The Cambodian genocide of 19751979 in which approximately 17 to 20 million people lost their lives 21 of the countrys population was one of the worst human tragedies of the last century As ID: 620188
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Slide1
The Killing Fields of CambodiaSlide2
The Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979, in which approximately 1.7 to 2.0 million people lost their lives (21% of the country's population), was one of the worst human tragedies of the last century.
As in Nazi Germany, and more recently in East Timor, Guatemala, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, the Khmer Rouge regime headed by Pol Pot combined extremist ideology with ethnic animosity and a diabolical disregard for human life to produce repression, misery, and murder on a massive scale. Slide3
Cambodia
1975-1979
The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Communist regime Khmer Rouge, which ruled the country from 1975-1979.
One Khmer slogan ran:
'To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.'
The massacres ended in 1979, when Communist Vietnam invaded the country and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime. Slide4
Symbolic emblem
SR-21, a former school was turned into a torture factory during the Cambodia genocide. Thousands of people who were sent here would be given a number tag, as a symbol of recognition. Those people would later be tortured or executed. A total of 14,000 Cambodians were jailed here and only 10 of them survived.
Photos of prisoners with number tags on.Slide5
The Khmer Rouge were the ruling party of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979
They were responsible for one of the worst mass killings of the 20th CenturySlide6
The Khmer Rouge had its origins in the 1960s, as the armed wing of the Communist Party of Kampuchea - the name the Communists used for
CambodiaBased in remote jungle and mountain areas in the north-east of the country, the group initially made little headwaySlide7
But after a right-wing military coup toppled head of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk in 1970, the Khmer Rouge entered into a political coalition with him and began to attract increasing support
In a civil war that continued for nearly five years, the Khmer Rouge gradually increased its control in the
countryside
Khmer Rouge forces finally took over the capital, Phnom Penh, and therefore the nation as a whole in
1975Slide8
On April 17, 1975, victorious Khmer Rouge troops entered the capital, Phnom Penh, of Cambodia
The Khmer Rouge were enthusiastically greeted as they entered the capitalYet the Khmer Rouge were embittered
after years of
fighting the brutal civil
war and
years of American bombingSlide9
Khmer Rouge soldiers
marched into Phnom Penh with icy stares carved into their facesSlide10
Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge
During his time in the remote northeast, Pol Pot had been influenced by
the hill tribes
He respected their self-sufficiency, communal
living, no use for money,
and being “untainted”
by
BuddhismSlide11
Political
leader: Pol Pot
He and his army, called the Khmer Rouge, came to power in Cambodia in 1975.
He was named prime minister of the new communist government in 1976 and began a program of violet reform.
In hope of creating a society free of western influence, he abolished religion, institute, private property and evacuated cities.
Under his regime, forced labor, execution and famine killed ~2 million Cambodians. Slide12
Khmer Rouge “Enemies” of the Khmer Rouge
Anyone part of the old governmentProfessionals and intellectualsEthnic Chinese, Thai, or other minoritiesPeople who lacked agricultural abilitySlide13
Khmer Rouge Pol Pot closes schools, factories. Money is burned, private property confiscated
Intellectuals are targeted first to avoid Western influencePeople who spoke other languages, wore eyeglasses or wristwatches, were skilled workers, etc. are killed Between 1975-1979, two million people are killedExecuted, starvation, forced labor, malnutrition, etc. Slide14
Under directives from Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge began to order
the people to abandon their homes in Phnom PenhPol Pot believed that an ideal communist society was a society where all
people
lived and worked in
the countryside as
peasants
Peasants, in fact, were the Khmer Rouge communist ideal Slide15
The Khmer Rouge felt that some people had made an active choice to live in cities and
as city dwellers had declared their allegiance to capitalismAll city dwellers
were
enemies of the new communist
stateSlide16
1975 to 1978 – a campaign of “cleansing” by The Kampuchean Communist Party
They required destruction of cities and the foreign-educated elite in order to rustify, or to make rural, the country. The goal was a centralized communal organization of atheistic factory workers and peasant farmers free of external support. Cities were raided and people relocated to communal farms. Most people were left to starve or work to deathSlide17
How did he intend to pull this off?
By enlisting the youth (9,10, 11 year old kids) of the country in his new army known as the
Khmer Rouge
(the young are easy to influence).
By wiping the country clean of traces of the past (killing those with knowledge of the past).
By controlling all aspects of the country (politically, economically and socially)Slide18
By forcing all citizens into collectives to work according to age, gender and skill.
By holding indoctrination sessions every evening to remind them all of the wonderful rewards of communism.
By publicly murdering anyone that questioned the Khmer Rouge.Slide19
When the Khmer took over:
The populations of Cambodia's cities were forced to evacuate the cities, move to the countryside and engage in agricultural labor. = Communes/Collectives/CooperativesSlide20
Pol Pot also developed a
“four-year plan” in which Cambodians were expected to produce an average national yield of 3 metric tons of rice per hectare (1.4 tons per acre)But even in peacetime years,
the average national yield was only one metric ton of rice per hectare Slide21
To meet these new demands on rice production,
the Khmer Rouge enforced strict policies where workers labored in fields for 12 hours a day without adequate rest or foodSlide22
Many people lacked any experience in manual labor and became ill and died Slide23
“Keeping new people [city dwellers] is no benefit,”
so the Khmer Rouge slogan went; “Losing them is no loss.”Slide24
Foraging for food was a capital offense, despite the fact
that the food allowance was so low, hundreds of thousands of people starved to death Slide25
In addition, new rules in Kampuchea were being imposed by Angka
(“The Organization”), a secretive team of Khmer Rouge leaders Angka banned family relationships and often took advantage of children
Young children were seen as being pure and untainted by
capitalism or family and thus, trained as informers for the new state and future Khmer Rouge soldiersSlide26
They closed most institutions (schools, banks, government buildings, churches) and vowed to provided for their needs in the countryside.
