Cambodia

Targeted Groups

The Khmer Rouge divided the Cambodian population into two categories. The first, known as the “new people,” included the educated—doctors, lawyers, teachers—along with those with foreign connections and current or former military and police personnel. These individuals were deemed in need of “re-education” and suffered greatly under the regime. Additionally, ethnic Vietnamese, Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims were specifically targeted for persecution. 

Historical Background

As the Vietnam War raged in the 1970s, neighboring Cambodia was drawn into the conflict when the United States secretly bombed Viet Cong supply routes running from Vietnam into Cambodian territory. Already embroiled in a civil war that began in October 1970, Cambodia was divided between the U.S.-backed Republic of Cambodia and the Communist Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot. The U.S. bombing campaign further destabilized the region, causing thousands of deaths and fueling resentment against the pro-American government. Capitalizing on this unrest, the Khmer Rouge gained widespread support, ultimately overthrowing the government and seizing control of Cambodia in April 1975. 

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge believed that Cambodia had been corrupted by Western influences, including capitalism. Within days of seizing power on April 17, 1975, they began enforcing their radical vision, launching a brutal campaign of persecution and purges. Determined to create an agrarian utopia, the regime renamed the country Kampuchea and severed all ties to its past. Cities were emptied, capitalism was abolished, schools were shut down, and children were taken from their parents. 

Anyone who questioned the regime, or was thought to be an intellectual, including those who spoke a foreign language or even wore glasses, was excuted. The capital city of Phnom Penh was forcibly evacuated, with nearly two million people relocated to rural communes. Those who resisted "re-education" were killed—either in the so-called "killing fields" or at Tuol Sleng (S-21), a notorious prison camp. Meanwhile, countless others perished from starvation and disease in forced labor camps, as the country’s economy collapsed in isolation. 

The genocide ended in January 1979, when the Khmer Rouge was removed from power as the Vietnamese army invaded in January 1979. A pro-Vietnamese, pro-Communist government in Cambodia was established. Survivors of the genocide fled to refugee camps in Thailand and many ultimately immigrated to the United States.  

Implementation of Genocide

Following the Khmer Rouge’s takeover on April 17, 1975, their genocidal policies were immediately enforced. The "new people" were rounded up and forcibly relocated to the countryside for re-education and labor on state-run communes. Phnom Penh was completely evacuated, with its residents sent to these farms, where they endured grueling conditions, starvation, and violence. 

International Response

After the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country, foreign citizens were sent to the French embassy and later expelled. Embassies shut down, and the country was effectively closed off to the outside world for four years. The Red Cross did ultimately establish refugee camps in Thailand, along the Cambodian border, as the genocide came to an end and survivors began leaving the country.  

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) was a hybrid court system established to try the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge for alleged violations of international law and serious crimes perpetrated during the Cambodian genocide. It was a national court established in agreement with the United Nations, and its members included both local and foreign judges. The ECCC was created in partnership with the UN, with trials in Cambodia using Cambodian and international staff. The Cambodian court invited international participation in order to apply international standards.  

Legacy and Aftermath

Justice Systems  

• The ECCC, running from 1997-2022, was created to bring the worst perpetrators of the Cambodian Genocide to justice. However, Pol Pot died in 1998 and was never put on trial.   

• The ECCC handled five cases, including several men responsible for the abuses committed
  at S-21. Only three of these men were sentenced to life imprisonment.  

• Part of the goal of the ECCC was to provide the Cambodian people an opportunity to learn about the Khmer Rouge period of history, to give the survivors a voice, and to give families
  truth and a sense of closure.   

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder   

• There are many Cambodian genocide survivors still living in Cambodia who suffer from PTSD.  

Refugees 

• Beginning in the late 1970s, as the genocide came to an end, survivors and their families
  looked to leave Cambodia in search of new opportunities and a better life. Many thousands came to the United States.  

