Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge (ខ្មែរក្រហម; Kmae Krɑhɑɑm) was the ruling political party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. During that period, Cambodia was renamed the Democratic Kampuchea. The term Khmer Rouge, meaning "Red Khmer", was coined by Norodom Sihanouk to refer to Communist parties in Cambodia, and later came into widespread use by English speakers.
The Khmer Rouge is most well-known for its genocide of over two million people, or an estimated fifteen to thirty percent of Cambodia's population at the time. In terms of the fraction of the population killed, the Khmer Rouge is ranked as one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century. These deaths were caused in part when the Khmer Rouge imposed an extreme form of social engineering, such as forcing the entire population into labor on collective farms and other forced labor projects, on Cambodian society. The Khmer Rouge also tortured and eventually executed everyone considered as belonging to any of several categories of "enemies".
Origins
The Khmer Rouge originated in the 1960s, as the armed wing of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. It initially accomplished little, until a right-wing military coup took over from Prince Norodom Sihanouk. At that time, the Khmer Rouge allied with Sihanouk, gaining support. During a five-year civil war, it gradually gained control of rural areas, eventually taking Phnom Penh in 1975.
Number of victims
Modern research has located 20,000 mass graves from the Khmer Rouge era all over Cambodia. Various studies have estimated the death toll at between 740,000 and 3,000,000, most commonly between 1.4 million and 2.2 million, with perhaps half of those deaths being due to executions, and the rest from starvation and disease.[1]
The U.S. State Department-funded Yale Cambodian Genocide Project estimates approximately 1.7 million.[2] R. J. Rummel, an analyst of historical political killings, gives a figure of 2 million.[3]
A UN investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimated 3 million had been killed.[4] Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed,[5] while Marek Sliwinski estimates that 1.8 million is a conservative figure.[6] Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After 5 years of researching grave sites, he concluded that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution".[1]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sharp, Bruce (April 1, 2005). Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia. Retrieved on July 5, 2006.
- ↑ Cambodian Genocide Program | Yale University. Yale.edu (July 18, 2007). Retrieved on July 27, 2010.
- ↑ Rummel, RJ, "Statistics of Cambodian Democide: Estimates, Calculations, And Sources.". Hawaii.edu. Retrieved on July 27, 2010.
- ↑ William Shawcross, The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust, and Modern Conscience (Touchstone, 1985), p115-6.
- ↑ Heuveline, Patrick (2001). "The Demographic Analysis of Mortality in Cambodia." In Forced Migration and Mortality, eds. Holly E. Reed and Charles B. Keely. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
- ↑ Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique (L'Harmattan, 1995).