They required absolute obedience from all Cambodians.Slide27
Khmer Slogan
“Keeping new people is no benefit, losing them is no loss.”Slide28
If a Cambodian
spoke French, was educated, wore glasses, or practiced Buddhism; he was killedFamilies with connections to previous Cambodian governments were susceptible to ill treatment; while former soldiers and civil servants executedSlide29
Among the Khmer
Rouge’s rules; religion, money, and private ownership were banned
Communications
with outside world
was eliminated
Families were dismantledSlide30
Yes, Pol Pot said that 2000 years of Cambodian history had now come to an
endOn April 17, 1975, the
Year
Zero
was declared in
Cambodia
The country was renamed the
Democratic Kampuchea (DK)Slide31
Pol Pot isolated people from the rest
of world and set about emptying cities, abolishing money, private property, religion, and setting up rural collectivesSlide32
The Khmer Rouge government was finally overthrown in 1979 by invading Vietnamese troops, after a series of violent border confrontations Slide33
While both Vietnamese and Cambodian communist
forces grudgingly supported each other as they fought U.S.-backed forces in South Vietnam and Cambodia during the Vietnam War, ethnic animosities prevented them from developing any lasting bonds Slide34
The Khmer Rouge received support from China, Vietnam's rival to north, while
the Vietnamese were assisted by U.S.S.R., which competed with China Slide35
By January 7, 1979, Vietnamese forces successfully occupied Phnom PenhSlide36
Vietnamese soldiers were shocked
to see that Cambodia was pockmarked by sunken depressions of dirtThe depressions marked the spots of mass graves: of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians slaughtered by their own countrymen (the Killing Fields)Slide37
Pol Pot was denounced by his former comrades in a show trial in July 1997, and sentenced to house arrest in his jungle home
Less than a year later he was dead - denying the millions of people who were affected by this brutal regime the chance to bring him to justice Slide38
The Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979, eliminated approximately 1.7 million people
(21% of the country's population)
A Killing FieldSlide39
According to Yale University’s Cambodian Genocide Program
There were over 200 killing sites9,500 mass grave pitsSlide40
International Communities’ Response
The process of justice for the genocide in Cambodia started on June 21, 1997, when the Cambodian co-prime ministers asked the United Nations to step in and help organize the trials for those involved in the Khmer Rouge. In 1998 a group of experts was formed to examine the evidence, the law and different options of how to proceed with the trials of the Khmer Rouge.
This
group worked from July 1998 until February 1999 looking at three different things: evaluating the evidences and the crime, apprehending people responsible, the different option for bringing people to justice.Slide41
Role of the UN“
United Nations administrative tribunal helps those people who lived under Cambodian genocide to seek for their justice.
”
“
The United Nations Peace building Commission helps to ensure predictable financing for early recovery activities and sustained financial investment over the medium- to longer-term.
”Slide42
Members of the UN
“Responding to the invitation of the Secretary-General, His Excellency Kofi Annan, a Cambodian delegation led by His Excellency Sok An Senior Minister in Charge of the Council of Ministers has come to New York and has engaged in seven meetings - one with the Secretary-General himself, and six with representatives of the United Nations Secretariat, led by His Excellency Hans Corell, Legal Counsel, preparing for a resumption of negotiations for Khmer Rouge Trials for these crimes, in accordance with the General Assembly Resolution 57/288 of 18 December 2002.”
Thomas
Hammarberg
is the representative for Cambodia and was the one able to get the Cambodian government to ask for help from the United NationsSlide43
The Cambodian Genocide – 1975 - 1979
Apology at genocide
trial – April 1, 2009
Cambodian is accused of role in Khmer Rouge
The tribunal's proceedings are the first serious attempt to fix responsibility for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution under the 1975-79 rule of the Khmer Rouge, whose top leader,
Pol
Pot, died in 1998.
Duch, 66, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as murder and torture and could face a maximum penalty of life in prison. Cambodia has no death penalty.
He commanded the group's main S-21 prison, also known as
Tuol
Sleng
, where as many as 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been brutalized before being sent to their deaths
.Slide44
Summary
By 1979, the Khmer Rouge regime had killed around 2 million people, which is about 30% of the population. The Khmer Rouge was head by Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot. On
April 17
th
1975 the Khmer Rouge , a communist group led by Pol Pot, took power in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
The Khmer Rouge turned back the clock on Cambodia to more uncivilized times.
Institutions
such as stores, banks, hospitals, schools, religion and family were all banned. City dwellers were all forced to the countryside and to work in labor camps. The citizens worked 12 to 14 hour days inside the labor camps. The Khmer Rouge targeted Buddhist monks, Western –educated intellectuals, educated people in general, people who had contact with Western countries, people who appeared to be intelligent (for example, individuals with glasses), the cripple, the lame and ethnic minorities like ethnic Laotians and Vietnams.