Cambodia and the Ten Stages of Genocide

Preparation/Classification/Discrimination/Polarization  

The Khmer Rouge Plan 
The Khmer Rouge plan was simple. Reshape Cambodia into a classless society through re-education and purging all undesirable groups. They wanted everyone to be rural agricultural workers rather than educated city dwellers, who the Khmer Rouge believed had been corrupted by western capitalist ideas. ‘Old people’ – poor peasants who worked the land - were desirable as they were uncorrupted by the West. “New people’ - those with formal education, foreign language skills, ties to the West were undesirable. Additionally, children were crucial for the Khmer Rouge as they had not yet been corrupted by the ‘new people’ and could be taught the new ways the Khmer Rouge planned. 

Extermination  
On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge soldiers ordered Phnom Penh’s two million residents into the countryside. Houses, schools, and hospitals were emptied at gunpoint. Families were split apart as children lost sight of their parents in the confusion of the exodus. Thousands of people died on the roads leading from the capital. Friends and relatives were made to leave behind the bodies and trudge on, carrying what few possessions they could. By some estimates, between 500,000 and 1.5 million of almost two million lives were lost between 1975 and 1979 due to the Khmer Rouge–induced famine.  

The Killing Fields 
As part of the ‘Year Zero” campaign, the Khmer Rouge established collectives to eliminate private property and grow rice for the population. The ‘killing fields’ became the nickname for the communes established by the Khmer Rouge, where people were “re-educated”, forced to work, starved to death, or executed. ‘New people’, who were brought in from the cities, had the responsibility for this labor. They lacked the experience and strength and suffered from exhaustion, disease, and starvation. The bodies of those who died or were killed were buried in mass graves.   

As the Khmer Rouge rule continued, their mismanagement created shortages of food, drugs, and basic medical care. In a country that had killed off many of its doctors and took pride in extreme self-reliance, countless people succumbed to diseases that could have been easily cured. Though hunger likely caused the biggest toll. 

Tuol Sleng/S-21 - A former school in Phnom Penh was turned into a prison and interrogation center by the Khmer Rouge. Between 14,000 and 17,000 people were detained there and only 12 are believed to have survived. Most of the imprisoned individuals were executed at a nearby killing center known as Cheoung Ek.

Searching for Dad: Poem

Searching for Dad
     for Lorraine Ciancio

When I left, dad sat on his bed,
wanting to go through his shakes in private.
With no food or water, dad lived on Buddha
while his body became covered with sores.

He refused to leave. He wanted to meditate.
Pol Pot separated me from my Teacher.
When I return, I find he is gone.
Dad, what miseries did you suffer?

In ’75, it was ashrams everywhere.
Old men and women who were fed up
with reincarnating into this life of pitfalls
sought ways to reach Nirvana.

Now, in ’79, I see only aquatic bushes.
I break into a cold sweat. I get dizzy;
No matter what the ideology du jour,
there is always the same lament.

Oh trees in whose roots the fish spawn,
in the dry season of ’75, my dad was still here.
He was alive under the sanctuary of worship.
Now in what grave does his skeleton lie?

He was a builder, followed the precepts, gave alms.
He built temples, chateaux, palaces, stupas.
Yet Pol Pot killed him.
Annihilated his genius without regret.

O grasses, your grandson begs you-
if the grandfather grasses know
the whereabouts of my father’s grave,
I shall shave my head in thanks.

O grass of thickets, grass
of sticking burrs, where is
the skeleton concealed?
Tell-and I shall ask no more of you.

The horizon is like the hem of a mosquito net, pelican feet
like duck feet. We’ve been living in misery
because of our king, eclipsed because ladies adore diamonds,
our forest turned to deserts out of ignorance.

Oh, God! Why Cambodia?

- U Sam Oeur, March, 1979, U Sam Oeur (Translated from the Khmer by Ken McCullough)

About the Poet: U Sam Oeur (born 1936) is a Cambodian poet, a former member of the Parliament of Cambodia, and a former UN delegate. He is a devout Buddhist. Much of his work deals with the survival and the aftermath of the Cambodian genocide, which lasted from 1975-1979. U Sam Oeur’s 1998 book of poetry, Sacred Vows is among the few works of Khmer poetry to be translated into English. The work recounts his survival in the Killing Fields and the fate of his friends and family by weaving in mythology, folklore, religion, and an exploration/break from traditional Khmer poetry.