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Cambodia - The Betrayal
The world was horrified to learn of the holocaust which had taken place in Cambodia at the hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. This film exposes the hypocrisy of the Western nations which continue to support Pol Pot, despite the atrocities of his regime. Not only has Pol Pot been allowed to occupy Cambodia's seat in the United Nations, but the Western nations have been secretly selling them weapons for use in their civil war. Despite the loss of a fifth of their population, the resilient Cambodians have made significant strides to rebuild their society. But they fear the threat of a second Holocaust. After five years of bloody civil war, the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on 17 April 1975. There was no resistance from the forces of the toppled republican government and the whole city, its population swollen by refugees from the fighting, was relieved that peace had come at last. That relief was short-lived. On the pretext that they were expecting the USA to bomb Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge forced the whole population to evacuate the city on foot. Those who refused were shot, as were hospital patients who were unable to walk. The roads out of the city were clogged with bewildered people, clutching a few belongiongs. Children were separated from their parents; the old and infirm who could not keep up were left to die at the roadside. The same thing happened in all the cities and towns, and the whole country was effectively turned into a vast forced labour camp. Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, was achieving his dream of Year Zero, the return of Cambodia to a peasant economy in which there would be no class divisions, no money, no books, no schools, no hospitals. 'Reactionary religion' was banned in the constitution of January 1976. Those who had had any connection with the previous regime were eliminated. People who were deemed to have been the lazy elite, in other words the educated and the skilled, were also disposed of. Every vestige of the former corrupt way of life had to be destroyed. Many people tried to conceal their identity or former occupation, but were eventually found out or betrayed. Whole families would be executed. Even babies were killed by dashing their skulls against trees.
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Asia -
Cambodia
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 Pol Pot As political factionalism grew in Cambodia, Sihanouk began to crack down on his opponents, including Communists. The Communists fell into two groups: Vietnamese-trained veterans of the independence struggle, including former Buddhist monks and their peasant followers; and younger urban radicals such as Pol Pot. While the former were major targets of Sihanouk's repression, Pol Pot and his followers were left largely untouched because of their privileged backgrounds and French education. This group gradually assumed leadership of the Communist movement. After Pol Pot became secretary general of the Workers' Party of Kampuchea (later renamed the Communist Party of Kampuchea, or CPK) in 1963, the party made a concerted effort to seize control of Cambodia.
By 1966, the American escalation of the war in neighboring Vietnam began to have a destabilizing effect on Cambodia. North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front (NLF) forces, made up of Vietnamese Communist guerrillas, established logistical bases and supply routes in Cambodia. While Sihanouk attempted to keep his country out of the Vietnam War, his political repression increasingly drove veterans of Cambodia's anti-French struggle back into dissidence, where Pol Pot's CPK drew them into its plans for rebellion. The CPK launched a revolt against Sihanouk in 1967. Sihanouk termed the rebels Khmer Rouge (French for "Red Khmers"), so-called after Cambodia's predominant ethnic group, the Khmers. Communist insurgency campaigns continued until the Khmer Rouge took control of the government in 1975.
In 1969, embroiled in Vietnam, the United States began a secret B-52 bombardment of Cambodia in an effort to knock out strongholds of the North Vietnamese and NLF. A year later Sihanouk was overthrown by U.S.-backed General Lon Nol. The Vietnam War spilled across the border, and the conflict tore Cambodia apart for five years. During the secret bombing American planes dropped 490,000 metric tons (540,000 tons) of bombs, killing about 100,000 Khmer peasants by August 1973, when the bombardment ended (see Secret Bombing of Cambodia). Meanwhile, the Khmer Rouge, aided by Sihanouk and the North Vietnamese, who did not want a pro-U.S. Cambodian government, battled Lon Nol's government for control of Cambodia.
 Genocide by the Khmer Rouge Recommended book : Survival in the Killing Fields - Ngor & Warner. |
 Killing Fields ISBN 1-84119-793-9
Constable & Robinson Ltd.
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Maza is born in the Netherlands about 40 years ago and has studied economics in the 90's. He is very much a travel buff. He has also a hughe intrest in science and astronomy. At the moment he is working for the local municipality. If you like you can contact him at info @ mazalien.com.© Mazalien 1999 - 2010
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