Cambodian genocide

The Cambodian genocide which ran from 1975 to 1979, cost the lives of an estimated one and a half to three million people.

"In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge received aid and assistance from the United States after their regime was overthrown by the Vietnamese in the late 1970s. Even though the nature of the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge was by then well known, the United States saw them as an important check on Vietnamese power in southeast Asia and consequently felt justi¤ed in assisting this genocidal state"

"In the 1970s, for example, the Kampuchean Khmer Rouge regime killed between one and two million of their own citizens in an abortive and disastrous attempt to create a radically new society. In their efforts to purify Cambodian society racially, socially, ideologically, and politically, the Khmer Rouge engineered the destruction of populations from almost every social category, including not only politicians and military leaders of the former government, but also business leaders, journalists, students, and professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, as well as ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese, and Muslim Chams. Eventually, after running out of enemies, the party turned on itself in a series of deadly internecine purges in which many former perpetrators themselves became victims"

Ideology

Ideology played an important role in the genocide. The desire of the Khmer Rouge to bring the nation back to a "mythic past", stop aid entering the nation from abroad, which in their eyes was a corrupting influence and restore the country to an agrarian society, and the manner in which they tried to implement this was one factor in the genocide.

Ben Kiernan compares three genocides is history, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust and the Cambodian genocide, which although unique shared certain commonalities. Racism is one and was a major part of the ideology of all three regimes. Although all three were atheist, they targeted religious minorities. All three also tried to use force of arms to expand into a "contiguous heartland", (Turkestan, Lebensraum, and Kampuchea Krom), all three regimes also "idealized their ethnic peasantry as the true “national” class, the ethnic soil from which the new state grew." The Khmer Rouge regime targeted various ethnic groups during the genocide, forcibly relocating minority groups, and banned the use of minority languages. Religion was also banned, and the repression of adherents of Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism was extensive. And according to Kiernan, the "fiercest extermination campaign was directed at the ethnic Cham Muslim minority".

Genocide denial

"In an interview just months before his death, Pol Pot, former Khmer Rouge leader and the architect of the Cambodian genocide, denied being responsible for the genocide committed against his people during the 1970s. Asserting that “I came to carry out the struggle, not to kill people,” Pol Pot portrayed himself as a misunderstood and unfairly vili¤ed ¤gure, instead of the leader of a movement considered one of the most brutal of the twentieth century. Incredibly, he also declared, “Am I a savage person? My conscience is clear.”"

Bibliography

• Alvarez, Alex (2001). Governments, Citizens, and Genocide: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approach. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253338495. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Frey, Rebecca Joyce (2009). Genocide and International Justice. Facts On File. ISBN 978-0816073108. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kiernan, Ben (2003). "Twentieth-Century Genocides Underlying Ideological Themes from Armenia to East Timor". In Robert Gellately, Ben Kiernan (ed.). The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521527507. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)