Taylor+Grow


 * Topic: Cambodian Genocide**

The question of this investigation is how popular was the Khmer Rouge in the years 1975-79? This will be done by discussing first the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge, and then studying multiple perspectives of the Genocide. The two main sources used in this investigation will be Sarah Williams' //Genocide: The Cambodian Experience//, and Ben Kiernan's //Blood and Soil//.
 * A.) Plan of the Investigation**

General Background - The period of Cambodian history from 1975 to 1979 is considered one of the darkest periods of human rights violations in modern history, being marked by abuses of individual and group human rights on an immense and brutal scale. - The country existed relatively peacefully until the escalation of the Vietnam War in the 1960's, which resulted in Cambodia's borders becoming vulnerable and subjected its population to bombing raids by US forces. - The Khmer Republic was established by a bloodless coup in 1970 while French hereditary monarch Norodom Sihanouk was abroad. The new government maintained strong links to the US, and gave new credibility to the Communist Party of Kampuchea, or the Khmer Rouge. - The atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia from 1975-1979 were driven by a political philosophy of achieving a sovereign Cambodia free of interference and domination by foreign interests. The new social system required a reorganization of Cambodian society, first by the restructuring of the economic and social order of Cambodia and the 'persecution and physical elimination' of those elements of society regarded as enemies of the new state.
 * B.) Summary of Evidence**

Atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge: - The Khmer Rouge distinguished between the 'new people' - those who resided in the towns and cities, comprised of teachers, middle class, members of the Khmer Republic - and the 'base people' - those that resided in the country during the 1970-75 Lon Nol regime conflict. The new people were considered the greatest threat to the regime and its first priority was the forced relocation of the new people to be forcibly settled among the base people. 2-3 Million people faced starvation as the population struggled to produce sufficient food. - Forced Labour and Inhumane Living Conditions: the relocated urban population was forced to work on state projects, such as irrigation and on communal crop-producing farms, and infrastructure. Working conditions were harsh and food rations were inadequate. The Khmer Rouge supervisors regularly killed people who refused to work. Hundreds of thousands died from disease, starvation, and exhaustion. - Persecution and Elimination of Enemies: The Regime targeted groups that it perceived to be opposed to its goal of a Khmer nation devoid of social classes and foreign influence. Included were: - The intellectuals (teachers, students) may exterminated or fled to Thailand - Religious institutions: particularly Buddhism was targeted, monks were sent to labour camps, religious buildings were destroyed. - Officials of previous regime: former leaders were mass executed. - Ethnic Minorities: Several ethnic minorities were forced to assimilate or eliminated. -Purges of Party members. The Khmer Rouge was deeply paranoid and regularly purged its own party members. In achieving their objectives, the Khmer Rouge authorized specific executions, tricked people into confessions, and often tortured their victims. Due to the absence of comprehensive records, it is impossible to identify the exact tally of victims.

General Facts and Perspectives - In the Cambodian countryside from 1975-79, the CPK's extreme revolution caused the deaths of approximately 1.7 million people from overwork, diseases, starvation and, in probably 500,000 cases, outright murder of political and ethnic 'enemies'. (547). - The Communist Party of Kampuchea targeted a range of political and "class" groups. At first remnants of the defeated Lon Nol regime (1970-75), but victims increasingly included any suspected opponents or rivals at all. (547) - Several Khmer Rouge songs struck bitter notes of political extermination. For example the "The Red Flag" which began, "glittering red blood blankets the earth-blood given to liberate the people." Another song entitled "the Beauty of Kampuchea" celebrating the "Khmer children" serving in the army ended with: "they chase the Lon Nol bandits, with swords and knives hacking them, killing them, until the Lon Nol bandits are destroyed" (548) - a Cambodian rebel leader proclaimed "we are happily killing Vietnamese; we no longer fear them." (548) - From the banks of the Mekong river, horrified reporters watched as hundreds of corpses of the murdered Vietnamese civilians floated down stream to South Vietnam. As many as 310,000 more ethnic Vietnamese fled across the border in 1970. Just five years later, the victorious CPK expelled another 150,000 Vietnamese residents. Then in 1977- 78, it successfully organized the hunting down and wholesale murder of the last 10 -20,000 ethnic Vietnamese remaining in Cambodia. (549) - Pol Pot joined the CPK in 1978 to firmly stir up national hatred for the aggressive Vietnamese enemy. Just as the Nazi's had "cleaned" areas of Jews, Pol Pot wanted purity in his regime. The biological threat of contamination was prevented by exterminating those "Khmer bodies with Vietnamese minds" (549). The resulting blood bath killed 100,000 possibly as many as 250,000 eastern Khmers. Pol Pot pointed out triumphantly that the whole nation was being cleaned, "cleanliness is the foundation" (550). - Under Pol Pot's regime the popular ideology was the need to "purify" not only a race but a territory, and restore the tradition of a "good and clean society". (551) - The Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War.

