Genocide: Cambodian Case Study

Ever since the actions in Cambodia occurred, it has been debated whether it was an actual genocide. The general definition of genocide is the purposeful and methodical execution of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia demonstrated that a government can be guilty of genocide against its own nation. The radical communist party led by Pol Pot took over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. After 1979, the Khmer Rouge left a traumatized Cambodian culture that continues to undergo the repercussions of the genocide. People over the age of forty in Cambodia have stories to tell of fear, cruelty, hunger and the loss of family members. However, the Cambodian government is not making an effort to recognize the negative occurrences that have posed itself in the history of their culture.

From the dawn of time to even now, genocides have been happening throughout history. Some earlier genocides have not even been recorded or documented. Genocides happen because one group wants complete control and absolute power of another. People can be killed for having different ideals or being different. Knowing this, one could see that genocides only end with senseless and brutal discrimination and death. From 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge carried out a genocide in Cambodia killing all people who seemed to oppose them and their communist government (“The Cambodian Genocide”).

The definition of genocide, according to the United Nations, was the attempt to destroy “a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group” by killing members, causing mental or bodily harm, harsh living conditions, prevention of births, and separating children from their families. There are four patterns of genocide, which do not always occur in every genocide since they’re not all the same. The four patterns include persecution, which is hostility and ill-treatment, especially toward a specific race, political, or religious belief done by the ruler or government. Next is displacement or when a group of people is forced to leave their native country. Continuing, public humiliation is another pattern that freely shows off a group of people being tortured or persecuted in plain sight. Finally when selective groups of people face at terrible fate while another group is spared the same fate as them is selective murder. Those were the four, very cruel and unfair, patterns of genocide.

This issue is genocide because of the mass killings that occurred. The Khmer Rouge was brutal and killed anybody that they thought couldn’t work or was in opposition to their ideals. Cambodia lost 25% of its population, with over two millions killed. When more than two million innocent people are killed, it is hard, if not impossible to call what happened in Cambodia, not Genocide. Many people witnessed the deaths of their family and friends, leaving them with nightmares and emotional scars (Carney 1).

On the other hand, in the Cambodian genocide the targets weren’t assassinated on site by the soldiers. They had a similar death of those in the Jewish Holocaust. They were sent into the Killing Fields where a great quantity of Cambodians were brutally assassinated and buried at a rough estimation of 1.7 to 2.5 million. The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. You would be arrested for having any type of connection with anyone outside the country. The Khmer Rouge’s polices were guided by its belief that the citizens of Cambodia had been tainted and corrupted by exposure to outside ideas, especially those from the capitalist West. The Khmer Rouge persecuted those who were educated, such as doctors and lawyers, and those who were or had been in the military or police force all which would later be assassinated. [ii] Its goal was to create a society in which no one competed against another and all people worked for the common good. This was accomplished through placing people in collective living arrangements, or communes. A commune was where various families were put together and had to work

Cambodia experienced mass death, approximately 1.7 million lives, during the Cambodian genocide of 1975 through 1979. The Khmer Rouge regime dominated the Cambodian government and attempted to purge the population of intellectuals, professionals and supporters of the original government. In an attempt to better the country’s economic standing at a horrendously rapid rate, the country instead experienced mass destruction. The purpose of this paper is to explore the various ways devastation was brought upon Cambodia and how it affected the populace. In the 1950’s the country was engulfed by the civil war north and south Vietnam was waging after gaining independence from France. The battlefield of the war overflowed into Cambodia and caused physical

During times of trouble it is the structure of families which bring stability and fuel resilience. Families often support each other to survive a trauma because they are support systems. The Cambodian genocide led by the Khmer Rouge regime attempted to tear apart families and exploit their special bond. The Khmer Rouge soldiers took towns captive or burned them, and recruited youths to join their cause (Pran IX). From 1975 to 1979, all Cambodians were forced to live in labor camps and were forced to work fourteen to eighteen hours a day with only a single bowl of rice to eat. Family members were separated from one another purposefully to lower morale. During this period an estimated one-third of Cambodian’s population died due to malnutrition, illness, and execution (Pran X). Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors compiled by Dith Pran is important because it confirms the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime, explains how the Khmer Rouge gained power, and how the Khmer Rouge attempted to indoctrinate young children against their parents.

The Cambodian Genocide took place from 1975 to 1979 in the Southeastern Asian country of Cambodia. The genocide was a brutal massacre that killed 1.4 to 2.2 million people, about 21% of Cambodia’s population. This essay, will discuss the history of the Cambodian genocide, specifically, what happened, the victims and the perpetrators and the world’s response to the genocide.

Pol pot's had been taken over and many Cambodians suffered so much from the genocide during the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970. One out of Three of the population in Cambodia died during that time. It has been established that the Khmer Rouge targeted particular groups of people, among them were educated elites. The elites consisted of masters, Ph.D., professors, students, and international student. In addition, people who have survived from the Khmer Rouge (pol pot) lied about their education. If they knew that they lied, they would have died in the camp. The most sadness, memories ever which were, they had lost their friend, cousin and family. According to this two article "SCREAM BLOODY MURDER" by Jennifer Hyde, and "WHY THE ARTS ARE AS IMPORTANT

The underlying foundations of the Cambodian genocide are found in the Maoist political and economic beliefs of the Khmer Rouge administration. The most important leaders, all of whom studied in Paris in the 1950s and became active in the communist movement together, were Saloth Sar (who would later re-brand himself as Pol Pot), Ieng Sary, and Khieu Samphan. 30 The significance of their time together in France is that they developed what to them seemed a coherent political and economic model for the future of their home country, Cambodia.31 The last real stage in transforming

The aftermath of this mass genocide made Cambodia known for its infamous “Killing Fields” during the time of Pol Pot and his men. Last but not least, the genocide nearly exterminated the population of two million Cambodians out of six millions (Yale University, 2003).

International media coverage failure in the Cambodian genocide is clearly evident in the denial following the genocide as Khmer Rouge leaders tried to minimize their blatant abuses on human rights, blaming contrary information as "tales told by refugees" and U.S. propaganda. And because of the lack of information and evidences, genocide trials only began a few decades later after the genocide in 2014. Since the sparse media coverage lead to failure of preventing the genocide and protecting human rights, the Cambodian genocide was understandably dubbed

Genocides are defined as a large group of killings often of a specific ethnic group or nation. Genocides targeting specific groups happen all over the world. Sometimes they are well known, while in other cases they are hidden and not published as much. Unlike the Holocaust, The Khmer Rouge Regime caused a smaller scale genocide in the heart of Cambodia. Beginning in the late 1960s the Khmer Rouge Regime came into power. Their leader Pol Pot committed atrocities, killing a little over two million innocent people. Pol Pot believed that this new society was becoming evil. He decided to bring the city of Phnom Penh back to the middle ages with communal farming. He murdered every “intellectual” of the country. He killed anyone who had any education, or even worse, glasses. He isolated the city and everybody in it. There are many stories coming from the victim's point of view and how they felt as 2.2 million of their own were killed. There are also reasons of why the Cambodian government's committed this atrocity. Finally, there are the views from America and its feelings towards watching the genocide go down from outside the country. Looking through all of these different lenses of this genocide help get a big picture of how and why something so horrific could have happened.

To better understand the atrocities of these wars, one must have knowledge of the definitions of certain terms and war crimes. The ideas of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” are often thrown

In the late 70’s, nearly 2 million Cambodians died of overwork, starvation, torture, and execution in what became known as the Cambodian genocide. A group known as the Khmer Rouge took control of the country in April 1975. Over the course of