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| “ | We must purify our armed forces, our party and the masses of people in order to continue fighting the enemies in defence of Cambodian territory and the Cambodian race. | „ |
| ~ Khmer Rouge radio broadcast, May 1978. |
The Khmer Rouge was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia. It was formed in 1968 as an offshoot of the Vietnam People's Army from North Vietnam. It was the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Pol Pot served as the organization's overall leader, with his inner circle consisting of Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Ta Mok, and Khieu Samphan. Democratic Kampuchea was the name of the state as controlled by the government of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979.
The organization orchestrated the Cambodian Genocide, in which many people were expelled out of the cities into rural labor camps. There, they were forced into hard physical work, with torture and executions being frequent. The regime opposed intellectualism as well, and educated people were also sent to "killing fields" where they were brutally murdered with pickaxes. The ban on education also lead to a lack of doctors, which caused disease to escalate, and the unhealthy living conditions of farmers also lead to mass starvation. This culminated in roughly 2 million dying as a result of the Khmer Rouge.
When Cambodia was invaded by Vietnam in 1979, the government claimed that one Cambodian soldier was equal to 30 Vietnamese soldiers, so if they could amass two million soldiers from their population of eight million, it could wipe out all of Vietnam’s population (which was 3 times larger than Cambodia's) and still have six million people left. This arrogance lead to the Khmer Rouge being overthrown during the invasion, with its army being devastated and the government being forced to retreat to Thailand. The Khmer Rouge continued fighting Vietnamese forces from there until it largely lost power during the 90's and surrendered completely in 1999.
In 2014, almost 40 years from the date of their rule's establishment, three major high-ranking former leaders of the disbanded Rouge (Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, and Kang Kek Iew) were sentenced to life in prison by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity that they committed during the Khmer Rouge regime.