The History of Cambodia.
Written on November 24, 2009
Cambodia is a country in South East Asia. At one time it was the centre of the ancient kingdom of the Khmer, and its capital was Angkor. The capital today is Phnom Penh. In 1953 Cambodia gained independence after nearly 100 years of French rule. In the 1960s the population of Cambodia was more than seven million mainly Buddhists who were ruled by Prince Sihanouk. In 1970 Prince Sihanouk was taken out of power in a military revolution. The leader of the new government who took power was lieutenant-general Lon Nol. When he took power, he also became the president of the ‘Khmer Republic’. Prince Sihanouk who had been taken out of power, gathered his followers and joined with a communist guerrilla organisation known as the Khmer Rouge. They attacked Lon Nol’s army and from here the civil war started.
Under Prince Sihanouk, Cambodia had also helped during the Vietnamese civil war by helping both sides a little. When US-backed Lon Nol took over, US troops felt free to move into Cambodia to continue the bombing of the Viet Cong situated there. Essentially Cambodia had become a large part of the Vietnam battlefield. In the course of the next few years, American B-52 bombers killed up to 750,000 Cambodians in whilst trying to destroy the North Vietnamese supply lines – clearly devastating to Cambodia.
The Khmer Rouge leader was Pol Pot. He had been brought up in France and he was an great admirer of Maoist communism, and thus he was suspicious of Vietnam’s relations with Cambodia. The heavy American bombardment of Cambodia, and Lon Nol’s collaboration with America – which made him very unpopular, lost him supporters and drove new recruits to the Khmer Rouge. As well as this, the new followers were attracted by the Chinese backing and North Vietnamese training for them. In 1975 Pol Pot had an army of over 700,000 men. Whilst Lon Nol’s army was occupied trying to hold back both the Vietnamese communists and Cambodia’s own communists, the Khmer Rouge.
In 19I75 Lon Nol was defeated by the Khmer Rouge. It’s estimated that 156,000 died in the civil war – half of them civilians.
The Genocide Itself
Under Pol Pot’s leadership very soon after the old government under Nol had been deposed of, the Khmer Rouge started their organised mission: they introduced a new “plan” rebuild Cambodia (now known by its Khmer name Kampuchea). This “new” Cambodia would be based on the communist model of Mao’s China – as Pol Pot was such a strong believer in Mao. They said that everyone had to be made to work as workers in one massive partnership of farms. The worst part was that anyone who was against these beliefs, and all intellectuals were assumed to be, had to be eliminated. So that all un-communist aspects of traditional Cambodian society were completely eradicated. This is surprisingly similar to what happened in the 1940′s with the rise of Hitler.
So, at short notice and whilst being threatened to death, people living in many towns and cities were evacuated. Absolutely everyone was driven out. The ill, disabled, old and very young were no exception, no-one was spared. People who argued were killed; those who didn’t leave fast enough and those who didn’t do as they were told were also killed.
All basic civil rights were abolished. It got so bad that children were taken from their parents and placed in labour camps – forced to work all day. Factories, schools and universities were shut down; even hospitals were closed down. All Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists and other people who were considered to be educated were murdered, as well as their families. It got so extreme that the Khmer even banned religion and killed all of the Buddhist monks and almost all temples destroyed. Basic human characteristics were also banned, for example one could not laugh or cry without risking being shot. It was possible for people to be shot simply for knowing a foreign language, or even wearing glasses! We can understand why this happened with slogans such as “To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss” being at the heart of their views.
It seems that the Khmer were also trying to break up the morale of the population as they banned personal relationships and expressions of affection. Under these conditions people soon became weak from overwork from little food, for which there was no cure except death.
Khmer Rouge’s racism also extended to ethnic minority groups such as the Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai. It was recorded that half the Cham Muslim population was murdered, and 8,000 Christians were also killed.
However the leasers were left afraid of losing power, paranoid of traitors in their government. The Khmer Rouge frequently questioned their own members, and it was not uncommon for them to be killed even on the slightest suspicion of treachery
Civilian deaths in this period, from the amalgamation of the executions, from disease, and from the exhaustion and starvation, have been estimated at around three million.
The Results
Cambodia was left in a terrible state after the genocide, both economically and psychologically. Pol Pot’s policies had killed off all the professional engineers, technicians and planners, so the reconstruction of major buildings was difficult. However, of course the most horrific result of the genocide in Cambodia was the mass killings of nigh on 3 million people. The memory of which will haunt our society forever.
