Khmer Rouge
What is genocide? Genocide is when violent crime is done against groups intending to destroy its existence (Genocide). Not many know about the Cambodian genocide, committed by the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge or also known as the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), took ownership of Cambodia. The CPK established the political party of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and administered the country until January 1979. In 1975 Khmer Rouge declared Year Zero, where all culture and traditions in Cambodia were abolished or eliminated, while a new revolutionary culture replaced it. This meant that they had to start all over again as if nothing had existed. All these actions changed Cambodia completely, and until this day they’re trying to recover from all the damage done. The Khmer Rouge concurred Cambodia by completely destroying civilizations and killing about two million people in the process, resulting to the psychological scars that remain within Cambodians till this day.
Additionally, the Cambodian communist movement developed from the country’s struggle against the French, and was impacted by the Vietnamese (CambodiaTribunalMonitor). In 1973, Khmer Rouge placed almost half a million tons of bombs on Cambodia, with the help of the United States, causing the death of more than a quarter million of people. Some of those who lost family members or harbored a grudge, joined the Khmer Rouge. They didn’t have much of a choice because they were abandoned, or they were forced to join the movement. By early 1973, about eighty-five percent of Cambodian territory was taken over by the Khmer Rouge. Since they were extremely close to fully concurring Cambodia the Lon Nol army was almost unable to fight back. Howeve...
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...ther cases dead. Until this day there are some Khmer Rouge soldiers alive, but no one demands justice because they’ve learned to live with it.
According to Cambodia Tribunal Monitor the Democratic Kampuchea was one of the worst human tragedies of the 20th century. Cambodia was left in bad conditions because the damage the Khmer Rouge caused. Most of the people in Cambodia are bound to be missing a family member or several because of the genocide. Landmines are still killing people, and there are too many to get rid of them all at once. Cambodians were left traumatized because of this, or were left with a mental illness. This is something that will never be forgotten and will always remain in history. It is also one of those things that will never let people fight justice for because the government forbids it. They are forced to carry on the memories of their past.
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. .
It’s hard to imagine that people would support and act upon plans to kill millions of innocent human beings. The Holocaust and Cambodian genocide were two of the most horrific genocides in the history of civilization. The Holocaust and Cambodian genocide has not only similarities but also differences. How they treated their victims, USA involvement, and that they both killed millions of people are some things they share. Differences they include are the people they targeted, how the two leaders took office and lastly where these to genocides took place.
For the past centuries, the world has endured mass human extinctions and brutal violence from the well-known holocaust to the under recognized Rwanda genocide. According to Dictionary.com, genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. Genocide has been occurring for centuries and centuries and continues to occur in countries such as Syria, Nigeria, Iraq and many more. These recent genocides are mostly occurring at the hands of extremist groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS
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.
Genocide is the act of killing a lot of people depending on their race, ethnicity, and religion. There are 8 stages of genocide which include extermination and denial. The victims of the Bosnian genocide consists of elders, women, men, children, and even babies. The Bosnian genocide is a war between Bosnian Serbians and Bosnian Muslim to which republic can control Bosnia. Many Serbains deny the fact that his genocide even happened even though there is scientific proof that this genocide happened. The purpose of learning genocide is so we are informed and we won't let it happen again.
Genocide is the “deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.” (Dictionary.com, 2010) In 1924, after World War I, Belgian colonists entered Rwanda and allowed the Tutsi dynasty to remain in power. However, after World War II concepts of right and wrong changed. Since the Belgians had been favouring the Tutsis, this change in ethics caused the Belgians to have compassion on the Hutus and promote the Hutu cause, creating tension. (Thompson, 2007) It was the Belgians who cre...
To start off with, what is genocide? Genocide is the killing of a massive number of people of in a group. Genocide has not only been practices in the present day, but it has been practiced for m...
Evil doesn’t even begin to cover it. The mass murder of millions of people. The complete obliteration of an entire society. Each and every genocide has the same core principles, but a distinct face. A dictator takes over a weak country with promises of returning it to its former glory, once he has everyone’s support, he implements extremely discriminatory laws and finds reasons to kill anyone who dares oppose him. The Holocaust and the Cambodian genocides are remarkably similar, and yet strikingly different. The Holocaust was an attempt to wipe out all Jews and other minorities such as gypsies and handicapped people. The Cambodian genocide, led by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, was in some ways a mirror image of the Holocaust, but it happened forty-two years later. On the other hand, there are many more that one distinction that sets Cambodia apart from all other genocides.
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...
The Cambodian genocide and the Holocaust are unique in the areas of by methods of extermination used and why they were killed. The Holocaust had different killing methods than the Cambodian genocide. Before some even made it to the concentration camps, “Einsatzgruppen - armed militias forming mobile killing units - follow the invading SS troops and commit mass slaughter of Jews throughout Eastern Europe” (“Genocide- Holocaust”). The existing camp at Majdanek, and also at Auschwitz (where a second camp equipped with huge crematoria and gas-chambers has been built), are adapted for slaughter (“Genocide”). These were called “Death Camps”. Ma...
The Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975, which lasted until January 1979. For their three-year, eight-month, and twenty-one day rule of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge committed some of the most heinous crimes in current history. The main leader who orchestrated these crimes was a man named Pol Pot. In 1962, Pol Pot had become the coordinator of the Cambodian Communist Party. The Prince of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, did not approve of the Party and forced Pol Pot to flee to exile in the jungle. There, Pol formed a fortified resistance movement, which became known as the Khmer Rouge, and pursued a guerrilla war against Sihanouk’s government. As Pol Pot began to accumulate power, he ruthlessly imposed an extremist system to restructure Cambodia. Populations of Cambodia's inner-city districts were vacated from their homes and forced to walk into rural areas to work. All intellectuals and educated people were eradicated and together with all un-communist aspects of traditional Cambodian society. The remaining citizens were made to work as laborers in various concentration camps made up of collective farms. On these farms, people would harvest the crops to feed their camps. For every man, woman, and child it was mandatory to labor in the fields for twelve to fifteen hours each day. An estimated two million people, or twenty-one percent of Cambodia's population, lost their lives and many of these victims were brutally executed. Countless more of them died of malnourishment, fatigue, and disease. Ethnic groups such as the Vietnamese, Chinese, and Cham Muslims were attacked, along with twenty other smaller groups. Fifty percent of the estimated 425,000 Chinese living in Cambod...
Cambodia has come a long way from its days under French rule and the disastrous rule of the Khmer Rouge. With 14.9 million people living a relativity peaceful and prosperous life, Cambodia still has a long ways to go to join the ranks of world powers. Education has flourished in Cambodia with most its population attending school and have gone on to even higher education. The main goal is to make sure all of its population is literate so they can be active in life. The government is taking an active role to provide the best for its people whether through reform whether through education or elections. It makes sure to never repeat it’s dark past and always have a bright future.