Why khmer rouge killed people

But less than a year later he was dead - denying the millions of people who were affected by this brutal regime the chance to bring him to justice. The UN helped establish a tribunal to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, beginning work in Only three Khmer Rouge leaders have ever been sentenced. Kaing Guek Eav - known as Duch - was jailed for life in for running the notorious Tuol Sleng prison.

In November , the tribunal also found them guilty of genocide over the attempted extermination of the Cham and Vietnamese minorities.

It remains the first and only genocide conviction against the Khmer Rouge. Cambodian Genocide Program. Human Rights Watch. Image source, Getty Images. Pol Pot projected an image to the world of Cambodians thriving under his radical leadership. Home United States U. Africa 54 - November 11, VOA Africa Listen live. VOA Newscasts Latest program. VOA Newscasts. Previous Next. East Asia. August 06, AM. Aun Chhengpor Sok Khemara. Of the roughly 17, men, women, and children who were brought to S there were only about a dozen survivors.

The Khmer Rouge based their policies on the idea that citizens of Cambodia had become corrupted by outside influences, especially Vietnam and the capitalist West. They forced citizens into what they called reeducation schools, which were essentially places of state propaganda. The regime forced families to live communally with other people, in order to destroy the family structure. In addition, anyone who was believed to be an intellectual was killed: doctors, lawyers, teachers, even people who wore glasses or knew a foreign language became targets.

Specially targeted were the inhabitants of the areas close to the Vietnamese border. On December 25, Vietnam invaded Cambodia. The Vietnamese sought to remove the Khmer Rouge from power. At first, survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime considered the Vietnamese to be liberators, but they were soon viewed as occupiers. After that, he beat her. One night, he stabbed my friend to death and injured her mother. Near my hut there was a woman named Chamroeun. She watched her three children die of starvation, one at a time.

She would have been able to save their lives had she had gold or silk or perfume to trade for food and medicine on the black market. The Khmer Rouge veterans and village leaders had control of the black market. They traded rice that Chamroeun toiled over for fancy possessions. The Khmer Rouge gave a new meaning to corruption.

The female soldiers were jealous of my lighter skin and feminine figure. While they were enjoying their nice black pajamas, silk scarves, jewelry, new shoes, and perfume, they stared at me, seeing if I had anything better than they did.

I tried to appear timid with my ragged clothes, but it was hard to hide the pride in my eyes. In January I was called to join a district meeting. The district leader told us that it was time to get rid of "all the wheat that grows among the rice plants. The city people were to be eliminated.

My life was saved because the Vietnamese invasion came just two weeks later. When the Vietnamese invasion happened, I cried. I was crying with joy that my life was saved. I was crying with sorrow that my country was once again invaded by our century-old enemy. I stood on Cambodian soil feeling that I no longer belonged to it. I wanted freedom. I decided to escape to the free world. I traveled with my family from the heart of the country to the border of Thailand.

It was devastating to witness the destruction of my homeland that had occurred in only four years. Buddhist temples were turned into prisons. Statues of Buddha and artwork were vandalized. Schools were turned into Khmer Rouge headquarters where people were interrogated, tortured, killed, and buried.

School yards were turned into killing fields. Old marketplaces were empty. Books were burned. Factories were left to rust. Plantations were without tending and bore no fruit. This destruction was tolerable compared to the human conditions.

Each highway was filled with refugees. We were refugees of our own country. With our skinny bodies, bloated stomachs, and hollow eyes, we carried our few possessions and looked for our separated family members. We asked who lived and didn't want to mention who died.

We gathered to share our horrifying stories. Stories about people being pushed into deep wells and ponds and suffocating to death. People were baked alive in a local tile oven. One woman was forced to cook her husband's liver, which was cut out while he was still alive.