Khmer Rouge

Khmer Rouge

by: Radhanath Thialan

Introduction      

            Cambodia is a country in Southeast Asia between Thailand and Vietnam.  Many people around the world have heard about the Vietnam War, talked and studied about the war, but rarely people talk about the country beside it that has a higher death toll than the Vietnam War, and it is more than just war.  This beautiful country now had the most jarring history in the pas,t holding one of the world’s largest genocides in history.  The communist party of Cambodia, commonly known as the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, was responsible for this inhumane ruling.  “From 1975 to 1979 – through execution, starvation, tortured, disease, forced labor and other inhumane living conditions – the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians and buried them in mass graves, almost one fourth of the country’s population” (Ung).  Cambodia gained independence from France on November 9, 1953, and Norodom Sihanouk became the King of Cambodia, then known as the Kingdom of Cambodia.  Even though he was a womanizer and used the country’s money for his own pleasure, he ran the country in its traditional Angkorian way, which the citizens were comfortable with (Power).  Lon Nol, a politician at that time whom embraced the US way of ruling, wanted to take charge and was fighting for position.  As he stepped into the political system of Cambodia, most people hated him and the communist groups became more aggressive in opposing his leadership.  However, the question of why and how this genocide took place still remained unanswered.  It was so sudden, and almost nobody was prepared or knew what was happening next.  The Cambodian genocide has been called the worst genocide of the twentieth century.      

            “Genocide is always politics that is worse than war (Worse than War).” Various causes could arise from racial issues, gender issues, ethnic problems or to the dictator’s own greed that leads to a genocide.  Various genocides had happened around the world, but due to ignorance of the public and information hidden by the government, the subject left untouched.  The Cambodian genocide was not even included as a chapter to be studied in classrooms by its neighboring countries.  Thus, not many people in South East Asia are actually aware about this tragic event.  The Cambodian genocide happened when the political system was very poorly led by Lon Nol.  Eventually, the communist leader, Pol Pot, came into power and ruled the country the way he wanted it to be. Pol Pot’s philosophy and ruling was what caused millions of people to die when he was in power (Kiernan). 

            The effect from the ruling of this communist group in Cambodia was so cruel that bones and body parts were seen almost every and anywhere on the streets from urban to rural areas or district.  It smelt like rotten meat along the fields, where mass execution took place (Loung Ung).  Hence, that was where it got the name – The Killing Field.  During Pol Pot’s ruling, he wanted to have a brand new start in Cambodia, changing everything the country had to zero again.  As a result, it significantly affected Cambodia’s economy until today.  Believe it or not, trials for this genocide cases are still ongoing this very day in Cambodia, and it has yet to be solved (Chandler). 

Political Causes

            Politics plays a big role that leads to this devastating genocide.  Lon Nol, the Prime Minister of Cambodia in 1966, has no difference compared to Sihanouk, the previous King, but turned out to be a worse leader.  He was pro-America, but like many dictators at that period, he was repressive, incompetent and corrupted (Power).  He secluded himself in his majestic villa in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, doing nothing to the country but getting mystical advices of leadership from a visionary monk, named Mam Prum Moni, or “Great Intellectual of Pure Glory” (Power).  During this period of time, the Vietnam War was on going and there were many US ambassadors and some French officials in Cambodia to “protect” the country.  Two wars actually led to this genocide: the US war in Vietnam and a civil war in Cambodia (between the communist groups and the capitalists).  During the Vietnam War, many Vietnamese communists had their hide out places deep in the jungle of Vietnam just by the border of Cambodia.  When the Vietnamese did not have any more places to hide, they fled into Cambodia, and rebuilt their communist groups in Cambodia, forming a new party (Kiernan). 

