Cambodian genocide

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The Cambodian genocide (Khmer: របបប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍) was carried out by the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime led by Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979 in which an estimated 1.5 to 3 million Cambodians were killed by the regime.[1] The Cambodian Civil War resulted in the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea by the Khmer Rouge, who had planned to create a form of agrarian socialism founded on the ideals of Stalinism and Maoism. The forced relocation of the population from urban centers, torture, mass executions, use of forced labor, malnutrition, and disease led to the death of an estimated 25 percent of Cambodia's total population (around 2 million people).[2][3] The genocide ended in 1979 following the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.[4] As of 2009, 23,745 mass graves have been discovered.[5]

On 2 January 2001 the Cambodian government passed legislation to establish the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, to try a limited number of the KR leadership. Trials began on 17 February 2009.[6] On 7 August 2014, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were convicted and received life sentences for crimes against humanity during the genocide.


Some 17,000 people passed through the Tuol Sleng Centre (also known as S-21) before they were taken to sites (also known as The Killing Fields), outside Phnom Penh such as Choeung Ek where most were executed (mainly by pickaxes to save bullets) and buried in mass graves. Of the thousands who entered Tuol Sleng, only seven are known to have survived. Tuol Sleng was only one of some 196 prisons operated by the Khmer Rouge.[7]

Genocide of minorities

The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Cham, Cambodian Christians, and the Buddhist monkhood were the demographic targets of persecution. As a result, Pol Pot has been described as "a genocidal tyrant."[8] British sociologist Martin Shaw described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the Cold War era."[9]

The Khmer Rouge regime targeted various ethnic groups during the genocide, forcibly relocating minority groups, and banning the use of minority languages. This attempt to purify Cambodian society along racial, social and political lines led to purges of the former regime's military and political leadership, along with the leaders of industry, journalists, students, doctors and lawyers as well as members of the Vietnamese and Chinese ethnic groups.[10]

The Khmer Rouge banned by decree the existence of ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese, Muslim Cham, and 20 other minorities, which altogether constituted 15% of the country's total population at the beginning of the Khmer Rouge's rule.[11]

Ethnic and Religious Victims

Vietnamese

The Khmer Rouge massacred ethnic Vietnamese whom they had ordered to be expelled from Cambodia and who were on their way to Vietnam. They also prevented other Vietnamese from fleeing Cambodia and later massacred them.[12]

The remaining 20,000 ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia who were not already repatriated were all killed by the Khmer Rouge.[13] In addition to that, the Khmer Rouge also conducted many cross border raids in Vietnam where they slaughtered 30,000 Vietnamese civilians,[14] with one example being the Ba Chúc massacre where 3,157 Vietnamese civilians were slaughtered at once, forcing the Vietnamese government to urgently respond. Vietnam invaded Cambodia in late 1978 and established the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) led by Khmer Rouge defectors.[15][16]

The Khmer Rouge also used the media to facilitate their goals of genocide. Radio Phnom Penh called on Cambodians to "exterminate the 50 million Vietnamese".[17]

Chinese

The state of the Chinese Cambodians was described as "the worst disaster ever to befall any ethnic Chinese community in Southeast Asia".[11] Cambodians of Chinese descent were massacred by the Khmer Rouge under the justification that they "used to exploit the Cambodian people".[18] The Chinese were stereotyped as traders and moneylenders, and therefore were associated with capitalism. Among the Khmer, the Chinese were also resented for their lighter skin color and cultural differences.[19] Hundreds of Chinese families were rounded up in 1978 and told that they were to be resettled, but were actually executed.[18] At the beginning of the Khmer Rouge's rule in 1975, there were 425,000 ethnic Chinese in Cambodia; by the end in 1979, there were 200,000. In addition to being a proscribed ethnic group by the government, the Chinese were predominantly city-dwellers, making them vulnerable to the Khmer Rouge's revolutionary ruralism.[11] The government of the People's Republic of China did not protest the killings of ethnic Chinese in Cambodia.[20]

Religious Groups

Under the leadership of Pol Pot, who was an ardent atheist,[21] the Khmer Rouge had a policy of state atheism.[22] All religions were banned, and the repression of adherents of Islam,[23] Christianity,[24] and Buddhism was extensive. It is estimated that 25,000-50,000 Buddhist monks were massacred by the regime.[25][26]