Author of the article, Williams was a lecturer in law at the University of Durham and then the University of New South Wales in the UK. Her areas of expertise are in international law, international criminal law, international humanitarian law. The article has many citations and footnotes of where she got her information, one of which she cites Ben Kiernan, author of Blood and Soil. The paper provides a background to the Khmer Rouge regime, together with the nature of the human rights abuses it perpetrated. Interestingly, she also goes into deep consideration on whether the atrocities committed in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge amounted to genocide. In the 1960's, the Vietnam war turned peaceful Cambodia into a bombing ground. In 1970 French monarch Norodom Sihanouk was over thrown in a bloodless coup, and the new government, the Khmer Rouge was established, also known as the Communist Party of Kampuchea. The atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during the period 1975 to 1979 were driven by the political philosophy to achieve a state that can rule itself free of domination by foreign interests, particular Vietnam. Being a journal article, it only shows one foreigner's point of view. It is very informational, but it tells me of the horrible things done, rather than shows me.
 * C.) Evaluation of Sources**
 * Williams, Sarah. "Genocide: The Cambodian Experience." International Criminal Law Review 5 (2005): 447-462. Print.**

Professor of International and Area Studies and Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University, Kiernan is also a prolific writer on the Cambodian genocide. While he was the founding Director of the Cambodian Genocide Program, Kiernan has also published prize-winning work on the global history of genocide. Kiernan visited Cambodia but left before the Khmer Rouge expelled all foreigners in 1975. Though he initially doubted the scale of genocide then being perpetrated in Democratic Kampuchea, he changed his mind in 1978 after beginning a series of interviews with several hundred refugees from Cambodia. He learned the Khmer language, carried out extensive research in Cambodia and among refugees abroad, and has since written many critically acclaimed books on the topic. The section on the Genocide in Cambodia gives a detailed description from the start of Cambodia's history all the way through the present situation in Cambodia. There are valuable quotes about the popularity of the Khmer Rouge and the genocide itself with lots of references also included.
 * Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2007. Print.**