            The United States began to have secret bombings by the border of Cambodia in 1969.  Their main idea was to get rid of the Communists Party of Kampuchea (CPK) (Kiernan).  The code-name of this bombing, known as “Operation Breakfast”, was led and planned by National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger (Power).  The mission was kept top secret to prevent any domestic protests.  Unfortunately, the bombers failed to locate the CPK’s bases and led the communist party with more hatred and anger (Taylor).  Since “Operation Breakfast” was unsuccessful, Henry Kissinger further conducted a few more unappetizing missions, named Operation Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Dessert, Supper (Power).  The bombing lasted for years, from 1969 to 1973 and tons of bombs had been launched on the border of Cambodia and Vietnam.  In Figure 1 shown below, the data reflects the growth of the CPK armed strength when the bombing increases.  Note the relationship between the increase in bombing tonnage and the growth of the CPK Armed strength within 1969 and 1973. 

Figure 1: US Bombing and CPK Armed Forces Growth, 1969 - 1973

Year	Bombing Sorties	Bombing Tonnage	CPK Armed Strength
1969	3,600	108,000	1,000
1970	8,000	121,000 in both years	75,000
1971	61,000		150,000
1972	25,000	53,000	200,000
1973	130,000	257,000	220,000
Total:	227,000	539,129

Source: (Kiernan)       

Operation Breakfast was a big failure.  It not only increased the strength of the CPK but also caused the public to believe the communist party instead of their current leader – Lon Nol, who was also disliked by the public.  This mission was done by the US, which gave a win-win situation for the Khmer Rouge to take advantage in growing and gaining power, as their target was to rule and take over the political systems of Cambodia (Sharp).  The CPK did not need to have propagandas at all to brainwash the public, but to show them how cruel the current political system was, such as bombing lands of their country lands,  killing many people in the rural area. 

Every time after there had been bombing, they would take the people to see the craters, to see how big and deep the craters were, to see how the earth had been gouged out and scorched… The ordinary people…sometimes literally shit in their pants when big bombs and shells came… Their minds just froze up and they would wander around mute for three to four days.  Terrified and half-crazy, the people were ready to believe what they were told… That was what made it so easy for the Khmer Rouge to win the people over… It was because of their dissatisfaction with the bombing that they kept on cooperating with the Khmer Rouge, joining up with the Khmer Rouge, sending their children off to go with them (Kiernan/ Power). 

With the poor and corrupted leadership from Lon Nol and his government, the failure of bombings by the US eventually created strength for these angry barbaric communists to make the public believe in them, taking their children to be part of their army, to seek revenge. 

            As times went by, the communist parties, commonly called the Khmer Rouge, had gained much support from citizens near the rural area of Cambodia and those by the borders where the bombings occurred.  They perceived that the Khmer Rouge had saved their lives and should obey, respect and listen to their commands instead of the corrupted leader in Phnom Penh (Yang).  The comrades gathered more and more people, as many as they could after the bombings in the rural areas of Cambodia.  The communist party, the Khmer Rouge, were nomads and they did not stay put in one place; they just gathered any men or fit persons to fight for them, to support the Khmer Rouge and to change the Cambodian political system.  The US officials in Cambodia received news that the communist party was growing and planned to invade Phnom Penh.  On April 1975, the US evacuated its troops after a six-year war in Cambodia leaving a way for Pol Pot’s plan, which was to eliminate all traces of the modern world in Cambodia (Pol Pot).  Cambodia’s new leader was in disbelief about the evacuation; instead of providing aid for the country, he wrote a letter to the Vice President Spiro Agnew stating, “I never believed for a moment that you would abandon a people which has chosen liberty.  I cannot alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion” (Power).  On April 1^st, 1975, Lon Nol raised the white flag and left the country.  That was the end of the Lon Nol regime (Lon Nol). 

Pol Pot & the Khmer Rouge

            Pol Pot was born in a small town on the outskirts of Cambodia.  His parents were well earned farmers, and his childhood was good.  He then recieved a scholarship to further his studies in France from 1949 to 1963 (Parates).  While in France, Pol Pot joined some underground activities to organize a group against the French and Japanese after WWII.  In 1951, Pol Pot also joined a secret communist group called Cercle Marxiste.  Pol Pot was a lackluster student and did poorly in France and was sent back to Cambodia (Parates).  When he was back in Cambodia, Pol Pot continued his communist idea and expanded it in his home country.  At that time, he also had many alliance in France, who helped him in plotting his idea of taking over Cambodia.  In 1966, Pol Pot renamed his communist party Communists Party of Kampuchea (CPK) (Kiernan).     