Cham Muslims

According to Ben Kiernan, the "fiercest extermination campaign was directed against the ethnic Cham Muslim minority".[27] Islam was seen as an "alien" and "foreign" culture that did not belong in the new Communist system. Initially, the Khmer Rouge aimed for "forced assimilation" of Chams through population dispersal. After this, Pol Pot began intimidation efforts through assassination of village elders and ultimately full-scale mass killing of Cham peoples which American professor Samuel Totten and Australian professor Paul R. Bartrop estimate would have completely wiped out the Cham population were it not for the overthrow of the regime in 1979.[28]

Ideology

Ideology played an important role in the genocide. The desire of the KR to bring the nation back to a "mythic past", the desire to stop aid from abroad from entering the nation, which in their eyes was a corrupting influence, the desire to restore the country to an agrarian society, and the manner in which they tried to implement this goal were all factors of the genocide.[29][30] One KR leader said, it was for the "purification of the populace"[31] that the killings began.

Pol Pot and the KR forced virtually the entire population of Cambodia into mobile work teams.[32] Michael Hunt said that it was "an experiment in social mobilization unmatched in twentieth-century revolutions."[32] The KR used an inhumane labor regime, instilled fear and terror in order to keep the population in line, starvation, upheaval and resettlement, and collectivization of land.[32]

Kiernan compares three genocides in history, the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and the Cambodian genocide, which although unique, shared certain common features. Racism is one, and was a major part of the ideology of all three regimes. Although all three perpetrators were largely secular, they targeted religious minorities. All three also tried to use force of arms to expand into a "contiguous heartland" (Turkestan, Lebensraum, and Kampuchea Krom), all three regimes also "idealized their ethnic peasantry as the true 'national' class, the ethnic soil from which the new state grew."[33]

International reaction

In 1977 the book Cambodge année zéro written by François Ponchaud was released, although the English translation was not published until 1978.[34] Ponchaud was one of the first authors to bring the genocide to the world's attention.[35] Ponchaud has said that the genocide "was above all, the translation into action the particular vision of a man [sic]: A person who has been spoiled by a corrupt regime cannot be reformed, he must be physically eliminated from the brotherhood of the pure."[36] In 1977, Murder of a gentle land: the untold story of a Communist genocide in Cambodia, written by John Barron and Anthony Paul, was published.[37] The book drew on accounts from refugees, and after an abridged version was published in Reader's Digest, it was widely read.[38]

In 1973, Kenneth M. Quinn, serving with the United States (U.S.) embassy, had raised concerns over the atrocities being carried out. In a report, he stated that the KR had "much in common with those of totalitarian regimes in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union".[39] Quinn has written of the KR that "[w]hat emerges as the explanation for the terror and violence that swept Cambodia during the 1970s is that a small group of alienated intellectuals, enraged by their perception of a totally corrupt society and imbued with a Maoist plan to create a pure socialist order in the shortest possible time, recruited extremely young, poor, and envious cadres, instructed them in harsh and brutal methods learned from Stalinist mentors, and used them to destroy physically the cultural underpinnings of the Khmer civilization and to impose a new society through purges, executions, and violence."[40]

During the genocide, China was the main international patron of the Khmer Rouge, supplying "more than 15,000 military advisers" and most of its external aid.[41] As a result of Chinese and Western opposition to the Vietnamese invasion, the Khmer Rouge continued to hold Cambodia's United Nations (UN) seat until 1982, after which the seat was filled by a Khmer Rouge-dominated coalition—the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK).[42][43] China trained Khmer Rouge soldiers on its soil during 1979—1986 (if not later), "stationed military advisers with Khmer Rouge troops as late as 1990,"[42] and "supplied at least $1 billion in military aid" during the 1980s.[44] After the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, Thailand continued to allow the Khmer Rouge "to trade and move across the Thai border to sustain their activities ... although international criticism, particularly from the U.S. and Australia ... caused it to disavow passing any direct military support."[45] There are also allegations that the U.S. directly or indirectly supported the Khmer Rouge to weaken Vietnam's influence in Southeast Asia.[46][47][48]

As of 2009, the Cambodian NGO Documentation Center of Cambodia has mapped some 23,745 mass graves containing approximately 1,386,734 suspected victims of execution; execution is believed to account for roughly 60% of the full death toll.[5]

War crimes trials

Main article: Khmer Rouge Tribunal
The tribunal's main building with the court room

On 15 July 1979, following the overthrow of the KR, the new government passed "Decree Law No, 1". This allowed for the trial of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary for the crime of genocide. They were given an American defence lawyer, Hope Stevens.[49] They were tried in absentia and convicted of genocide.[50]

In January 2001, the Cambodian National Assembly passed legislation to form a tribunal to try members of the KR regime.[51]

