Kapiolani
Community College Horizons 2001
Kapiolani
Community College
Horizons 2001
In the immortal words of John Lennon, imagine a world without religion, without hunger, without a thing to kill or die for, with everyone living in peace. Sounds like a fairy tale? It probably is. The wars and killings that we hear about in our national news every day are nothing new. Throughout the history of the world, one can find many instances of mass killings, genocide, and acts of inhumane violence. From Ashoka’s mysterious killings in India to Mao’s cleansing in China, from Stalin’s brutal death sentences to Hitler’s infamous Holocaust, humankind’s adherence to brutality is vividly clear in history textbooks and other historical writings. While doing research for this paper, I stumbled onto a different kind of genocide than the world was used to. It did not happen in Africa or in Nazi Germany. Instead, it took place in Cambodia during the Cold War era, in the aftermath of the AmericanVietnam conflict. The events and atrocities inflicted upon the people of Cambodia did not become clear to the general public until many years after the violence had stopped. During the period 1975 to 1978, Cambodia suffered horrible crimes and racial destruction, much as had been the case with the Holocast of World War II. The whole truth about Cambodia’s tragedy was not revealed until after the fact. This work presents some of the ideologies guiding the Khmer Rouge, the revolutionary faction that caused the violence and deaths during this period of Cambodia’s history. It also will illustrate what these ideologies caused with examples and descriptions of the massacres in Cambodia.
In 1970 the military overthrew its long time leader and king, Norodom Sihanouk. That eventually lead to a bloody civil war between the Communist Party of Kampuchea (PKK) and the Americanbacked National United Front of Kampuchea (NUFK) (Jackson, 23). Most of the Khmers that lived in Cambodia at the time saw no difference between the government of Sihanouk and the government that was in control during period of French rule in Cambodia.1 As in most imperialistic takeovers, the government that takes control after a revolution frequently resembles the government that was in control before the insurrection. The case is no different here. Unfortunately for the Khmers, the overthrow of the monarch was not the last of the violent times; it was just another sad beginning. “For the next five years, while the Khmer Republic (NUFK) controlled Phnom Penh and other urban centers, Cambodia was laid waste by U.S. bombing and by a civil war”(Chandler, 191).
In the aftermath of the civil war which ended in 1975, a new regime was in control of the country for years to come. In April 1975, troops of the Northern and Eastern Regions captured the capital of Phnom Penh. These troops (PKK or the Khmer Rouge, as I will denote it) would assume control over the country for the next 34 years. The capture of the city was followed by complete and total evacuation of its inhabitants, a very strange event to occur after a completed insurrection.2 French journalist Francois Ponchaud writes of the day when “a group of men in black detached themselves from the main body Ñ longhaired young men surrounding a mysterious moonfaced man, unarmed, wearing a black polo shirt. Could this be the Khmer Rouge? A few moments later a hallucinatory spectacle began. Thousands of the sick and wounded were abandoning the city. After the sick, we witnessed the departure of the entire population of Phnom Penh.”3
It was at this time that Pol Pot’s regime took control of Cambodia. The term, Year Zero, was given to the beginning of this period, referring to the party’s wish to completely overhaul the entire social framework of the country. One of the major themes of the Khmer Rouge was the rebuilding of the nation, ridding all outside influence in exchange for a new society based on agriculture and the comon folk.4 This was the start of one of the most interesting periods in the country’s history, filled with extreme nationalistic vision and horrible human suffering. Pol Pot not only wanted control over his new country, he also wanted to rewrite the very existence of the people who inhabited it.