            The Khmer Rouge soldiers were brainwashed, that the cities were where the devils live, and the capitalist were known as the heart of the evil.  In Chandler’s book, The Tragedy of Cambodian History, he wrote that the Khmer Rouge soldiers referred Phnom Penh as “the great prostitute of the Mekong” and “capitalists were child[sic] of the devil” (Chandler).  They believed Pol Pot because the bombings around the Cambodian-Vietnam border terrified them and they were filled with hatred, as many of their villages in the bombing area were all damaged, properties destroyed and family members were killed.  All Pol Pot aimed to have a classless agrarian society where all the people were equal in status – peasants (Kiernan).  Loung Ung stated that the Khmer Rouge hated the rich because the rich and the middle classes were mainly in Phnom Penh, which was safe, while the peasants in the rural were seen as non-human and were killed for no reason by the bombings (Ung).  To achieve his idea, Pol Pot abolished Cambodia’s monetary system, all markets and trading, schools, hospitals, private properties, any foreign influences and religious practice.  Public schools, temples, shops, and government buildings were all shut down as well and turned into prisons, where many women were raped.  Furthermore, vehicles and public transportations were all prohibited. During Pol Pot’s ruling, there was not a single form of entertainment allowed in the country (Chandler).  Every person in the country at that time was only allowed to be dressed in black uniforms that denoted their revolutionary uniforms.  With all these ongoing executions and killings, the population in Cambodia shrunk between 1971 to 1981 when the Khmer Rouge was in power, as shown in Figure 2 below.  

Figure 2: Population of Cambodia (1951-2011).

Source: (Cambodia). 

During this period of time in 1975-1978, the Khmer Rouge treated their citizens, people of the same blood from the same land, as subhuman.  They beat, killed tortured, and raped anyone who refused to listen to their command (Chandler).  During Pol Pot’s regime, the Vietnamese and CIA were both the main enemies of his.  He did not trust anyone from Phnom Penh and suspected all of them of working for one of his enemies.  In prisons set by Pol Pot and his army would often blindfolded the prisoners and brought them from the rural areas to these prisons.  Every prisoner brought in would have their photos taken and information documented, then filed.  Until today, nobody knew why Pol Pot wanted to document all this information as, it made no sense other than to show how cruel he was (Kiernan).  Prisoners would be questioned and often beaten.  “I do not understand what they were asking me, I don’t even know what or who was the CIA as I am not working for any of them.  I was just a local fishmonger.  They then drew out a long stick and kept hitting me until they were satisfied,” said Chum Mey, one of the survivors of Pol Pot’s secret prison (S-21) (Inside Pol).  Most women captured, some with infants, had the longest lifespan of 48 hours in the prison.  They were all executed because they were considered “useless” to the country, but were recorded in their records as traitors (Chandler). 

           

Pol Pot’s Philosophy and Process

            "It's different from many other genocidal events, it was genocide driven not by racial or religious hatred but by an ideology that had been incubated so fervently that it became insanity - Adam Fifield (qtd. in Murphy)."  What Pol Pot had done to Cambodia is truly unacceptable, but the communist leader claimed that the genocide happened not because of him and it was not very fair to put all the blame onto him (Chandler).  Many people who had known Pol Pot for a very long time said that he was very kind and polite in person and he is not very talkative.  During the Genocide, Pol Pot did not kill a single person with his own hand, instead he gave command to his army and subordinates to do so (Kiernan).     

            Pol Pot was a very intelligent but cunning in character.  Most of his guards and soldiers were naïve young men aging from 14 to 19.  These young boys were persuaded to join the Khmer Rouge because their parents were either killed during the US bombings or due to peer pressure.  “Everyone joined, I couldn’t be the only one who didn’t join,” said Khiev Ches during an interview, “Whatever they asked me to do I’ll do! I do not want to die (Inside Pol).”  Pol Pot was also a very careful person and he always kept his reputation clean.  However, he was the mastermind behind all the killings and torturing due to his greed in taking over Cambodia.  The basic idea of Pol Pot was to restrict any freedom in the public as when there is freedom, the public will start opposing and therefore he wants his army to be violent (Kiernan).  Figure 3 shows a list Pol Pot created in restriction of freedom and how he wanted the living conditions in Cambodia to be like during his ruling.  The list was translated and re-typed. Some of the restrictions were ridiculous such as people were killed if they sing and no forms of entertainment was allowed.  The thirty-seven constraints Pol Pot came up with is so strict and any individual who did not follow it would be immediately executed (Kiernan). 