Kang Kek Iew

In 1999, Duch was interviewed by Nic Dunlop and Nate Thayer, in which he admitted his guilt over the crimes carried out in Tuol Sleng. He expressed sorrow for his actions and stated he was willing to stand trial, and give evidence against his former comrades. On 16 February 2009 the trial began, and he accepted that he was responsible for the crimes carried out at Tuol Sleng, on 31 March 2009. On 26 July 2010 he was found guilty on charges of crimes against humanity, torture and murder and was given a sentence of 35 years' imprisonment.[52] On 3 February 2012 his previous sentence was replaced with life imprisonment.[53]

Nuon Chea

On 19 September 2007, Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two, was arrested, and later arraigned before the ECCC.[54] At the end of the trial in 2013 he denied all charges, stating that he had not given orders "to mistreat or kill people to deprive them of food or commit any genocide". He was convicted in 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He has expressed remorse and accepted moral responsibility for the crimes, stating "I would like to sincerely apologize to the public, the victims, the families, and all Cambodian people."[55]

Ieng Thirith

Ieng Thirith was arrested on 12 November 2007 at the same time as her husband, Ieng Sary.[56] She was indicted on 10 September 2010, for crimes against humanity and genocide. On 17 November 2011, following evaluations from medical experts, she was found to be unfit to stand trial due to a mental condition.[57]

Khieu Samphan

Khieu Samphan was arrested on 19 November 2007 and charged with crimes against humanity.[58] He was convicted in 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Denial

Main article: Cambodian genocide denial

A few months before his death on 15 April 1998,[59] Pol Pot was interviewed by Thayer. During the interview he stated that he had a clear conscience and denied being responsible for the genocide. Pol Pot asserted that he "came to carry out the struggle, not to kill people". According to Alex Alvarez, Pol Pot "portrayed himself as a misunderstood and unfairly vilified figure".[60]

In 2013, the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen passed legislation which makes illegal the denial of the Cambodian genocide and other war crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge. The legislation was passed after comments by a member of the opposition, Kem Sokha, who is the deputy president of the Cambodian National Rescue Party. Sokha had stated that exhibits at Tuol Sleng were fabricated and that the artifacts had been faked by the Vietnamese following their invasion in 1979. Sokha's party have claimed that the comments have been taken out of context.[61]

In literature and media

According to Deirdre Boyle, Rithy Panh, "who is considered by many to be the cinematic voice of Cambodia, is himself a survivor of the Khmer Rouge's killing fields. Arguably his best known and most affecting documentary is S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, in which he recuperates memory to represent speechless horror and thereby shatter silence. With its unsettling reenactments, S-21 allows us to observe how memory and time may collapse to render the past as present and by doing so reveal the ordinary face of evil."[62]

The genocide is portrayed in the 1984 drama film The Killing Fields and Patricia McCormick's novel Never Fall Down (2012).[63][64]

The genocide is referenced satirically in the Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia".[65]

The genocide is recounted by Loung Ung in her memoir First They Killed My Father (2000).[66][64]

Loung Ung's memoir was made into a 2017 biographical film directed by Angelina Jolie. Set in 1975, the film depicts 5-year-old Ung who is forced to be trained as a child soldier while her siblings are sent to labor camps by the Khmer Rouge regime.[67]

Gallery

  • Tuol Sleng genocide museum
    Tuol Sleng genocide museum
  • Photo from genocide museum
    Photo from genocide museum
  • Tuol Sleng
    Tuol Sleng
  • Tuol Sleng
    Tuol Sleng
  • Genocide museum
    Genocide museum
  • In the museum
    In the museum

