The Khmer Rouge is the communist party of Cambodia, ruled by Pol Pot from’75 to’79. It is the worst nightmare that the world has ever seen.
In’70, the Khmer Rouge soldiers began an insurgency against the government. They were helped by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, and used this combined power to gain control over more than two-thirds of the country in a short time. The popularity of the Khmer Rouge is witnessed by the dramatic rise in strength from 3,000 in the year’70 to 30,000 in’73. With this, most of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops had withdrawn.
The year’75 saw everything changing for the Cambodians. Their government was overthrown by the now extremely powerful Pol Pot with thousands of followers. He created the Democratic Kampuchea in’75. Then he showed his monstrous nature by reaching into each and every Cambodian home and destroying it. Millions of people were assassinated, made homeless, left to starve and turned farmers. They hardly had any time to react as it all happened suddenly. Those who were spared their lives or survived the horrors turned to slaves from self sufficient Cambodians. The country was nothing more than a nation of slaves.
By the year’79, tensions with Vietnam increased and Vietnamese troops invaded, helping the rival Communists factions in deposing the new Khmer Rouge government. But the Khmer Rouge continued to have a huge army of 30,000 near the Thai border and was also recognized by the United Nations as the official Cambodian government.
This government formed a coalition in’82, with Norodom Sihanouk, the former premier and the non-Communist leader, Son Sann. Pol Pot gave up his leadership for Khieu Samphan, but it was said to Pol Pot who continued to call the shots. On the request of the different factions in Cambodia, who signed a treaty, the United Nations assumed administration of the government in’91 and help elections in’92. Around that time, the Khmer Rouge withdrew itself from the peace process did not accept the results of the elections which led to the formation of a coalition government in Cambodia, and began fighting again.
Internal disputes and disagreements led the Khmer Rouge to its own destruction in’97, with the imprisonment of Pol Pot, leading to his death within a year. Some of the members of this disturbed communist party surrendered, while others were captured and by’99 it all came to an end.
Initially, reports of the mass murders in Cambodia were not taken seriously by most people, until the Vietnamese overpowered the Khmer Rouge. It was then the horrors of Cambodia came to fore.
A chill runs down the spine of every Cambodian when they think back on the Khmer Rouge. It shocked the world with the atrocities that were considered to be the worst ever the world had to face. The wounds of the rule remain raw even today, as they changed the lives of the population of Cambodia, like nothing else has before.
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