The Khmer Rouge were ruthless monsters that, under Pol Pot, created the Cambodian genocide. They were evil and diabolical. They manipulated the public, Tortured the prisoners, and tried to completely change Cambodia. I will explain to the best of mine and my sources knowledge the dark times of year zero. During the beginning of the genocide, after the war, the Khmer Rouge were able to manipulate the public with their clever thinking and brutal ways. It helped that the Cambodians wanted peace at any cost, but the cost that needed to be payed, was the cost of their freedom. “The Khmer Rouge were very clever and brutal. Their tactics were effective because most of us refused to believe their malicious intentions. Their goal was to liberate us. They risked their own lives and gave up their families …show more content…
They were evil and diabolical. They manipulated the public, Tortured the prisoners, and tried to completely change Cambodia. I will explain to the best of mine and my sources knowledge the dark times of year zero. During the beginning of the genocide, after the war, the Khmer Rouge were able to manipulate the public with their clever thinking and brutal ways. It helped that the Cambodians wanted peace at any cost, but the cost that needed to be payed, was the cost of their freedom. “The Khmer Rouge were very clever and brutal. Their tactics were effective because most of us refused to believe their malicious intentions. Their goal was to liberate us. They risked their own lives and gave up their families for ‘justice' and ‘equality.’ ” Said Teeda Butt Mam. They fought the war to make the Cambodians believe in them, then flipped the table and attacked them, tearing them out of their homes. According to Teeda Butt Mam, they had forced apart families and neighbors, trying to stop alliances from happening. They were playing a game of chess with Cambodia and already had them in
Between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot-the leader of the Khmer Rouge followed Maoist communism, which they thought they could create an agrarian utopia. Agrarian means that the society was based on agriculture. They wanted all members of society to be rural agricultural workers and killed intellectuals, who had been depraved by western capitalist ideas. A utopia means a perfect society. This idea went to extremes when The Khmer Rouge resumed that only pure people were qualified to build the revolution. They killed Cambodians without reasons by uncivilized actions such as: cutting heads, burying alive… There were about 1.7 million people killed by the Khmer Rouge.
"Cambodian Genocide." World without Genocide. William Mitchell College of Law, 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. .
“The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot’s Regime”. Mtholyoke.edu. 11 May 2005. Web. 7 May 2014.
Most people in the world have not heard of the genocide going on in Laos today. Most people have not taken notice, read about it or bother to spend more than thirty seconds of their lives learning about it. The world has managed to almost entirely ignore the genocide of the Hmong people in Laos for over 30 years and still allows this crime against humanity to continue. Since the 1970s, the ethnic Hmong people in the Southeast Asian country of Laos have been persecuted by the Laotian government (Malakunas, 2000). This harassment is a direct result of the Hmong’s link to the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States in what has become to be known as the Secret War (Malakunas, 2000). The Laotian government officials directing this massacre have not been detained due to lack of evidence (Sommer P.4).
(Haugen and Musser) The Cambodian genocide is not nearly as well known as the Holocaust. The leader of the Khmer Rouge was a man named Pol Pot.
The Guatemala genocide was completed in 1982 by the Guatemala Army, or as they refer to themselves, “killing machines” ("Talking About Genocide-Genocides-Guatemala 1982"). The army was targeting Mayan descendants, whom they accused of being communist” ("Talking About Genocide-Genocides-Guatemala 1982"). Whether they were or not, “Covert operations were also carried out by military units called Commandos, backed up by the army and military intelligence. They carried out planned executions and forced 'disappearances'.” ("Talking About Genocides-Genocide-Guatemala 1982"). The victims were tortured in various other ways as well, including rape and “death pits” in which they were thrown on top of each other into enormous holes in the ground ” ("Talking About Genocide-Genocides-Guatemala 1982"). As a result, many progenies of an ancient culture were lost. A decade later, another tradgedy would strike, this time in Eastern Europe.
The Chinese have repeatedly tortured, imprisoned, and murdered Tibetans all for what they claim is national unity. While the oppression of the Tibetan people began in the 1950’s with the invasion of China, it continues just as strongly today. From religious oppression and unfair trials to the torture of nuns and monks, the Chinese abuse even the most reverent aspects of Tibetan culture. Political prisoners, whether they are monks, nuns or lay people, are tortured with utter disregard for human rights. Chinese laws have also been established to eradicate the Tibetan people entirely. Women often must endure forced abortions and sterilization due to Chinese birth policies. Through all of these crimes against humanity, China repeatedly commits acts of genocide as established by the United Nations.
No one would ever think that a small country could create a controversy known the world over, but North Korea has achieved this goal. The North Korean genocide has claimed 2000 people a day before and these killings are from starvation and beating. Many people think communism is better than a democracy but it has its faults. For example, North Korea is Communist and whatever the leader’s beliefs the Communist citizen has to believe. What is happening and happened is genocide.