Figure 3: Conditions of Life Under the Khmer Rouge

Source: (Ung).

Marxism is a type of ruling very closely related to communism.  Pol Pot’s Marxism ideal was to bring equality, but does it brings peace or fear when he came into power (Cook)?  In Pol Pot’s little red book, there were many quotes such as “The spade is your pen, the rice field is your paper!” “Long live Angkar, long live the people or Kampuchea” (Cook).  These red book made the Cambodians people think that they have to go back to basic and follow the Khmer Rouge’s command because it will bring them benefit and freedom from the Americans and French people.  The US by the Vietnam-Cambodia border bombings mentioned above gave more strength to these propagandas.  Pol Pot’s ruling has much similarity to Mao’s and the Soviet Union way of ruling compared to Adolf Hitler (Cook).  Adolf Hitler’s genocide is specified on a group of ethnic – Jews, during WWII; while Mao’s is to eliminate all educated people, to make the citizens work and build the country with much suffering (Chandler).  Mao was an idol of Pol Pot and he wanted to be as “successful” as Mao, remolding China into a very successful country.  But when Pol Pot’s plan did not worked out as plan, he refused to blame himself or any of his friends and “brothers”.  He claimed that the Vietnamese were the one ruined his plan and killed all the Cambodian citizens (Chandler). 

“The New Beginning”

            On April 17, 1975, after decades of planning, the Khmer Rouge guerrillas finally marched into the city of Phnom Penh and taking over Cambodia’s political system.  As mentioned earlier, Pol Pot, a Cambodian whom was educated in France, was the leader of the Khmer Rouge.  His main goal was to change the political system of Cambodia to its original Agrarian style of ruling.  Western cultures and any traces of the modern world should be banished and everything must be very traditional.  Pol Pot also changed the Cambodian calendar to year zero on the first day of his ruling.  The idea behind this change was to replace the old culture and traditions (which must be destroyed) with a new revolutionary culture (Kiernan).  Religion banned, education halted and healthcare eliminated was how Pol Pot wanted to rule the country, he wanted dumb slaves that only would listen to him (Sharp).  Pol Pot implemented drastic Maoist revolution program in which Cambodia had their version of “The Red Book” which Mao used during his ruling in China (Chandler). 

            The first thing Pol Pot did was to evacuate the whole city.  In Loung Ung’s book – How They Killed My Father, she explained how it like was during the evacuation. The weather was sweltering as it was summer, and the people were only allowed to wear black shirts provided by the Khmer Rouge.  During the journey, there were thousands of people, some families were even pushing hospital beds with their loved ones on it; mothers gave birth by the road side, and many dead bodies started to disperse by the roadside because there was no food and water provided at all.  It was almost, a seven-day walk of struggle.  Old folks, who were physically not capable for the journey were either shot dead, left behind or being piggybacked by their family members.  The evacuation itself was rough and heinous.  Strict commands were to be followed or one would be an “expired body”, just like the ones seen putrid by the roadside (Ung).  Figure 4 below shows a map of the evacuation route.  Many people from Phnom Penh were separated from their families and allocated into different camps in the rural area. 

Figure4: Evacuation from Phnom Penh.

Source: (Ung).

The communist referred educated and religious people as capitalist, and were known as the root of the evil (Chandler).  While in the camps, everyone had to conscript his or her information with a picture taken.  They then separated the monks, artist, teacher, doctors and many educated people.  “The doctor I knew never came back after he had left and that was the last time I saw him.” Loung Ung wrote in her book.  According to Kiernan, the educated people were to go to a rural area where they would have to dig big and deep holes.  When they finished digging, bullets came shooting from behind and all the bodies were piled up in the mass grave. 

