in S-21. S-21 was a prison where over 14.000 people were incarcerated. The head of S-21 was Kang Kech Ieu. He was strict and intimidating and known as a Brother Duck. The staff members of the prison were between 15 and 19 years old. Only 7 people could survive in this prison after the genocide. That was 1 out of every 2000 people. Before they were killed, they were documented and photographed by the Khmer Rouge.

   As a consequence, there were 8 million people before the takeover of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Nearly 1.4 million people were exterminated and nearly 600,000 people died as a result of Khmer Rouge methods (diseases and starvation). So 25% of the Cambodian population died as a result of this genocide.