Methods and Tactics Used
Cambodian refugee children, who fled with their families after Khmer Rouge raids, wait for food at aid station outside of Phnom Penh in 1975. (AP Photo/Tea Kim Heang aka Moonface)
It is near impossible to believe that a third of a nations population could be killed off. Perhaps it was mind-blowing that 33% of Cambodia's population was killed, but it is even more astonishing that roughly 2 million people were killed in only a four year period (United to End Genocide, 2016.) What is it that almost all genocides have in common? Usually a strong military or militia group that take over by force. Like the other major genocides, the Cambodian genocide was run by a group called the Khmer Rouge. The Leader, Pol Pot. On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge took control of the countries capital, Phnom Penh, and started evacuating people to labor camps. (United to End Genocide, 2016.)
The Khmer Rouge was an extremely brutal group. They would go on raids to pick up people that were on their list. A lot like the Holocaust, the people deemed fit to work in labor camps, worked until starvation, while the unfit were killed along with their families. Pol Pot wanted to kill whole families of the unfit people so that they could not seek revenge upon him in any way. Anybody who opposed the Khmer Rouge or anyone who was thought to, were killed instantly. Money, free markets, schools, private property, foreign styles of clothing, religious practices, and other aspects of traditional Khmer culture were abolished and buildings, such as schools, pagodas, and government properties were turned into prisons, stables, camps, and granaries (United to End Genocide, 2016.) The Khmer Rouge actually used children in order to have them kill their parents and destroy family relationships. Unfortunately, using children was very effective in achieving Pol Pots goals. Children would listen to any high up figure who instilled fear
in them. Khmer Rouge, The Cambodian Genocide-United to End World Genocide
http://endgenocide.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/08/khmer-rouge-1975.jpg
in them. Khmer Rouge, The Cambodian Genocide-United to End World Genocide
http://endgenocide.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/08/khmer-rouge-1975.jpg
Labor camps
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge put people who are worthy to work into Labor Camps. The reason for the labor camps is because Pol Pot had an idea of an agriculturally independent nation. He developed a plan called the "Four Year Plan." The Four Year Plan was a plan in which Cambodians were supposed to produce 3 metric tons of rice in every 1.4 acres (From Sideshow to Genocide: Khmer Years, 2000). In order to reach this goal in only four years, everyone had to work 12 hour days without an adequate amount of food or water. The Khmer Rouge knew that these people were going to die and in turn labeled them as disposable. The Khmer Rouge even came up with a slogan, "Losing them is no loss," talking about the people forced into camps.
A labor camp in Cambodia, known as the killing fields, The Secret Bombing of Cambodia, 2016)
A labor camp in Cambodia, known as the killing fields, The Secret Bombing of Cambodia, 2016)
S-21
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S-21 was a school originally who was turned into a torture center. Many people who opposed Pol Pot's beliefs were sent here and then eventually killed. The saddest part was that many people who never spoke of opposition were still tortured and killed because other people lied and told them that they were, in order to save their own lives. Roughly 17,000 people came through S-21.
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