Before one looks at the consequences and results of Pol Pot’s regime, one must understand the ideologies behind the Khmer Rouge. According to Karl D. Jackson, the Khmer Rouge’s ideology could be divided into four parts: total independence and self reliance, preservation of the dictatorship, total and immediate economic revolution, and Khmer social values (Jackson, 39.) The first and foremost objective of the Khmer Rouge, total independence, can be summarized b Pol Pot’s statement that correcting Cambodia’s relationship with the outside world by expelling imperialist and their economic and cultural influences was the fundamental priority of the party. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge saw all outside influence as inherently evil. The West corrupted the minds of Khmers for much too long and there must be a stop to it. The nation could only become truly independent once it had shed all outside influence and assumed total control of its own affairs. At first, the idea of ridding outside influence does not seem like that bad an idea. Truthfully, many of South East Asia’s problems stem directly out of imperialistic ventures from the West. But in accord with the rest of Pol Pot’s extremism, the idea went too far. Pol Pot stressed that most things that came from the West directly tried to corrupt the state of Cambodia. These items included books, musical instruments, cassettes, videos, air conditioning, etc. Unfortunately for the commonwealth, this also included such things and modern medicine, a misfortune that would later cause the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. 5
Along with the call for total isolation from the West was the hatred and persecution of any foreigner in the area, especially the Vietnamese. Pol Pot considered the Vietnamese as Kampuchea’s “hereditary enemy” (Kamm, 235). But it was not only the Vietnamese that suffered the wrath of the Khmer Rouge. They proclaimed, “We cannot trust any foreign countries, including China. All foreign countries are of Kampuchea” (Kiernan, 229). Persecution, degradation and even death fell to those unlucky souls who happen to be of nonKhmer background. Refugees in Thailand and Vietnam reported that entire villages of Chams were wiped out by armed forces of the Pol Pot regime after 1975 (Kiernan, 230). These death tolls make up parts of the genocide that will later be discussed.
The second objective of the Khmer Rouge was the preservation of the dictatorship. One of the most interesting and fascinating aspects of Pol Pot’s rule was that for the first two years, no one had any idea who was controlling the affairs in Cambodia. The Pol Pot Regime for the initial movement remained unnamed, party membership remained secret and the rural population were generally unaware of who among them were members (Kiernan, 227). In fact, Saloth Sar, later named Pol Pot, did not announce that he was the leader of the Khmer Rouge (PKK) until almost two years after taking control over Cambodia.6 When Pol Pot was proclaimed Prime Minister on 14 April, outside observers were surprised because none of them had come across the name before.It was at this point that Saloth Sar took the name ”Pol Pot (Kiernan, 290). In 1977 a U.S. State Congressman asked the Secretary of Defense who was in charge of the movement in Cambodia. The Secretary could only give vague descriptions of a “shadowy organization.”7 The Khmer Rouge, aside from their 1976 constitution, passed no laws and made no decrees of any kind. They instead operated in a very basic and militaristic fashion. (Jackson, 65-107).
Secrecy helped secure the dictatorship in the style that the Khmer Rouge wanted, but above that, Pol Pot had to create the image of the true Cambodian. The true Khmer would be those who fit into the categories of peasant, farmer, or revolutionary fighter (Jackson, 50). But this was sometimes not enough. To actually be considered a true Khmer, one not only had to have the correct nationality and profession, but also had to have the correct mentality. In 1975, a national decree was made to extermninate leaders and population who had “Khmer bodies with Vietnamese minds” (Kiernan, 232). With the workers and peasants believing that they were actually the point of the whole (not to mention the use of force), the dictatorship was able to hold strong.
The third goal, total and immediate economic revolution, was one of the downfalls of the revolutionary cause. The main objective in this goal was to reach a total agricultural economic base on which to live on, and then to race forward to reach a solid industrial economy that would suffice for survival in the modem industrialized world. The common misconception about the goal of the Khmer Rouge is that they wanted no part of the industrialized world. Many people believe it was their intent to return to an Angkorlike society based solely on agriculture. Karl D. Jackson, author of Cambodia 1975-178, Rendezvous with Death, wrote, “It is superficial to describe the Khmer Rouge as intent on returning to the pastoral simplicity of Angkor era of Cambodian greatness between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities because they rejected modern civilization and sought to transform Cambodia into the kind of largely rural society that predated both colonialism and capitalism.”(Jackson, 58-59). Through the watchful eye of the armed forces the civilians worked and slaved in the fields. This rush for agricultural superiority led to death and famine.
The final goal of Pol Pot’s regime was a complete transformation of Khmer social values. Most revolutions cause some sort of shift in the social framework of the country such as altered foreign relations and economic life. Revolutions in France and America are perfect examples of this standard view of revolution. The world witnessed something different in the case of the Khmer. They not only sought to change these basic social trends, but they also urged a dramatic shift in the social fabric in such areas as language, work habits, family values, and religion.8 No other revolution in history took quite the same outlook and attempted such an upheaval in the very roots of the entire society. Unlike the slack, relaxed way of life that most citydwelling Cambodians knew, the new regime set forth policies and ideas with an iron fist and replaced corruption in higher areas with a total devotion to the lower parts of the society. The Khmer also sought to replace their old hierarchical society with a egalitarian one which would promote more equality for the masses, and to replace the old bureaucracy with a more omnipotent but antibureaucratic organization (Jackson, 70).
