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On
April 17, 1975, less than two weeks before the fall of Saigon,
the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh and immediately began to drive
the city's 2 million residents into the countryside. This was
the first stage in its brutal attempt to transform Cambodia into
a primitive communal utopia. In reality, the Khmer Rouge turned
the country into an enormous forced labor camp. Money, property,
books and religion were outlawed. Cambodia's economy, already
severely damaged by years of bombing and civil war, ground to
a halt. All decisions in the newly renamed Democratic Kampuchea
came from a shadowy and unquestionable leadership known simply
as angkar,or "the organization."
Forced
Labor under the Khmer Rouge - April 1976 |
In
less than four years, between 1.7 million and 2.5 million people
died, out of a population of 8 million. Many succumbed to starvation
or exhaustion. Tens of thousands were tortured and executed
in places like Phnom Penh's infamous Tuol Sleng prison.
The Khmer Rouge completely closed Cambodia to the outside world.
But reports of atrocities trickled out of the country, sparking
a debate in the United States and the West. News of mass killings
and starvation seemed to vindicate those who had predicted a
bloodbath once the Khmer Rouge came to power.  However,
some antiwar activists questioned the accuracy of these reports,
claiming that they were exaggerations meant to discredit the
new Communist regime.
In the face of mounting evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities,
the U.S. government stayed quiet. After the debacle of the Vietnam
War, few American politicians were willing to get reinvolved
in Southeast Asia, and the government was not eager to examine
its complex role in Cambodia's collapse. Not until April 1978
did President Jimmy Carter declare the Khmer Rouge "the worst
violator of human rights in the world."
Khmer Rouge boy soldiers in Phnom Penh
- April 17,1975 |
By
then, the Khmer Rouge had less than a year left in power. Ironically,
its downfall was brought on by a conflict with its former ally,
Vietnam. A border dispute between Democratic Kampuchea and communist
Vietnam flared into full-scale war, and in January 1979, Vietnamese
forces rolled into Phnom Penh.
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1980-1991:
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
photo: Pol Pot
greeting Khmer Rouge Cadres
credit: Photo Courtesy Documentation Center of Cambodia
(DC-CAM)
photo:
Forced Labor under the Khmer Rouge - April 1976
credit: Photo Courtesy AFP/Claude Juvenal
photo:
Khmer Rouge soldiers enter Phnom Penh - April 17,1975
credit: Photo Courtesy AFP
photo:
Khmer Rouge boy soldiers in Phnom Penh - April 17,1975
credit: Photo Courtesy AFP
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