...“It is not power that corrupts but fear” (Aung San Suu Kyi). Pol Pot became the leader of the Khmer Rouge and shaped it due to communistic ideas. Pol Pot believed Communism could change Cambodia’s lifestyle to be more beneficial. The Khmer Rouge killed opposition and anybody who questioned their regime. Genocides are often fueled by revolution in a certain society. The Khmer Rouge was no exception, they used ideas of Communism to alter Cambodia’s economic system to try to benefit the people, but ended up creating a genocidal revolution. The Cambodian Genocide was carried out by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge during 1975 to 1979 (Combat Genocide). About 1.6 to 2 million people were killed during the genocide (Combat Genocide). Pol Pot wanted to...
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...Cambodian Genocide Imagine being incarcerated for your religious beliefs, ethnicity, or simply because of your level of education. The Cambodian Genocide singled out groups of citizens who were different based on these reasons. The rise of the Khmer Rouge and the stages of the genocide will tell you how awful it was to live in the era. The Cambodian Genocide was brutally violent for every citizen in the country of Cambodia. The rise of Khmer Rouge, known as the communist party of Kampuchea. They took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The communist party was created due to the struggle against the French colonization and was influenced by the Vietnamese. Doctors, teachers, monks, journalists, artists, the rich, the weak, any person with an education and ethnic or religious background was singled out during this time. People were sent to prison even without evidence of being guilty of a crime, this lead up to purges taking place, killing Khmer Rouge members. At the beginning executions did not occur, people were starved to cut down the population. Survival was determined by a person’s ability to work. Meaning Cambodia’s elderly,...
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...a political regime known as the Khmer Rouge took control of the country. During this time it is estimated that around 2 million people perished, over a quarter of the population, from torture and execution or from starvation and untreated illness (Fawthrop & Jarvis, 2005). Although the regime ended with defeat by the Vietnamese over 30 years ago, the effects from this reign of terror continues to have an impact on Cambodia. The countries social coexistence, peace building process and the aftermath of the annihilation of so many of its people has affected the current population make up in terms of age, gender ratios and has left many with mental health problems (Bockers, Stammel & Knaevelsrud, 2011). There is some international debate as to whether the deaths are considered to be genocide, and why the men responsible for these senseless mass murders have not been brought to justice. The definition of genocide is the deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group. This definition clearly explains the mass murders undertaken under the direction of pol pot and the Khmer rouge party. It is a very difficult task to prosecute people under genocide charges as they are usually protected by a government of group of followers. Cambodians believe it would somehow diminish the offence if the term “genocide” was not used to explain the mass murders of their people (Fawthrop & Jarvis, 2005). Khmer Rouge or the People's Revolutionary Party...
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...The Cambodian Genocide was the cause of many deaths in Laos and Cambodia because of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot and the idea of the "Ideal Communist.” In the years 1975 to 1979, through execution, disease, forced labor, and starvation, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge killed what is said to have been an estimated “two million” Cambodians. Which is almost a fourth of Cambodia’s population. This estimate does not include the maimed, the homeless, the orphaned, and the widowed, who were also suffering for all those years. The Cambodian Genocide was basically an attempt by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to nationalize the Cambodia farming society basically overnight, in an attempt for it to be like the “Chinese Communist agricultural model.” The population was made to work in one huge federation of many farms as labourers. Anyone who opposed, which were said to be all people in Cambodia with an education, must be terminated “together with all un-communist aspects of traditional Cambodian society.” “Christian, Buddhist and Muslim...
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...Lemkin created a word to describe the Nazi’s way of killing the Jewish people, by using the ancient Greek word genos, (which means race and tribe) and the word Latin cide, (which means killing)? IT WAS GENOCIDE! Raphael Lemkin created the word Genocide because he lost his family in the Holocaust. Genocide is a mass murder that develop in ten stages: classification, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization,...
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...mortifying as the ruling of the Khmer Rouge happens people are always left with one question stuck in their minds. “How could something like this ever happen?” It breeds a good question, as people would like to believe that they live in a world where nothing like the Khmer Rouge could rule in. However, there are intricate steps that must happen in a society for a Fascist government to take control. First, is to set up the playing field. In order to gain control over an entire population or group of people civilization must be destroyed or close to gone. Usually this happens by a huge natural disaster, war being fought in that land area, or a mass tragedy. Such as, dropping about half a million tons of bombs and killing around 300,000 people in Cambodia’s case. By destroying society and civilization the citizens of the area become helpless and are so filled with fear that they will blindly follow or allow any type of...