Following the evacuations of the cities were a series of “clean up crews” whose duty was to rid the cities of filthy western exposure. Propaganda spread by the Khmer Rouge proclaimed: “Immediately after the liberation of Battambang on August 17, 1975, our revolutionary army which took over the city took up the task of cleaning up and eliminating the filth of the rotten old society left behind by the traitorous clique ”(Ponchaud, 45-50). Drinking and gambling, which had been quite prominent in the society and culture before the advent of the Khmer Rouge, were abolished with gambling having very severe punishments. Premarital sex in Cambodia prior to the take over by the Khmer Rouge was frowned upon, and this prohibition was enforced by public disapproval. After the insurgency, premarital sex was a huge offense with punishments ending with sometimes death. Permission to marry was very hard to obtain, and granted ony by the Khmer Rouge officials (Jackson, 69).
Until this point in history, Cambodia was one of the largest
Buddhist countries in South East Asia.To be Khmer meant being Buddhist. The
countryside was dotted with over 2,500 temples and most men became monks at
one part of their lives.” Because Buddhist teachings go against many of
the doctrines set up by the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot’s regime set out to destroy
what was left of the Buddhist religion in Kampuchea (Chandler, 97). The most
fundamental aspects of Theravada Buddhism was the pursuit of Nirvana through
renunciation and a life of monkhood and meditation. Through the eightfold path
one could reach this higher enlightenment and ultimately, Nirvana (Jackson,
69-70). Obviously, the Khmer’s plan for total countrywide movement into
the rural communities in the hopes of creating this super agricultural based
economy had no room in its boundaries for renunciation and mediation, not to
mention the lifestyle of the monk. The following propaganda describes the Khmer
Rouge’ attitude toward the EightFold path to enlightenment: “The
Buddhist religion is the cause of our country’s weakness. The bonzes are
bloodsuckers, they oppress the people, they are imperialists. Begging for charity
like the bonzes do is an offense to the eye and it also maintains the workers
in a downtrodden condition. It is forbidden to give anything to those shaven
asses, it would be pure waste. If any worker secretly takes rice to one of these
bonzes, we shall set him to planting cabbages. If the cabbages are not full
grown in three days, he will dig his own grave” (Jackson, 69). The attempts
to rid the nation of Buddhism, alcohol, and city life altogether are just a
few examples of how the entire social framework changed after the Khmer Rouge
came to power.
The application of these ideologies was intended to reshape the country of Cambodia into a perfect, nonwestern functioning nation. Although at first glance some of the doctrines that the Khmer Rouge imposed might seem like a good idea for a country such as Cambodia, the outcome of the revolution had disastrous effects. The extinction of Western medicines and food production led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. The hatred of Western influenced thinkers and the execution of many educated peoples brought on not purification and unity, but rather created horrific scenes of mass killings and virtual genocide. In the last few sections of this paper, I will try to illustrated some of the atrocities that were inflicted upon the people of Cambodia.
The Communist military victory in 1975 brought with it the hope that the violence in the country would stop. There was instead an immediate escalation in the violence and destruction in the country as Pol Pot imposed his social and economic systems in all parts of Cambodia. After the evacuations of the cities, the new government dealt with those in the state who threatened the new regime. The answer to this problem? Simple, extermination. The Khmer Rouge began an effort to identify and in many instances, execute political leaders, military officers, and civil servants of the previous republic, as well as anyone suspected of having any connection with it. Most of the killings took place after the enemies had been rounded up. Jackson describes men being taken to a place called Arak Bak Kor near Sisophon: “There the villagers found a killing ground littered with the corpses of the soldiers who had been beaten to death” The villagers saw soldiers being brought in on long chains by the hundreds. The Khmer Rouge guards proceeded to beat them to death with pieces of timber in full view of the other prisoners awaiting the same fate. “The men in the trucks began to scream and wail and many fell down unconscious....” (Jackson, 175-80).
