Cambodia Genocide Essay

We live in a world where deaths of celebrities and government officials take front page news, and are supported by fundraisers, and memorials in the memory of these people. Not to mention the countless internet posts about them. Two million innocent people were tortured and killed in cold blood just as digital cameras were becoming a part of our everyday life. This is too recent to forget about the wrongdoings that these people were put through by their dictator, Pol Pot. This genocide shows some similarities to the South African Apartheid that segregated races for the belief that one race was superior to the others. During the Genocide of 2 million Cambodian citizens in 1975, many civil liberties were violated through no fault of their own.

The families were also split up, which was traumatic especially for the younger children. In the quote above, this young boy accepts all these things as a part of life under the Khmer Rouge.

After “ Year Zero” the long time Cambodian currency (Riel) was eliminated, and the only currency that remained valuable was gold. Having wealth caused unrest about the people, because the Khmer Rouge viewed wealth as a reason to execute that person. This caused people to bury their gold and valuable goods to hide their hard earned money, and to save their life.

During this time Cambodia was seeking to be isolated and free of any foreign influence, this caused the government to shut down all foreign embassies, and stop import and export with every country. This, among other things caused the people to lose jobs and money, which was the goal of the Khmer Rouge. This abolishment of all foreign powers caused the world to be unable to accurately see the crisis and help or prevent it. All foreign power was removed by the Khmer Rouge, thus giving them all the power in the country.This made the citizens of the country unable to reach out for help from other parts of the

Nothing outside of labor and trying to keep hidden from the Khmer Rouge crossed their mind, which created fear and destroyed hope, along with their will to live, as was shown by the journal entry of the boy. Residents of the city were also taken away and not just forced to perform endless hard labor, but were exposed to brainwashing, and political doctrine in an effort to control the minds of the population. In the present day something like this would be an unspeakable crime that would fill every headline, and decorate pages all around the internet. It would be a household name and would most likely never be forgotten as long as our generation lives. This happened in 1975 and was hidden from the eyes of the rest of the world by a manipulative government lead by a malicious