There were also dictators in both genocides who wanted an ethnically pure nation and used propaganda to succeed in their goals. Pol Pot and Hitler prosecuted any person that was religious or had anything to do with religion. Cambodia and Germany both had many death camps during their genocides. Also destroyed property that was linked to religion. The living conditions during the genocides were crowded, cramped, and terrible. There were many mass executions and mass graves. people were tortured in horrifying ways in Cambodia and Germany. Most people died from either overwork, shootings, malnutrition, starvation, injury, and disease ("Compare and
Although the two genocides are quite different at a first glance, they are interestingly similar upon deeper inspection. For starters, the Holocaust is best known for it’s brutal and inhumane treatment of prisoners, such as tattooing a number on their arm against their will and feeding them food that is not even fit for dogs to consume (“Holocaust”). It may be shocking for some people to hear that in Cambodia, it was just as atrocious, maybe even worse. During the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975 most Cambodians were forced to leave their homes on such short notice that numerous families were killed on cite for not evacuating quickly enough. Those ‘lucky’ enough to escape immediate death were forced to work, unpaid, in labor camps until the fatigue wore down their immune system and they died of some wretched disease (“Genocide”). Another intriguing similarity betw...
When 1937 arrived, Japanese soldiers raided China’s capital of Nanking and began to mass murder citizens. A sole leader of the Japanese Imperial Army was non-existent. There were many of people in power such as generals who allowed these behaviors to occur. Baron Koki Hirota, Foreign minister at the time, proceeded to do nothing while being well aware of the Japanese’s persecution of the Chinese. These unsympathetic murders of those who were thought to be Chinese soldiers as well as woman, children and elderly. This massacre lasted between the 1937 and 1938. Within this time 300,000 Chinese citizens were viciously killed. This genocide is called Rape of Nanking because of raping the woman before killing them. Most likely this group was selected because the second world war happened in Asia. This was significant because a country was able to kill half the population of another. I believe the reason of this Genocide was for Japan to take advantage of China while expand Japan. Most likely the Japanese wished to exterminate China’s entire population.
The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up to 750,00 Cambodians through U.S. efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. This devastation would take its toll on the Cambodian peoples’ morale and would later help to contribute that conflicts that caused the Cambodian genocide. In the 1970’s the Khmer rouge guerilla movement would form. The leader of the Khmer rouge, Pol Pot was educated in France and believed in Maoist Communism. These communist ideas would become important foundations for the ideas of the genocide, and which groups would be persecuted. The genocide it’s self, would be based on Pol Pot’s ideas to bring Cambodia back to an agrarian society, starting at the year zero. His main goal was to achieve this, romanticized idea of old Cambodia, based on the ancient Cambodian ruins, with all citizens having agrarian farming lives, and being equal to each other. Due to him wanting society to be equal, and agrarian based, the victims would be those that were educated, intellectuals, professionals, and minority ethnic g...
Politics should never get in the way of doing the right thing., but unfortunately, in this case, they did. I am extremely surprised by the amount of steps that the defendants have to go through, especially the they decide to repeal an act. Even though its evident that the defendants convicted horrible war crimes, this huge process is almost necessary because this process offers deep analyzation of the case. Which ultimately gives the victims of the Khmer Rouge a piece of mind that they will pay for the dreadful actions that they’ve
Finally by December 25, 1978 Vietnam went and invade Kampuchea. Which ended in overthrowing Khmer Rouge on January 7, 1979. Pol Pot were forced to leave and many went to Thailand. There they began a guerrilla war against Cambodian governments. This lasted the next 17 years. He struggled all the way into the 1900's. Where he then lost control. On April 1998, Pol Pot died from a heart attack at the age of 73. He died right after his arrest and couldn’t be put on trial for the events that happened from 1975-1979.
The genocide in Cambodia was a result of the Khmer rouge guerrilla force that seized power over the Lon Nol government in 1975. Their leader, Pol Pot, was an admirer of Chinese communism and wanted to make Cambodia a place in which all citizens were to participate in agricultural activities and all western innovations were to be removed. Pol Pot then proposed that to create the ideal communist nation, all Cambodians must all work as labourers on collective farms, and anyone who opposed this was to be eliminated. However during this time Cambodia was involved in the Vietnam War due to the fact that the old government leader, Lon Nol, was helping the U.S.A backed South Vietnam forces to conquer North Vietnam, backed by Pol Pots’ forces. Before Pol Pots took over the Cambodian government, the Americans, already fighting in Vietnam, thought that it was ok to also invade the capitalistic Cambodia. During this time the guerrilla forces ruled by Pol Pots, were fighting a civil war against Lon Nol, who was allowing the Americans to harbour troops, airbases, barracks and weapon caches. When Pol Pots’ forces won the civil war, he started supporting the North Vietnamese army. Thus Pol Pots showed his true anger towards the capitalistic countries and passion for communism.