The genocide Cambodian was promoted by the communist government of the Khmer Red , led by Pol Pot in Cambodia, between 1975 and 1979. This genocide was one of the consequences of the tyrannical actions imposed in the period with the application of an agrarian utopia, which resulted in a violent repression, marked by forced labor, torture and executions. It is estimated that at least 1.5 million people died during that time in that Asian country.
Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot
The Khmer Rouge was one of the parties that had succeeded the former Party Communist da Indochina . Since the 1955 elections, which guaranteed the government to Norodum Sihanouk, Pol Pot, a member of the Khmer Rouge, started to defend the seizure of power in Cambodia through armed struggle.
Upon becoming leader of this party in 1960, Pol Pot, in hiding, began to seek support to organize a guerrilla to put into practice its goals for the country. During this time, a rebellion against the Sihanouk government began, however, it was the occurrence of two other decisive events that made it possible to bring the Khmer Rouge to the power of Cambodia.
The first event was the military coup, led by Lon Nol and supported by the United States, against Sihanouk's government in 1970. This coup caused Sihanouk to form a coalition with the Khmer Rouge to, together, overthrow the Lon Nol government. The other event was marked by the bombings carried out by the United States in Cambodia, as an offshoot of the Vietnam War.
The strengthening of the Khmer Rouge from these two events intensified the civil war in the country and enabled this party totake power in 1975, when the capital, Phnom Penh, was conquered. With that, Pol Pot took over the government and put into practice his agrarian utopia, which started a period of repression, torture and executions in Cambodia.
During the years that Pol Pot was in power, the emptying das cities Cambodians from the migration of population to farms collectives, where she was subjected to a forced labor regime. In addition, hospitals, schools, libraries and monasteries were closed, among others, and were abolished a property private , the salaries and an intense persecution against ethnic minorities began and groups intellectualized of society.
Genocide Cambodian
With the institution of the communist government under the leadership of Pol Pot, a utopia was imposed agrarian which promoted the emptying of Cambodian cities and forced the population to settle on collective farms, where they had to work almost all day. Many people migrated constantly on Khmer Rouge orders and were forced to take long walks.
The Cambodian government has also promoted closure and isolation total from Cambodia , with borders and foreign embassies closed. Anyone who could speak a foreign language was arrested and could be killed. In addition, university professors and students were persecuted. People who showed characteristics of Westernization were also arrested by the government.
There were still purges internal in the Khmer Rouge. Members who expressed disagreement with Pol Pot's decisions or party members who had contact with the Vietnamese Communist Party were arrested. In the early 1970s, for example, about 900 party members with ties to Vietnamese communists were arrested.
Also, ethnic minorities existing in Cambodia were target da repression of the Khmer Rouge. At that time, about 15% of the Cambodian population belonged to some ethnic minority existing in the country, made up of Vietnamese, Chinese and the Sham.
Pol Pot's government carried out the expulsion of more than 100,000 Vietnamese from the country and promoted what was characterized as a systematic racial genocide:from 10,000 to 20,000 Vietnamese. were killed, which corresponded to practically all the people of this ethnic group who had remained in the country.
The Chinese were also a group that was intensely persecuted. Identified as the stereotype of urban workers by the Khmer Rouge, the Chinese were subjected to worse conditions than the rest of the population. Therefore, this persecution of these people did not happen for racial reasons, but because they were identified with urban work. More than 200,000 Chinese are estimated to have died as a result of the appalling conditions to which they were subjected.
The cham , another ethnic group existing in Cambodia, were forbidden to wear their typical clothes, speak their own dialect and practice their religion, Islam. Khmer Rouge militias systematically attacked villages inhabited by the Cham and carried out the destruction of about a hundred of them. In all, approximately100,000 cham died in that period.
Religious groups in Cambodia were also persecuted, particularly Buddhists. Buddhist monasteries were closed by the government, its monks were arrested and thousands of these religious were killed. The persecution of Buddhism meant that, in 1977, there was no longer any monastery in operation in the country . Other minority religions also suffered repression.
Pol Pot's tyranny in Cambodia ended in January 1979, when the Cambodian government was overthrown after the country was invaded by the Vietnamese army. With the end of his government, it was possible to specify its consequences for the country. Estimates show that at least 1.5 million people died, a number that may still have reached 2.5 million .
*Image Credits:Akturer and Shutterstock