Significant portions of the following historical overview
were contributed by DC-Cam from Khamboly Dy’s “A History of Democratic
Kampuchea (1975-1979).”
Overview
The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), otherwise known as
the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The CPK created
the state of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and ruled the country until January
1979. The party’s existence was kept secret until 1977, and no one outside the
CPK knew who its leaders were (the leaders called themselves “Angkar Padevat”).
While the Khmer Rouge was in power, they set up policies
that disregarded human life and produced repression and massacres on a massive
scale. They turned the country into a huge detention center, which later became
a graveyard for nearly two million people, including their own members and even
some senior leaders.
The Rise of the Khmer Rouge
The Cambodian communist movement emerged from the country’s
struggle against French colonization 1940s, and was influenced by the
Vietnamese. Fueled by the first Indochina War in the 1950s, and during the next
20 years, the movement took roots and began to grow.
In March 1970, Marshal Lon Nol, a Cambodian politician who
had previously served as prime minister, and his pro-American associates staged
a successful coup to depose Prince Sihanouk as head of state. At this time, the
Khmer Rouge had gained members and was positioned to become a major player in
the civil war due to its alliance with Sihanouk. Their army was led by Pol Pot,
who was appointed CPK’s party secretary and leader in 1963. Pol Pot, born in
Cambodia as Solath Sar, spent time in France and became a member of the French
Communist Party. Upon returning to Cambodia in 1953, he joined a clandestine
communist movement and began his rise up the ranks to become one of the world’s
most infamous dictators.
Aided by the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge began to defeat Lon
Nol’s forces on the battlefields. By the end of 1972, the Vietnamese withdrew
from Cambodia and turned the major responsibilities for the war over to the
CPK.
From January to August 1973, the Khmer Republic government,
with assistance from the US, dropped about half a million tons of bombs on
Cambodia, which may have killed as many as 300,000 people. Many who resented
the bombings or had lost family members joined the Khmer Rouge’s revolution.
By early 1973, about 85 percent of Cambodian territory was
in the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and the Lon Nol army was almost unable to go
on the offensive. However, with US assistance, it was able to continue fighting
the Khmer Rouge for two more years.
April 17, 1975 ended five years of foreign interventions,
bombardment, and civil war in Cambodia. On this date, Phnom Penh, a major city
in Cambodia, fell to the communist forces.
Life in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge Regime
A few days after they took power in 1975, the Khmer Rouge
forced perhaps two million people in Phnom Penh and other cities into the
countryside to undertake agricultural work. Thousands of people died during the
evacuations.
The Khmer Rouge also began to implement their radical Maoist
and Marxist-Leninist transformation program at this time. They wanted to
transform Cambodia into a rural, classless society in which there were no rich
people, no poor people, and no exploitation. To accomplish this, they abolished
money, free markets, normal schooling, private property, foreign clothing styles,
religious practices, and traditional Khmer culture. Public schools, pagodas,
mosques, churches, universities, shops and government buildings were shut or
turned into prisons, stables, reeducation camps and granaries. There was no
public or private transportation, no private property, and no non-revolutionary
entertainment. Leisure activities were severely restricted. People throughout
the country, including the leaders of the CPK, had to wear black costumes,
which were their traditional revolutionary clothes.
During this time, everyone was deprived of their basic
rights. People were not allowed to go outside their cooperative. The regime
would not allow anyone to gather and hold discussions. If three people gathered
and talked, they could be accused of being enemies and arrested or executed.
Family relationships were also heavily criticized. People
were forbidden to show even the slightest affection, humor or pity. The Khmer
Rouge asked all Cambodians to believe, obey and respect only Angkar Padevat, which
was to be everyone’s “mother and father.”
The Khmer Rouge claimed that only pure people were qualified
to build the revolution. Soon after seizing power, they arrested and killed
thousands of soldiers, military officers and civil servants from the Khmer
Republic regime led by Marshal Lon Nol, whom they did not regard as “pure.”
Over the next three years, they executed hundreds of thousands of
intellectuals; city residents; minority people such as the Cham, Vietnamese and
Chinese; and many of their own soldiers and party members, who were accused of
being traitors. Many were held in prisons, where they were detained,
interrogated, tortured and executed. The most important prison in Cambodia,
known as S-21, held approximately 14,000 prisoners while in operation. Only
about 12 survived.
Under the terms of the CPK’s 1976 “Four-Year Plan,”
Cambodians were expected to produce three tons of rice per hectare throughout
the country. This meant that people had to grow and harvest rice all 12 months
of the year. In most regions, the Khmer Rouge forced people to work more than
12 hours a day without rest or adequate food.
Fall of the Khmer Rouge
By the end of 1977, clashes broke out between Cambodia and
Vietnam. Tens of thousands of people were sent to fight and thousands were
killed.
In December 1978, Vietnamese troops fought their way into
Cambodia. They captured Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979. The Khmer Rouge leaders
then fled to the west and reestablished their forces in Thai territory, aided
by China and Thailand. The United Nations voted to give the resistance movement
against communists, which included the Khmer Rouge, a seat in its General
Assembly. From 1979 to 1990, it recognized them as the only legitimate
representative of Cambodia.
In 1982, the Khmer Rouge formed a coalition with Prince
Sihanouk, who was exiled in China after the Cambodian Civil War, and the
non-communist leader Son Sann to create the Triparty Coalition Government. In
Phnom Penh, on the other hand, Vietnam helped to create a new government – the
People?s Republic of Kampuchea – led by Heng Samrin.
The Khmer Rouge continued to exist until 1999 when all of
its leaders had defected to the Royal Government of Cambodia, been arrested, or
had died. But their legacy remains.
Life in Cambodia Today
Democratic Kampuchea was one of the worst human tragedies of
the 20th century. Nearly two million Cambodians died from diseases due to a
lack of medicines and medical services, starvation, execution, or exhaustion
from overwork. Tens of thousands were made widows and orphans, and those who
lived through the regime were severely traumatized by their experiences.
Several hundred thousand Cambodians fled their country and became refugees.
Millions of mines were laid by the Khmer Rouge and government forces, which
have led to thousands of deaths and disabilities since the 1980s. A large
proportion of the Cambodian people have mental problems because their family
members were lost and their spirits damaged. These factors are one of the major
causes of the poverty that plagues Cambodia today.
Source: http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/
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