1 / 6

Cambodia Genocide

Cambodia Genocide. Led by Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians) 1975-1979- 2 million deaths. Background. In 1949 Pol Pot went to college in Paris Became interested in Marxism 1953 returned to Cambodia and led a communist movement 1954- Cambodia gained independence from France

shelly
Download Presentation

Cambodia Genocide

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Cambodia Genocide Led by Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians) 1975-1979- 2 million deaths

  2. Background • In 1949 Pol Pot went to college in Paris • Became interested in Marxism • 1953 returned to Cambodia and led a communist movement • 1954- Cambodia gained independence from France • 1962- Became leader of Cambodian Communist Party • But had to flee to the jungle because Prince Sihanouk did not agree with him • Formed the Khmer Rouge and waged a war against Sihanouk

  3. 1970- Prince Sihanouk was ousted by US military and joined Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge US bombed North Vietnam which killed 150,000 Cambodians These events led to economic and military destabilization in Cambodia Support for Pol Pot grew April 17, 1975- Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge army marched into Phnom Penh and seized control of Cambodia Wanted to create an agrarian utopia inspired by Mao Zedong Declared “This is year zero” and society would be “purified” Capitalism, western culture, city life, religion and all foreign influences were to be gone

  4. New Society • Wanted an extreme form of peasant communism • Foreigners expelled • Embassies closed • Foreign economic or medical assistance refused • Foreign language banned • Newspapers and TV stations were shut down • Mail and telephone use banned • Religion, education, health care all gone

  5. How was the genocide carried out? • 2 million people were evacuated from Phnom Pen by foot at gunpoint • 20,000 died along the way • Forced into slave labor • Worked from 4 a.m. until 10 p.m. with 2 rest periods • Every 10th day was a day of rest • 3 days off during Khmer New Year festival • Many died due to overwork, malnutrition, and disease • Diet consisted of 1 tin of rice every 2 days

  6. Purges were held to get rid of “old society” • Educated, wealthy, Buddhist monks, police, doctors, lawyers, teachers, former government officials • Anyone who was disloyal to the Khmer Rouge were shot • “What’s rotten must be removed” • Unsupervised gatherings of more than 2 people were forbidden • 20,000 people were tortured into false confessions

More Related