Cambodian Genocide

What do these kids all have in common?

Answer They all live in Cambodia in the 1970’s. They are minutes away from being killed.

So are all of these people Wall of Remembrance In Memory of the Victims of the Khmer Rouge 50 photos, 50 faces, 50 victims Killed by the Khmer Rouge Toul Sleng Prison, out of two million dead

Those are just a few of the 1.7 million people who lost their lives in Cambodia in the mid 1970’s.

What happened? During the Vietnam War, Cambodia supplied both sides of the War. USA began bombing North Vietnam Soldiers in Cambodia. Cambodia’s government was overthrown by a group called the Khymer Rouge. They felt the government was being too friendly with the US. They set up a communist government led by Pol Pot.

Pol Pot Began to reconstruct Cambodia. Renamed the country Kampuchea. Forced all citizens to work on collective farms. Killed anyone who opposed him.

Forced evacuation

The city after evacuation

Who was targeted? Intellectual and educated people Sick, disabled, old, and very young People who refused to obey Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists and their extended families. Buddhist monks

It was possible for people to be shot simply for knowing a foreign language, wearing glasses, laughing, or crying.

S-21 In this former high school, thousands were executed after having their picture taken.

Witnesses They ordered the city evacuated. Everyone was to head for the countryside. They killed those who argued against leaving. Two million frightened people started walking out of the capital. The guerrilla soldiers even ordered the wounded out of hospitals. Most couldn't walk, so their relatives wheeled them out on their beds. I watched many Cambodian friends being herded out. Most of them I never saw again.

Witnesses 'Cambodian warriors have an old custom of cutting the livers from the bodies of their foes, then cooking and eating them. The belief is that this gives strength and protection against being killed. Pictures exist of a smiling soldier eating the liver of a fighter he had killed, one of decapitated corpses being dragged along, and one of a human head being lowered by the hair into boiling water.

A mass grave site

A Soldier carries the body of a dead child.