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...Armenian Genocide 1. Armenia was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and they were mostly Muslim. Christians had fewer political and legal rights compared to the Muslims, but Armenia was still successful. Turkey did not like the success, and in 1908, a new government came to rule Turkey, called the “Young Turks.” The Young Turks wanted to get rid of the Armenian population, which were Muslim and Christian, and make another government, so the genocide started on April 24, 1915. The Young Turks wanted to “Turkify” the Ottoman Empire. 2. The Armenian Genocide involved the Ottoman Empire and the Young Turks (who were trying to eliminate the Ottoman Empire). The genocide also involved the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, and Russia), and the United States. The Allied Powers warned the Young Turks that they would be responsible for this crime to kill the Ottomans. The United States’ citizens did know about the genocide, and there was a strong outcry, but these four countries did not really do anything. 3. The genocide fighting stopped in the September of 1918. The Treaty of Sevres was made so the Central Powers could sign to show defeat of WWI. It also marked the beginning of the total annihilation of the Ottoman Empire, and that all non-Turkish land that...
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...Anthropology 2237 Peoples, Cultures, and History of Southeast Asia Out of the Poison Tree: The Antidote is Truth Video 1. Out of the Poison Tree chronicles Thida Buth Mam and her two sisters, all of whom are survivors of the Cambodian genocide under the Khmer Rouge, as they return to Cambodia in order to ascertain the fate of their father. Thida Buth Mam wrote one of the most well-known books on the genocide, To Destroy You is No Loss, an intensely personal look at the events of 1975-1979 through the eyes of a young Cambodian girl. 2. The video also deals with an important current event in Cambodia, the attempt to prosecute, after more than 30 years, surviving Khmer Rouge leadership for crimes against humanity and genocide. The trials are on-going in 2014, with the first important verdicts handed down in July, 2010. 3. Exact figures for the number of people who died under the Khmer Rouge are unknown. The most widely accepted figure is approximately 1.7 million dead in the period 1975-1979, but other estimates range upwards of 2 million (of an initial Cambodian population of 7 million). 4. The central issue of the film is essentially ‘how do survivors – and Cambodian society as a whole -- deal with the genocide?’ What does one do or not do in attempting to cope with the tragedy? What are some of the attitudes and actions expressed in the film that deal with this issue? 5. Other...
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...of the Khmer Rouge on Cambodian society from 1975-1979 Cambodia became one huge labor camp under the Khmer Rouge. After deposing Lon Nol on 1975, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot began one of the most brutal regimes in human history. This not only changed the Cambodian society but also ultimately destroyed it. This was due to the extreme vision of communism, which Pol Pot wanted to implement for a perfect and a peaceful society. Prince Norodom Sihanouk always tried to maintain Cambodia’s neutrality. But with Laos and Vietnam as its borders, he knew this was impossible. After the assassination of Diem in South Vietnam, Sihanouk condemned America’s policies; in turn he allowed Viet Cong bases in Cambodia. America in regard to this started ‘Operation Menu’ from 1969, to destroy the Viet Cong bases. When Sihanouk went to visit China on 1970, the CIA deposed him because he allowed North Vietnamese and Viet Cong to have sanctuaries in Cambodia. Sihanouk was replaced by pro-American and anti-Communist Lon Nol. This marked an end of a peaceful era in Cambodia. As soon as Lon Nol gained the power, he ordered the communist to leave Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge and the Viet Cong in retaliation to this launched an attack against the Lon Nol government. After a five year civil war between Lon Nol’s Royal Cambodian army, Viet Cong, North Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge and over 600 000 Cambodians died, Lon Nol left Cambodia on 1st April 1975. Seventeen days later the Khmer Rouge took over...
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...Many people have died or suffered throughout history due to the abuses of human rights. Some of those events have happened years ago, but things like this are still happening today. There are many different examples of human rights abuse, and there are several reasons for why these horrid events have happened. However, when people think of events like this, they usually think of the Holocaust, but there are thousands and thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of other examples. Conflicts can easily be formed, and those conflicts can easily cause issues, and many genocides that have happened in the past have occurred because of conflicts that were formed…or… and many genocides have occurred because of conflicts that were formed… One situation...
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...There has been many different genocides around the world, but the ones that will be compared and contrasted in the article today are the Holocaust and the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge. The people were killed in different ways. There was different punishments used during these genocides. The conditions of the work/concentration camps were brutal. The genocide was eventually ended due to the armed forces of other countries. Even though these genocides may seem completely different, they have their similarities as well a their differences. The genocide both had their own way of killing those involved. Under the Khmer Rouge, the adults were killed by kneeling over a pre-dug grave and would get hit in the back of the head with a steel axle rod (Buncombe). Children were killed by having their heads smashed against a tree trunks (Buncombe). In the holocaust, the victims would be shot if they fell behind when they were going from one camp to another (Wiesel 77). They would be burned alive inside crematories (30-31). This how Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge and Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party had their victims killed....