Economy and the Government of Cambodia

            The economic system in Cambodia is very unusual in two expects.  During Pol Pot’s ruling, he obliterated private land ownership.  He introduced classless society that the Khmer Rouge wanted the country to be, they believed that “perfect harmony” comes from no status from the society (no peasants, no middle class, no upper class), everybody is equal.  Private ownership were building ego and was seen as a social injustice (Ross).  Secondly, Cambodia has no monetary system.  Pol Pot’s government confiscated all the money and workers were paid in the form of rice and tapioca, according to their long working hours.  Food was money during that period of time because there was no money in circulation and all the shops were closed down eventually (Ross).  In one chapter of How They Killed My Father, Loung Ung described that she only saw her father and brothers for few hours a day as they will leave for work at dawn itself and came home very late at night with so little food.  The food ration from three people was not even enough to feed an adult, but they had no alternative but to share it with the family.  Some of her neighbors in the labor camps started to eat lizards and insects to get protein.  One of her mother’s friend died from eating a poisonous mushroom by accident, as she was starving to death at that time (Ung).  

            The genocide came to an end when the Vietnamese army finally came in to Cambodia and took over Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979.  The Khmer Rouge leaders then fled to Thailand and reestablished their forces in Thailand with full secrecy (Fletcher).  The economy in Cambodia was way below equilibrium of any of the economic graphs. They did not have any monetary systems and even currency as Pol Pot had demolished them all during his regime.  Since Pol Pot forced the Cambodian to work in the rice field and other agricultural plantations, rice production and distribution were substandard according to the poverties organization.  During Pol Pot’s ruling, a terrible flood struck the Mekong Valley, which resulted a poor harvest in 1975 to 1978, and many of the citizens then were starved to death.  According to some survivors during the regime, they claimed that it was the worst flood they had in almost seven decades (Chandler).  The rice however, was very unfairly distributed.  The Khmer Rouge leaders, soldiers, and some of their followers were well fed but the workers, sick, elderly, children and many more in the camps suffered from starvation and malnutrition (Poverty in).  Cambodia in the 1950s was one of the most stable and radical economies in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, it was known to be one of the poorest country in the world today (Ross).  Due to this overwhelming history of Cambodia, the country’s economy is slowly rising, as most of the income of the country comes from tourism.  Many tourists from all over the world visit Cambodia for the famous Angkor Wat and many old temples.  The killing field is also one of the main tourist attraction sites now in Cambodia.  Thanks to tourists around the world, agriculture is no longer the highest GDP (Gross Domestic Product) composition by sector of origin (Ross).  Figure 5 shows the GDP difference in percentage between the agriculture, industrial and service sectors of Cambodia in 2013. 

Figure 5: GDP - composition, by sector of origin in Cambodia, 2013.

Source: (Cambodia).  

Cambodia’s culture of liberty remained very strongly thirty years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, said the Human Rights Watch (Poverty in).  Under the Prime Minister Hun Sen, he helped rebuild Cambodia into what it is today and had good relationship with the United Nations (UN).  “There were roughly fifty doctors left in Cambodia for 14million people!” said Hun Sen as he thanked the UN for providing health care to the country with foreign doctors and help from around the globe (Kiernan).  Thirty years after the genocide, none of the governments in Cambodia had raised their voice about this issue.  The UN finally raised enough fundings, approximately US$50 million to back the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to hold a trial against the Khmer Rouge.  "After 30 years, no one had been trialed, convicted or sentenced for the crimes of one of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century.  This was no accident. For more than a decade, China and the United States blocked efforts at accountability, and for the past decade Hun Sen had done his best to thwart justice," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (Ross). 

Trials of the Genocide. 