 * D.) Analysis**

Cambodia existed as a peaceful country under the French until a bloodless coup in 1970. When Lon Nol dubbed himself Prime Minister and took over Khmer Republic he renamed it the Communist Party of Kampuchea. This sparked the Cambodian Civil War between the CPK and their North Vietnam and Viet Cong allies against the KR and their U.S. And South Vietnam allies. After five years of salvage fighting, On April 17, 1975, the victorious Khmer Rouge armed forces entered Phnom Penh, ordering all of its inhabitants to evacuate the city . The Khmer Rouge lead by Pol Pot then proclaimed the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea. While this civil war was a smaller part of the larger Vietnam War, the Cambodian Genocide is believed to be one of the bloodiest in history . Under Pol Pot’s regime, the country was reorganized into “farming cooperatives.” The Khmer Rouge relentlessly pursued the ideal of economic self-sufficiency, and to do so, medical care, education, the monetary system, as well as religion were all restricted . But all for good reason, of course, because the sole goal was to create a sovereign Cambodia free of interference and domination by foreign interests. And to do so, the new social system required a reorganization of Cambodian society . Eliminating any opposition was the first step; purging of party members, religious institutions, intellectuals, officials of the previous regime, and minorities . Once these necessary aspects were taken care of, the regime focused on improving infrastructure; however the philosophy caused inhumane livings conditions for those who had forced labour and lacked adequate food rations . Those that refused work were regularly killed by the masses, their bodies preserved in what are now referred to as the Killing Fields . The Khmer Rouge philosophy was built into even the smallest child’s daily life. Songs of political extermination were sung to keep spirits up as a constant reminder of the overpowering regime . Pol Pot insisted in the importance of ‘purity’ in the race and territory of the Khmer Rouge. To promote the restoration of a "good and clean society," Pol Pot instilled mass murders of ‘potentially biologically contaminated persons’ (any Khmers with ‘Vietnamese minds’). From the outside, the new government under Pol Pot maintained strong links to the US, and gave new credibility to the Khmer Rouge . It was allowed to keep its seat in the UN as voted by a majority of its members, even during the years following the genocide. The People’s Republic of China was regarded as the main international support for the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot . Khmer Rouge were driven from power by the Vietnamese in 1979. By way of an armed offensive Vietnamese policy makers took Phnom Penh, overthrowing Democratic Kampuchea

A Yale University study on the Cambodia genocide concluded that altogether 1.7 million of the country’s 8 million inhabitants died from unnatural causes during a period lasting three years and eight months . Cambodian born translator and journalist, Dith Pran, worked for The New York Times in the Khmer Republic. He was captured prisoner by the Khmer Rouge, and his story became the inspiration for the 1984 film The Killing Fields. Without Pran, America may have never seen some of the most tragic photos of the genocide in Cambodia .


 * E.) Conclusion**

In many ways the Khmer Rouge was a popular regime in it’s beginning stages. It vowed to bring change to the Cambodian people; a promise of a land of ‘cleanliness’ and economic stability. However while the moral existed solely for those privileged enough to be considered the elite Khmers, for about 21% of Cambodia’s population, the outcome wasn’t so favorable.


 * F.) List of Sources**

Corfield, Justin J. "Dith Pran." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2012.

Doerr, Paul W. “//Phnom Penh: Vietnam War”//, World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2012.

Isaacs, Arnold R. "Khmer Rouge: Vietnam War." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO. 2012.

Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2007. Print.

Power, Samantha. "A Problem From Hell" America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Perrenial, 2002. Print.

Williams, Sarah. "Genocide: The Cambodian Experience." International Criminal Law Review 5 (2005): 447-462. Print.


 * Endnotes**

1 Isaacs, Arnold R. "Khmer Rouge: Vietnam War." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO. 2012. 2 Power, Samantha. "A Problem From Hell" America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Perrenial, 2002. Print. 3 Isaacs, Arnold R. "Khmer Rouge: Vietnam War." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO. 2012. 4 Williams, Sarah. "Genocide: The Cambodian Experience." International Criminal Law Review 5 (2005): 447-462. Print. 5 Williams, Sarah. "Genocide: The Cambodian Experience." International Criminal Law Review 5 (2005): 447-462. Print. 6 Williams, Sarah. "Genocide: The Cambodian Experience." International Criminal Law Review 5 (2005): 447-462. Print. 7 Corfield, Justin J. "Dith Pran." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2012. 8 Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2007. Print. 9 Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2007. Print. 10 Williams, Sarah. "Genocide: The Cambodian Experience." International Criminal Law Review 5 (2005): 447-462. Print. 11 Power, Samantha. "A Problem From Hell" America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Perrenial, 2002. Print. 12 Power, Samantha. "A Problem From Hell" America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Perrenial, 2002. Print. 13 Isaacs, Arnold R. "Khmer Rouge: Vietnam War." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO. 2012. 14 Corfield, Justin J. "Dith Pran." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2012. 15 Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2007. Print.