The Cambodian Genocide occurred throughout 1975-1979. 1.7
million People were killed, which is approximately 20% of Cambodia's
population. It was politically motivated genocide, in which all religious
leaders, intellectuals, former members of the (non-Communist) government and
military, and even those who were simply literate were targeted. Pol Pot, who
was the leader of the largest faction of the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian Red)
Communists, felt that, in order the make a communist utopia, he would have to
eliminate all traces of the corrupt former regime and start fresh at year zero.
Throughout the genocide, all political and civil rights were
abolished. Children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced
labour camps. Factories, schools and universities were shut down; so were
hospitals. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists and professional
people in any field (including the army) were murdered, together with their
extended families. Religion was banned, all leading Buddhist monks were killed
and almost all temples destroyed. Music and radio sets were also banned. It was
possible for people to be shot simply for knowing a foreign language, wearing
glasses, laughing, or crying. One Khmer slogan ran 'To spare you is no profit;
to destroy you is no loss.'
More than 20 years later, the Extraordinary Chambers in the
Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is bringing the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge to
trial for their crimes against humanity. On June 26, 2010, the ECCC found Kaing
Guek Eav, alias Duch, guilty of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of
the Geneva Conventions of 1949, sentencing him to 35 years in prison. Kaing
Guek Eav, a Khmer Rouge deputy and chairman of S-21, is the first of four
former leaders charged to stand trial before the ECCC.
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