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Cambodian genocide summary
Cambodian genocide summary
Cambodian genocide
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Equal Genocide
The Cambodian Genocide was a trial and error of someone trying to make all people equal. Khmer Rouge had approximately 1.7 million people executed attempting to equal everyone out and make the world a “better” place. Although he tried very hard at this, he of course failed and and all of his attempts were, in the end pointless.
Pol Pot was a Cambodian Revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge outbreak that led to many many deaths. Before Pot began all of this craziness he went to college on full scholarship to study radio electronics. He quickly became vastly interested in Marxism and ended up losing his scholarships. Pol Pot then returned to Cambodia and joined the underground Communist movement. (The History Place; Genocide
in the 20th Century) Pot became the leader of the Cambodian Communist Party in 1962 and was forced into the jungle to get away from the leader of Cambodia. While in the jungle, he formed an armed resistance movement, Khmer Rouge, started a war against the Sihanouk’s government. He then took control of Cambodia and became the ruler. Once Pol Pot gained control of Cambodia, the children and adults were separated from each other and all people were questioned and all of their answers were documented and evaluated. He then started to “sort out” the people into two groups based on their answers and background. “Base” and “new” people. (Cambodia; Anatomy of Genocide) The “base” people were considered the “working” class or the “less fortunate” people. This being said, the “new” people were to be considered as the wealthier and “better off” citizens. Once they were separated into the groups they were beginning to be treated differently. The “new” people started to realize that they were being treated more harshly than the “base” people were. This of course was true. Pol Pot thought that if he started knocking down the upper class that they would eventually equal out to the lower class.
In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair uses a true to life story to demonstrate the working man’s life during industrialization. Marx depicts in the Communist Manifesto an explanation of why the proletariat is worked so hard for the benefit of the bourgeois, and how they will inevitably rise up from it and move to a life of communism. When The Jungle and the Communist Manifesto were written, the proletariat, or working class, was a commodity of commerce. Like their brothers, they subjected to competition and all of the quick and sudden changes of the market.
Evil doesn’t even begin to cover it. The mass murder of millions of people. The complete obliteration of an entire society. Each and every genocide has the same core principles, but a distinct face. A dictator takes over a weak country with promises of returning it to its former glory, once he has everyone’s support, he implements extremely discriminatory laws and finds reasons to kill anyone who dares oppose him. The Holocaust and the Cambodian genocides are remarkably similar, and yet strikingly different. The Holocaust was an attempt to wipe out all Jews and other minorities such as gypsies and handicapped people. The Cambodian genocide, led by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, was in some ways a mirror image of the Holocaust, but it happened forty-two years later. On the other hand, there are many more that one distinction that sets Cambodia apart from all other genocides.
When most American people think of Germany, they think of sports cars made for the autobahn, sauerkraut, Adolf Hitler, and the Holocaust. Compared to Germany, when most American people think of Japan they think of sushi, Godzilla movies, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II was such a significant event in history that almost 70 years after it came to an end, today’s younger generations often associate former Axis controlled countries with the war. People around the world are filled with disgust and immense hate when they hear the name Hitler, mainly because of his leadership under the Holocaust; which was the discriminatory mass genocide of 11-17 million people, the vast majority of which were European Jews. Hirohito, former Emperor of Japan, should strike a similar bell with people when they hear his name because Japan carried out genocide on Chinese civilians and soldiers in World War II. Japan’s attack on the Chinese city of Nanking, was one of the most atrocious events in history. This event has been named both the Nanking Massacre and the Rape of Nanking. The torturous, violent techniques used by the Japanese army upon Chinese civilians and soldiers including dehumanizing them, addicting them to drugs, and other perverse and violent acts, are some of the most grosteque methods ever recorded that could only be thought of by sadistic Japanese soldiers. The events committed by the Japanese army in Nanking, are equally as disgusting as the acts that Nazi Germany committed and should become a major topic involved with World War II in the future, despite the lack of light shed on it in the past for various reasons.
In 1975, as he became ruler, he established the Khmer Rouge, a communist party. In the act of taking over Cambodia, Pol Pot did whatever he had to in order to gain total control. Cambodia had a harsh government run by military forces ("Pol Pot"). Pol Pot created a dictatorship in Cambodia. He continuously executed, overworked, tortured, imprisoned, and used fear tactics on Cambodians ("Pol Pot"). Also, Pol Pot let his people starve to death and develop many diseases ("Pol Pot").
