Why is cambodia considered a genocide

Human Rights Watch. Image source, Getty Images. Pol Pot projected an image to the world of Cambodians thriving under his radical leadership. Communist philosophy. Tuol Sleng was turned from a school to a prison, torture site and death camp.

Opening up. Image source, EPA. Khieu Samphan was found guilty of genocide in November Related Topics. Asia Cambodia. Families were also split up. The Khmer Rouge created labor brigades, assigning groups depending on age and gender. This policy resulted in hundreds of thousands of Cambodians starving to death. Religious and ethnic minorities faced particular persecution. Christian and Buddhist groups were targeted for repression but it was the Cham Muslim group that was most affected by the genocide.

Because the Khmer Rouge placed a heavy emphasis on the rural peasant population, anyone considered an intellectual was targeted for special treatment. This meant teachers, lawyers, doctors, and clergy were the targets of the regime. There is difficulty establishing a definitive number of victims of the Cambodian Genocide. The Cambodians kept methodical records of prisoners and executions.

In addition, estimating the total number of people who starved is difficult. Estimates range from 1. He was born Saloth Sar to farmers in rural Cambodia in Pol Pot was a bright student and spent time studying in France, where he became involved with communist groups in the early s. After returning home in , Pol Pot joined clandestine groups in Cambodia. It was during this time that he began combining Stalinist and Maoist models with a returned focus on an agrarian society.

With support from rural Cambodians, North Vietnamese, and Chinese, Pol Pot was ultimately able to take control of the country in No detail is spared in describing the acts of the diabolic regime, referred to generally in the materials as the "Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique.

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Institutional Login. LOG IN. Human Rights Quarterly. In the early s, mass graves were uncovered throughout Cambodia.

They held hundreds of skeletal remains from Khmer Rouge execution grounds, known as killing fields.

Survivors suffered high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, but their trauma often went undiagnosed and almost always went untreated. Bringing the perpetrators to justice has proven to be a difficult task.

Many suspected perpetrators were killed in the military struggle with Vietnam or eliminated as internal threats to the Khmer Rouge itself.

He died of natural causes in The last members of the Khmer Rouge were officially disbanded in Several government officials are former Khmer Rouge members and there have been considerable efforts to protect them, including denying access to witnesses because of their position.

Chea appealed the verdict but the sentence was upheld in He appealed the verdict, but his sentence was also upheld in International aid from the US and other countries is often embezzled by bureaucrats.

This illegal seizure of foreign aid has greatly added to the widespread income disparity which affects most Cambodian citizens today. Human rights abuses soared in recent years, according to Human Rights Watch.

Since before the elections, the Prime Minister has continued to escalate political persecution against any political opposition, human rights workers, social activists, and intellectuals. Recently, new laws and amendments to existing laws have passed, many of which severely limit the freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.