Cambodian Genocide
Introduction
Cambodia is a little country (half the size of California) in Southeast Asia, with capital Phnom Penh. The country is bordered in the west and north-west by Thailand, in the north-east by Laos and the south-east by Vietnam. The southern border of Cambodia are on the beaches of the Gulf of Thailand. In 1953, after 100 years of French colonial rule, Cambodia gained independence. Elected Prime Minister of Cambodia's Prince Sihanouk adopted a policy of neutrality, he refused to "US aid" and broke off diplomatic relations with the United States. In the years before the genocide, the Cambodian population was more than 7 million, and most of them were Khmer, Buddhists.
In April 1975, after five years of civil war, the Khmer Rouge forces (paramilitary structures of the Communist Party of Cambodia) took control of the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh and overthrew the government of General Lon Nol. Under the leadership of Secretary General of the Party of Pol Pot (real name Salote Sar) they started to implement the idea of creating a utopian society composed entirely of hard-working peasants, which meant creating a society totally dependent of external forces. This, however, did not prevent the Khmer Rouge from taking economic and military aid from China and North Korea.
Cambodian Communist ideology was a mixture of Marxism, Maoism and anti-colonialism.The genocide in Cambodia in 1975-1979 is one of the worst human tragedies of the past century and its victims were about 1, 7 million (21% of the total population) of Cambodia. As well as the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian Genocide, the Soviet Union under Stalin, Nazi Germany in the era of the Holocaust and in more recent times East Timor, Guatemala, Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the regime of "Khmer Rouge" headed by Pol Pot combined the extremist ideology, ethnic hatred and a diabolical disregard for human life. This regime produced a repression, misery and murder on a massive scale.What preceded the genocide?Prince Sihanouk and his faithful followers have teamed up with the organization of the Communist guerrilla movement known as the "Khmer Rouge". Shortly thereafter, in Cambodia the civil war began. At the same time, the south-eastern neighbor Vietnam fought for independence against the French. In 1954, it was divided into the Communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam's pro-Western, who continued to fight among themselves. In 1964, the United States got involved in the civil war in Vietnam, which eventually led to the death of more than three million American and Vietnamese people. Prince Sihanouk during the Vietnam War remained neutral, to provide support to both parties.
In 1970, the new Prime Minister General Lon Nol, supported by the United States government made a military coup and became president of the new Khmer Republic. In 1975, North Vietnamese forces captured the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, and in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot and his army went to Phnom Penh. After the overthrow of the …