See also

References

  1. ^ Frey 2009, p. 83.
  2. ^ Etcheson 2005, p. 119.
  3. ^ Heuveline 1998, pp. 49–65.
  4. ^ Mayersan 2013, p. 182.
  5. ^ a b Seybolt, Aronson & Fischoff 2013, p. 238.
  6. ^ Mendes 2011, p. 13.
  7. ^ "Mapping the Killing Fields". Documentation Center of Cambodia. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  8. ^ William Branigin, Architect of Genocide Was Unrepentant to the End The Washington Post, April 17, 1998
  9. ^ Theory of the Global State: Globality as Unfinished Revolution by Martin Shaw, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp 141, ISBN 978-0-521-59730-2
  10. ^ Alvarez 2001, p. 12.
  11. ^ a b c Gellately, Robert; Kiernan, Ben (2003). The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press. pp. 313–314.
  12. ^ Edward Kissi. Revolution and Genocide in Ethiopia and Cambodia. p. 128.
  13. ^ Philip Spencer. Genocide Since 1945. p. 69.
  14. ^ Rummel, R. J. (2011). Death by Government. p. 191. ISBN 1412821290.
  15. ^ Brinkley 2011, p. 56.
  16. ^ SarDesai 1998, pp. 161–163.
  17. ^ [1]
  18. ^ a b Kiernan, Ben (2008). The Pol Pot regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Yale University Press. p. 431.
  19. ^ Hinton, Alexander Laban (2005). Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide. University of California Press. p. 54.
  20. ^ Chan, Sucheng (2003). Remapping Asian American History. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 189.
  21. ^ Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; p.543
  22. ^ Wessinger, Catherine (2000). Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases. Syracuse University Press. p. 282. ISBN 9780815628095. Democratic Kampuchea was officially an atheist state, and the persecution of religion by the Khmer Rouge was matched in severity only by the persecution of religion in the communist states of Albania and North Korea, so there were not any direct historical continuities of Buddhism into the Democratic Kampuchea era.
  23. ^ Juergensmeyer, Mark. The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions. Oxford University Press. p. 495. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  24. ^ Quinn-Judge, Westad, Odd Arne, Sophie. The Third Indochina War: Conflict Between China, Vietnam and Cambodia, 1972-79. Routledge. p. 189. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ Philip Shenon, Phnom Penh Journal; Lord Buddha Returns, With Artists His Soldiers New York Times - January 2, 1992
  26. ^ Rummel, Rudolph J. (2001). "Chapter 6: Freedom Virtually Ends Genocide and Mass Murder". Saving Lives, Enriching Life: Freedom as a Right And a Moral Good.
  27. ^ Kiernan 2003, p. 30.
  28. ^ Totten, Samuel; Bartrop, Paul R. (2008). Dictionary of Genocide: A-L. ABC-CLIO. p. 64. ISBN 0313346429. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  29. ^ Alvarez 2001, p. 50.
  30. ^ Alvarez 2007, p. 16.
  31. ^ Hannum 1989, pp. 88–89.
  32. ^ a b c Hunt, Michael H. (2014). The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 377. ISBN 978-0-19-937102-0.
  33. ^ Kiernan 2003, p. 29.
  34. ^ Beachler 2011, p. 45.
  35. ^ Bartrop 2012, p. 261.
  36. ^ Tyner 2012, p. 145.
  37. ^ Barron 1977.
  38. ^ Mayersan 2013, pp. 183–184.
  39. ^ Power 2002, p. 96.
  40. ^ Hinton & Lifton 2004, p. 23.
  41. ^ Kurlantzick 2008, p. 193.
  42. ^ a b PoKempner 1995, p. 106.
  43. ^ SarDesai 1998, p. 163.
  44. ^ Brinkley 2011, pp. 64–65.
  45. ^ PoKempner 1995, pp. 107–108.
  46. ^ Haas 1991, pp. 17–18, 28–29.
  47. ^ Thayer 1991, pp. 180, 187–189.
  48. ^ Brinkley 2011, pp. 58, 65.
  49. ^ Etcheson 2005, p. 14.
  50. ^ Donlon 2012, p. 103.
  51. ^ Stanton 2013, p. 411.
  52. ^ Bartrop 2012, pp. 166–167.
  53. ^ ECCC-Kaing 2012.
  54. ^ Corfield 2011, p. 855.
  55. ^ Nuon Chea 2013.
  56. ^ MacKinnon 2007.
  57. ^ de los Reyes et al. 2012, p. 1.
  58. ^ Munthit 2007.
  59. ^ Chan 2004, p. 256.
  60. ^ Alvarez 2001, p. 56.
  61. ^ Buncombe 2013.
  62. ^ Boyle 2009, p. 95.
  63. ^ "The Killing Fields: authentically good". The Guardian. London. 12 March 2009.
  64. ^ a b Debra Lau Whelan (10 October 2012). "SLJ Speaks to National Book Award Finalists". School Library Journal. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  65. ^ "Dead Kennedys – Holiday In Cambodia (Vinyl)". Discogs. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  66. ^ Loung., Ung, (2000). First they killed my father : a daughter of Cambodia remembers (1st ed.). New York: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0060193328. OCLC 41482326.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  67. ^ Debruge, Peter (3 September 2017). "Telluride Film Review: 'First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers'". Variety. Retrieved 20 September 2017.

Bibliography

External links

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