Government officials and the soldiers were not the only ones who saw that fate in the cities. Intellectuals Ñ doctors, teachers, engineers, students and skilled workers were lined up for questioning, reteaching, and eventually, execution. A medical student recalls burying nine school teachers in Phnom Penh. Unfortunately, the executions of the educated, the soldiers and government officials were just the beginning of the death toll. The real terror came later in the fields where the entire population of Cambodia had been forced to go (Jackson, 181 -82). The biggest problems in the fields were not from the Khmer Rouge militia, although the threat was quite large. The real problem was the amount of food that each person was allotted. Two tiny tin cups of rice were allowed for each precountry dwelling inhabitant, with only one being allotted to those that had lived in the city. Starvation was quite common and the food ration could be taken away if the Khmer Rouge felt one were not cooperating with the regime (Jackson, 186). To top it all off, if the Khmer Rouge suspected anyone in the fields of being of any slight Western or foreign influence, the suspect would be dragged away, never to be heard from again. The lack of food and medicine accounted for extremely high death toll, sometimes reaching in the hundreds every day (Kiernan, 256).
The workday was long and arduous, lasting from five in the morning until about six in the evening, with two halfhour breaks in between. Illness and starvation claimed more lives in the fields than the Khmer Rouge’s brutal killings and assassinations, with daily tragedies and accepted fact. “Fear dominated life, and immediate death was constantly at hand . . . . They lived in terror under the unceasing watchfulness of fiercely suspicious and hostile teenagers who held arbitrary, apparently unlimited power” (Kamm, 127-29). Attesting to the violence and brutality of their watchers, one person is quoted: “I met one woman from Arey Ksach on the opposite shore of the Mekong; she had climbed a tree when she heard the Khmer Rouge were coming and was so terrorstricken by what she saw beneath her Ñ children being torn limb from limb or impaled Ñ that she preferred to let her legs be eaten off by giant red ants, rather than come down (Ponchaud, 2).
More than a million people were killed, not only the victims of Pol Pot’s killing fields, but hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who died from disease and starvation as a result of the regime’s policies. Out of the 7.3 million Cambodians said to be alive on April 17, 1975, less than 6 million remained to greet the Vietnamese occupiers in the last days of 1978 ( (Jackson, 3). Some estimates are even much higher, going way past the two million point. If you look at the size of the population before and after this period, the massacres and deaths that occurred in Cambodia in three short years is unparalleled in this century. Not even Hitler had achieved that kind of mass destruction. Adding to the perplexity of the situation is the scarcity of records from within the Khmer Rouge and the absence of a total understanding of exactly why this took place. The events and ideologies discussed in this paper are light and brief to say the least, but I hope it helped shed some light into the mystery of Pol Pot’s Killing Fields.
1. The French held Cambodia under its wing of imperialism since
the 1800s. Like most other colonies, the nation suffered greatly from its government.
The long history of control and violence that took place during these times
helped seed the inherent hatred that was present in the Khmer Rouge and most
minority groups. For a detailed look into the past of Cambodia see Chandler,
David P. A History of Cambodia (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1983).
2. For a detailed look at the overthrow of the capital, see Jackson, Karl D.
Cambodia 1975-78: Rendezvous With Death. New Jersey: Princeton University Press,
1989.
3. Once the Khmer Rouge took control, they felt it necessary to control the
people in a very urgent fashion. The unstable hold they held on the public was
easily realized and drastic measures soon followed their control. For eye witness
accounts of the evacuation see Ponchaud, Francois. Cambodia Year Zero. New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.
4. One of the major themes of the Khmer Rouge was the rebuilding of the nation,
ridding all outside influence in exchange for a new society based on agriculture
and the common folk. For a more indepth look into this view see Kiernan, Ben
and Chanthou Boua. Peasants and Politics in Kampuchea 1942-1981. London: Zed
Press, 1982, p 234.
5. Anything that came from the outside was considered in direct conflict with
the party’s main goal of self-reliance. Unfortunately, this theory eliminated
many useful things that a society might need. For a better description see Kamm,
Henry. Cambodia: Report From a Stricken Land. New York: Arcade Publishing 1998
p 131.
6. For a full background on Saloth Sar, see Chandler, David P. Brother Number
One: A Political Bibliograhy of Pol Pot. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999.
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