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...Warren 1 Willie Warren Ms. Dingley Period 6 April 3, 2017 Cambodian Genocide: April 17, 1975 - January 7, 1979 The cause of the Cambodian Genocide was Vietnam wanted independence which then causing the Indochina war. After the first Indochina War in the 1950's a communist movement was born in Cambodia. The communist party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge. The nickname was given by the fact that most of the country's ethnicity was red, the color of communism. The party was born from the country's struggle against French colonization. It was greatly influenced by the Vietnamese and wasn't an official party until 1968. During the Vietnam War the U.S. used Cambodia to their advantage by creating regrouping zones and even bombing parts...
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...shocked, bothered, and awed the world. The movie tells us of what happened in Cambodia during the time of the American-Vietnam war and the seizing of Cambodia’s government by the Khmer Rouge. It showed us the real scope of the disaster that fell upon the Cambodian government and society by using the experiences of three journalists namely: Dith Pran, Sydney Schanberg and Jon Swain. And though I would want to argue that there might have been certain events that were left untouched by this movie that could have lend us more valuable information about the Cambodian Genocide and the Khmer Rouge regime, I would leave that point be and focus on relating the movie to the Machiavellian view of politics, power, and society. Back when Cambodia was still in Prince Sihanouk’s control, the country did little to intervene with the matters of the Vietnam civil war by giving favors on both sides. When Lon Nol took over, however, Cambodia suddenly became a part of the Vietnam battlegrounds. He allowed the American troops to bomb away suspected hideouts of South Vietnamese guerillas located in southern Cambodia, resulting bombings that took almost 750,000 lives (http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_cambodia.html). While these things were happening, the number of Khmer Rouge’s members was rapidly increasing. Khmer Rouge’s leader, Pol Pot, was a great admirer of the Maoist communism and launched an extreme campaign of reconstructing Cambodia and eradicating the pollution that “Western Society”...
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...01/18/2010 Abstract The history of Cambodia will be reviewed in this paper. The paper will focus on the history of Cambodia from the time that Pol Pot led the country until present time. The paper will look in detail at the genocide of Cambodia that occurred under the leadership of Pol Pot from 1975 to 1979 where an estimated 2,000,000 Cambodians died. An analysis of the political landscape will be discussed in the paper. Women culture and the treatment of women during this period will be examined. The paper will also evaluate the religious culture, the impact that various ethnicities had on Cambodia, and report on the agrarian reform in Cambodia. An exploration of why Cambodia progress in the areas of economic growth, social development, and political development has been stymied will be investigated. A comprehensive look at the educational system of Cambodia will be reviewed along with urban development. History Cambodia is juxtaposed on mainland Southeast Asia between Thailand and Vietnam (2010). Because of Cambodia’s location, it has long been vulnerable to foreign territorial ambitions. Cambodia has struggled to maintain self-identity and survival as a nation (1993). The name “Cambodia” derives from the French Cambadge, which comes from Khmer word the People’s Republic of Kampuchaea (1979-1989), the country was known internationally as Kampuchea, but more recent governments have returned to using Cambodia, and the official name in English is now the Kingdom of ...
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...monarchy. Map & Photos Cambodia and surrounding area. Pol Pot addresses a closed meeting in Phnom Penh after the 1975 Khmer Rouge victory. Young Khmer Rouge soldiers in 1975. Tuol Sleng Prison, the nerve center of the Khmer Rouge secret police. Today it's the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. The Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. This mass grave, discovered in 1980, was one of the first proofs to the outside world of what had occurred during Pol Pot's regime. By 1962, Pol Pot had become leader of the Cambodian Communist Party and was forced to flee into the jungle to escape the wrath of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia. In the jungle, Pol Pot formed an armed resistance movement that became known as the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians) and waged a guerrilla war against Sihanouk's government. In 1970, Prince Sihanouk was ousted, not by Pol Pot, but due to a U.S.-backed right-wing military coup. An embittered Sihanouk retaliated by joining with Pol Pot, his former enemy, in opposing Cambodia's new military government. That same year, the U.S. invaded Cambodia to expel the North Vietnamese from their border encampments, but instead drove them deeper into Cambodia where they allied themselves with the Khmer Rouge. From 1969 until 1973, the U.S. intermittently bombed North Vietnamese sanctuaries in eastern Cambodia, killing up to 150,000 Cambodian peasants. As a result, peasants fled the countryside by the hundreds of thousands and settled in Cambodia's capital city,...
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