Khmer Rouge

1 Pages 292 Words

Khmer Rouge is a name given to The Cambodian Communists. Khmer Rouge soldiers along with North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops began their attack on government forces in the 1970’s and quickly gained control of over two thirds of the country. On April 17, 1975 a five-year civil war between the Khmer Rouge and the US-backed Khmer Republic of General Lon Nol ended. The Khmer Rouge established the state of Democratic Kampuchea and then set out to “purify” the “Khmer race”.
The new government started by evacuating cities, abolishing banking, finance and currency, closing schools and factories, outlawing all religions, reorganizing traditional kinship systems into a communal order, and eliminating private property so completely that even personal hygiene supples were communal. Intellectuals and skilled workers were killed. As a result of the Cambodian genocide at least 1.7 million people (21% of the entire population) died.
In 1979 Vietnamese troops invaded, aiding a rival Communist faction to remove the Khmer Rouge government from power. The Khmer Rouge, however, continued to continued to stay strong and held an army of 30,000 troops near the Thai border and retained UN recognition as the official Cambodian government. In 1991 All Cambodian factions signed a treaty for UN-supervised elections and the disarming of 70% of all their forces. The Khmer Rouge lost 3000 – 4000 soldiers, which is about half to three quarters of its forces in 1996. Since then it has continued to collapse. Factional fighting within the Khmer Rouge in 1997 led to their leader, Pol Pot's imprisonment by the Khmer Rouge. The group continued to disintegrate, and factional fighting resumed in 1998. Pol Pot died in April and by 1999 most members had defected, surrendered, or been captured....