{"id":431340,"date":"2025-04-17T01:56:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T23:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doogreporter.com\/50-years-since-the-madness-of-the-khmer-rouge\/"},"modified":"2025-04-22T04:09:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T02:09:50","slug":"50-years-since-the-madness-of-the-khmer-rouge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doogreporter.com\/en\/50-years-since-the-madness-of-the-khmer-rouge\/","title":{"rendered":"50 years since the madness of the Khmer Rouge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

17 April 1975 marks one of the most tragic dates in the history of modern Cambodia: the entry of the Khmer Rouge into the capital Phnom Penh, and the beginning of a period of terror that would last almost four years. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge implemented a programme of radical social transformation that led to the death of about a quarter of the Cambodian population. <\/p>\n\n

The Khmer Rouge, officially known as the Communist Party of Kampuchea, rose from the ashes of the Cambodian communist movement. Founded in 1960, the party soon underwent radicalisation under the leadership of Saloth Sar, better known by the pseudonym Pol Pot. Educated in France, Pol Pot was so profoundly influenced by Marxist-Leninist ideology that he developed a vision of a utopian agrarian society based on Chinese Maoism. The Cambodian civil war, which started in 1967 with the Battambang uprising and its bloody suppression, saw the Khmer Rouge fighting against the conservative government of General Lon Nol. Supported by China and North Vietnam, and taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge quickly gained ground. Their final victory came in April 1975, when the rebels entered Phnom Penh without resistance. <\/p>\n\n

The forced evacuation of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge<\/h3>\n\n

One of the first and most dramatic actions of the Khmer Rouge was the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh. Immediately after the capture of the city, the soldiers forced millions of inhabitants, including the sick and wounded in hospitals, to leave the city and head for the countryside. The official motivation was that the US would soon be bombing the capital. In reality, this forced evacuation was the first piece of the plan hatched by the Khmer Rouge to dismantle Cambodia’s urban and modern society of the time. Within days, Phnom Penh was emptied of its approximately two million inhabitants. The conditions of this forced march were terrible. Without adequate food, water and shelter, thousands perished along the way. The testimonies of the few survivors speak of indescribable suffering, with people falling exhausted to the ground and being left to die on the side of the road. <\/p>\n\n

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Tuol Sleng, Phnom Penh – \u00a9Marco Marcone, 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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Pol Pot’s utopian vision<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Pol Pot envisioned an agrarian and pure Cambodia, free of foreign and modern influences. The cities were to be abandoned, education and religion abolished, and the entire population was to devote itself exclusively to cultivating the fields. This ‘year zero’ wanted a return to the mythical origins of Cambodian society. <\/p>\n\n

The regime’s brutal policies put this vision into practice. The Khmer Rouge abolished money, closed schools, hospitals and factories, and forced the population into forced labour in agricultural ‘cooperatives’. Anyone considered an intellectual or linked to the old government or foreign forces was persecuted. Suffice it to say that wearing glasses, an unmistakable sign of education according to Pol Pot’s regime, could be enough to be arrested and killed. <\/p>\n\n

Tuol Sleng, the prison of death<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

One of the most emblematic places of Khmer Rouge terror is Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21<\/a>. Located in a former school in Phnom Penh, Tuol Sleng became a detention, torture and execution centre for those accused of treason against the regime. The conditions in which the detainees lived were inhumane. The cells were cramped and overcrowded, and the prisoners were subjected to systematic torture to extract confessions, often false ones. Only a handful of prisoners survived at Tuol Sleng. Among them are Bou Meng and Chum Mey. Listening to their testimony provides an even deeper understanding of the horror of Tuol Sleng and the entire Khmer Rouge regime. <\/p>\n\n

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Tuol Sleng, Phnom Penh – \u00a9Marco Marcone, 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n