Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Case Study: Genocide in Cambodia


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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