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The Horrors Of The Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge is the communist party of Cambodia, ruled by Pol Pot from 1975 to 1979. It is the worst nightmare that the world has ever seen.
The Khmer Rouge had thousands of followers and an insurgency had begun against the government in the year 1970. With the aid of the Viet Cong troops and the North Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge gained control over a large part of Cambodia. It grew very popular in a short time and increased from 3,000 to 30,000 in strength in just three years, from 1970 to 1973, sending back the Viet Cong troops and Vietnamese whose help was no longer needed.
Finally, led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge overthrew the Cambodian government in 1975, after which the "Democratic Kampuchea" was established. Literally overnight, the new governance took cruel and drastic measures. Entire cities were evacuated. Property was abolished. Factories were closed. Schools were shut down. Money did not hold any value. Hundreds of thousands of taxi drivers, cooks, factory workers, clerks and everyone else became farmers suddenly. They even assassinated skilled workers and intellectuals, and many others died due to starvation. Records show that at least 2 million people died. Cambodia was reduced to nothing but a nation of slaves.
By the year 1979, tensions with Vietnam increased and Vietnamese troops invaded, helping the rival Communists factions in deposing the new Khmer Rouge government. But the Khmer Rouge continued to have a huge army of 30,000 near the Thai border and was also recognized by the United Nations as the official Cambodian government.
This government formed a coalition in 1982, with Norodom Sihanouk, the former premier and the non-Communist leader, Son Sann. Pol Pot gave up his leadership for Khieu Samphan, but it was said to Pol Pot who continued to call the shots. On the request of the different factions in Cambodia, who signed a treaty, the United Nations assumed administration of the government in 1991 and help elections in 1992. Around that time, the Khmer Rouge withdrew itself from the peace process did not accept the results of the elections which led to the formation of a coalition government in Cambodia, and began fighting again.
As is wont to happen, in 1997, due to factional fighting within themselves, Pol Pot was oustered and imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge and he died in 1998. That was the end of the Khmer Rouge, as most of the members were either captured, had surrendered or defected by 1999.
Not many scholars believed the reports of mass killings in Cambodia before 1979; however, when the Khmer Rouge was overtaken by the Vietnamese, the extent of the disaster was clear to all.
A chill runs down the spine of every Cambodian when they think back on the Khmer Rouge. It shocked the world with the atrocities that were considered to be the worst ever the world had to face. The wounds of the rule remain raw even today, as they changed the lives of the population of Cambodia, like nothing else has before.
About the Author Learn more about khmer culture and the people of Cambodia at KhmerArticles.com
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