Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge was the ruling Communist government in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The dictatorial group attempted to return Cambodia to a kind of feudal agrarian system in which millions of Cambodians would labor on communal farms to benefit the powerful central government. The Khmer Rouge's four-year reign was marked by mass imprisonment, political and social repression, and regular torture and executions. Almost two million people died of starvation, exhaustion, or executions under the Khmer Rouge.

Rise of the Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge, formally known as the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), began as a small, rebellious military force in Cambodia's northeastern jungles in the early 1960s. The group opposed the continued colonization of Cambodia by France and instead favored the establishment of Cambodian communism—a political system in which all members of society are equal and share ownership of their economic production. The Khmer Rouge was highly influenced by the events then occurring in neighboring Vietnam, where Communist militants were overthrowing their French colonizers and taking over the government in what became known as the Vietnam War.

It took until 1970 for the Khmer Rouge to transition from a guerilla, or irregular, band of rebels to a formidable fighting force. That year, Marshal Lon Nol, an American-supported Cambodian politician, deposed Cambodia's Prince Norodom Sihanouk. In an effort to retain his power, Sihanouk called on the Khmer Rouge to fight off Lon Nol's forces. More than three hundred thousand Cambodians were killed in this civil war over the next five years.

Throughout the conflict, the Khmer Rouge gained the support of the Cambodian people by advertising itself as a power for peace and stability in the country. By 1975, the Khmer Rouge controlled most of Cambodia. In April of that year, the army captured the capital city of Phnom Penh from Lon Nol's army. The city's fall marked the beginning of the Khmer Rouge's reign in Cambodia.

Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge

Since 1963, the Khmer Rouge had been led by an ardent Cambodian Communist named Pol Pot. He became inspired by French and Chinese communism while traveling abroad in his youth. When he returned to Cambodia in the 1950s, he was determined to implement the ideology in his own country. In 1975, with Cambodia firmly in the Khmer Rouge's control, Pol Pot translated his ideas into actions.

To the outside world, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge projected an image of pacifism and tranquility. However, this belied the brutal reality that was about to begin. Only days after the Khmer Rouge had captured Phnom Penh, it forcibly removed the city's more than 2.5 million residents and placed them into camps in the countryside. Those who resisted the removals were executed. Thousands of Cambodians were killed in these initial days.

In these large camps, Cambodians were to begin working on communal farms. All people would share equally in the labor. This was the Khmer Rouge's plan to transform Cambodia from a Western-style industrial nation to a classless agrarian society.

In devising this vision, Pol Pot had been influenced by the tribes of Indigenous Cambodians he had observed living in the country's jungles. He believed their simplistic way of life—with no modern institutions such as religion, education, or money—was ideal for establishing societal perfection. The Khmer Rouge forced this ideology onto the Cambodian people with relentless force, with Pol Pot claiming he was returning Cambodia to "Year Zero."

The Khmer Rouge prohibited Cambodians from traveling outside their assigned farms. They were to plant and produce rice at least twelve hours daily with no rest and without sufficient food. No one was allowed to gather in groups. To the Khmer Rouge, this signaled the potential plotting of a revolution against the government. Any three Cambodians caught speaking together in a group could be immediately arrested or executed.

The Khmer Rouge also forbade Cambodians from acknowledging their basic human emotions. No one was allowed to display love, humor, or compassion of any sort. Instead, the people were commanded to obey and depend upon the central government as their "mother and father."

In this way, the Khmer Rouge attempted to purge the Cambodian people of their free will and humanity. Anyone even suspected of posing an ideological threat to the insulation of the country was swiftly arrested and imprisoned. Targeted groups included intellectuals, various ethnic minorities, and employees of the previous government.

Prisoners were held in dirty and disease-infested cells. Nearly all detainees were eventually interrogated, tortured, and executed. Cambodia’s most infamous prison during this time, S-21, held more than seventeen thousand men, women, and children between 1975 and 1979. Ultimately, twelve people survived imprisonment there. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of other Cambodians died of exhaustion and starvation on the farms.

Fall of the Khmer Rouge

The beginning of the Khmer Rouge’s fall from power began in late 1977, when the regime’s forces began skirmishing with the Vietnamese army on its eastern border with Vietnam. Over the next year, the Vietnamese became increasingly frustrated by these conflicts, and in December 1978, the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia. It then captured the capital of Phnom Penh in early January 1979, forcing the Khmer Rouge to flee west into Thailand.

From its new headquarters in Thailand, the Khmer Rouge was officially recognized by the United Nations (UN), which believed it to be the only true government representative of the Cambodian people. Into the 1980s, however, stories of what became known as the Cambodian genocide began appearing in the media. The Khmer Rouge’s brutal governing tactics of the late 1970s eventually became known around the world. In 1990, the UN ceased recognizing the regime as a legitimate government.

By the late 1990s, the Khmer Rouge had been reduced to a weak rebel band once again. In 1997, Pol Pot was arrested and sentenced to house arrest by his own followers. He died the next year and was never charged with any crimes. By 1999, most members of the Khmer Rouge had died or had been arrested. The UN-backed tribunal continued holding trials of former regime officers into the 2000s and 2010s. The final trials, of Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, the last two figures still surviving considered to have held top positions in the Khmer Rouge regime, concluded in 2014 and 2018 with convictions of crimes against humanity and genocide. While Nuon Chea died in 2019, Khieu Samphan lost a major appeal in 2022, with his conviction confirmed. Not long after, the tribunal established a resources center in Phnom Penh to provide information on the Khmer Rouge. In total, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of nearly two million people.

Bibliography

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Fletcher, Dan. "The Khmer Rouge." Time, 17 Feb. 2009, time.com/archive/6945723/the-khmer-rouge/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

"Inauguration of the ECCC Resource Centre." United Nations Cambodia, 27 Sept. 2023, cambodia.un.org/en/247503-inauguration-eccc-resource-centre. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

"Khmer Rouge: Cambodia’s Years of Brutality." BBC, 16 Nov. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-10684399. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

"Khmer Rouge History." Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, Northwestern University School of Law Center for International Human Rights and Documentation Center of Cambodia, www.cambodiatribunal.org/history/cambodian-history/khmer-rouge-history/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2016.