            The Cambodian genocide, happened almost forty years ago but still under trials, and some leaders are still being arrest up to this very day.  A news report by CNN on August this year showed the trials about two other leaders of the Khmer Rouge.  Both of them, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are now in their eighties already.  Nuon Chea was the former Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea and was commonly known as “Brother Number Two.”  Khieu Samphan was known as “Brother Number Four” and was a one-time president of Democratic Kampuchea (McKirdy).  Pol Pot, during his ruling was known as “Brother Number One”, as he was the main leader of the Khmer Rouge, the evil mind behind the genocide.  Pol Pot escaped all the trials as he died peacefully in his sleep on 1998.  Many suspected that he took his own life to escape from life sentence in prison (Kiernan).  All the trials for this case were held in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC), a special Cambodia court that has the involvement of the United Nations and international assistance through the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT) (McKirdy).  All trials against the senior leaders or the Khmer Rouge were held in this court.  For the citizen’s sake, all judges must be Cambodian judges and staffs only assisted by international representatives. 

            The court cases and trials is a failure. According to Allan Yang, the trials started and paused or hold for a very long period of time and some were never continued (Yang).  Due to these inconsistencies, the UN Secretary – General Kofi Anon stopped the funding for the trials in 2000.  The Cambodian government then renewed their promises in 2003 and the trials were scheduled forhearing again in 2008, with a budget of USD56.3 billion (Yang).  There had been four main cases in this trial, but only two were closed with a set verdict.  Theary Seng created a timeline shown below of the trials by the ECCC.  Case002 was the trial mentioned above which includes Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan.  The trial was closed for investigation in September 10^th, 2010, and never began until early this year (Yang).  Finally on August 8^th 2014, the case was closed and both the former Khmer Rouge leaders were found guilty and were sentenced to life imprisonment.  They were found guilty of: “Crimes against humanity, of extermination, murder, political persecution, and other inhumane acts comprising forced transfer, forced disappearances and attacks against human dignity committed within the territory of Cambodia between 17 April 1975 and December 1977” (McKirdy).  Figure 6 shows the four main cases of the ECCC trials and the time period (Yang).  Case001 was one of the most consistent cases and everything was followed up on time.  This case was all about Guek Eav, commonly named “Duch”.  He was the Head of Security of Pol Pot’s secret prison, S-21 and the torture chamber.  However, the court convicted a very light weighted punishment of only thirty-five years in jail for such a heavy weighted crime he committed during the regime (Brinkley).  The reason being there was no evidence of him personally torturing the victims, but his soldiers were the one whom performed the torturing.  As stated in Pol Pot’s philosophy, he was smart and almost never committed a murder during his ruling but almost 2 millions of the population were killed by his army. 

Figure 6: ECCC trials and the time period.

Source: (Yang)

Despite all these inconsistencies, the trials were normally very fairly judged and were well executed (Rowley).  During trials, many foreign juries from many different countries would participate during the hearing.  Live translators would translate the trials from the Khmer language instantly and the foreign juries would have an individual headset while witnessing the trial.  Without the help of the UN, Cambodia will not be able to carry out these trials due to the lack of money and skilled personnel to proceed (Yang).  Many of the literates and skilled personnel were executed during the regime.  In 2009, Cambodia’s literacy rate was roughly 70% approximately only 2% of the population understood English (Cambodia).  The trials had a large amount of international donations to support its funding, but the government of Cambodia wanted more every time, which caused the UN to be unhappy.  Several cases were led hanging and unfinished given the excuse of low funding by the Cambodian government trials.  Therefore the UN stopped funding because they do not see any progression made even after there was sufficient funding provided (Brinkley). 

Conclusion

            The Khmer Rouge had left a bloody imprint, killing people of the same kind, on the same land.  All the genocides that had happened around the world were a big failure and were never successful in achieving the dictators’ goal.  The spark of genocides is often related to political causes and the goals of the dictators.  Huge negative impacts will be seen after a genocide occur leading to many deaths, downfall of the economy and a waste of money for trials like the Cambodian Genocide.  War and genocides is never a successful way to lead a country, leaders should be more knowledgeable in ruling their country and not for their own greed.  Innocent lives were all killed, not in thousands but millions due to one person’s want.  At the end of the day it has no benefit to anybody and to the country but leaving a negative image and name of the country instead.  The United Nations should look into these genocides more seriously and should provide help when needed and not run away from the country leaving the citizens leaving in danger and fear. 

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Yang, Allen. "No Redemption - The Failing Khmer Rouge Trial." Global Policy Forum. N.p., 2008. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. <https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/163/28940.html>.