Ung (2000) mentions that the Cambodian genocide is a product of a perfect agrarian vision that can be built by eliminating Western influence. More specifically, the Angkar perceives peasants and farmers as “model citizens” because many have not left the village and were not subjected to Western influence (Ung 2000:57). Moreover, the Khmer Rouge emphasized the ethnic cleansing of individuals from other races who were not considered “true Khmer” and represented a “source of evil, corruption, [and] poison” (Ung 2000:92). Lastly, the ideology centered on obtaining lost territory was based on a “time when Kampuchea was a large empire with territories” (Ung 2000:78). In essence, Ung successfully demonstrates that multiple causes encouraged the Cambodian
Most people in the world have not heard of the genocide going on in Laos today. Most people have not taken notice, read about it or bother to spend more than thirty seconds of their lives learning about it. The world has managed to almost entirely ignore the genocide of the Hmong people in Laos for over 30 years and still allows this crime against humanity to continue. Since the 1970s, the ethnic Hmong people in the Southeast Asian country of Laos have been persecuted by the Laotian government (Malakunas, 2000). This harassment is a direct result of the Hmong’s link to the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States in what has become to be known as the Secret War (Malakunas, 2000). The Laotian government officials directing this massacre have not been detained due to lack of evidence (Sommer P.4).
"Pol Pot in Cambodia 1975-1979." The History Place : Genocide in the 20th Century: Pol Pot in Cambodia 1975-1979. The History Place, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. .
The Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975, which lasted until January 1979. For their three-year, eight-month, and twenty-one day rule of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge committed some of the most heinous crimes in current history. The main leader who orchestrated these crimes was a man named Pol Pot. In 1962, Pol Pot had become the coordinator of the Cambodian Communist Party. The Prince of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, did not approve of the Party and forced Pol Pot to flee to exile in the jungle. There, Pol formed a fortified resistance movement, which became known as the Khmer Rouge, and pursued a guerrilla war against Sihanouk’s government. As Pol Pot began to accumulate power, he ruthlessly imposed an extremist system to restructure Cambodia. Populations of Cambodia's inner-city districts were vacated from their homes and forced to walk into rural areas to work. All intellectuals and educated people were eradicated and together with all un-communist aspects of traditional Cambodian society. The remaining citizens were made to work as laborers in various concentration camps made up of collective farms. On these farms, people would harvest the crops to feed their camps. For every man, woman, and child it was mandatory to labor in the fields for twelve to fifteen hours each day. An estimated two million people, or twenty-one percent of Cambodia's population, lost their lives and many of these victims were brutally executed. Countless more of them died of malnourishment, fatigue, and disease. Ethnic groups such as the Vietnamese, Chinese, and Cham Muslims were attacked, along with twenty other smaller groups. Fifty percent of the estimated 425,000 Chinese living in Cambod...
Under Pol Pot's leadership, and within days of overthrowing the government, the Khmer Rouge launched themselves into an organized mission: they ruthlessly imposed an extremist programme to reconstruct Cambodia on the communist model of Mao's China. The population should, they believed, be forced to work as labourers in one vast federation of collective farms. Anyone in opposition - as intellectuals and educated folks were assumed to be - must be eliminated, beside all un-communist aspects of traditional Cambodian society.
Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up to 750,000 Cambodians through U.S. efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. This devastation would take its toll on the Cambodian peoples’ morale and would later help to contribute to the conflicts that caused the Cambodian genocide. In the 1970’s the Khmer Rouge guerrilla movement would form. The leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, was educated in France and believed in Maoist Communism. These communist ideas would become important foundations for the ideas of the genocide, and which groups would be persecuted.
Cambodia is a small country located in in south-east Asia. In 1975 president Lon Nol of Cambodia was overthrown by the Khmer Rouge (a group of teenage guerrillas), which was led by Pol Pot, in a military coup. Within a matter of days of overthrowing the previous government Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge on a prepared mission: they brutally imposed an idea that stated that Cambodia (now under its Khmer Rouge Name Kampuchea) was to be reconstructed The Same way Tsung Tse did china. The people were forced to leave the cities and to be moved to farms to work as unpaid labourers. Those refused to take part in the exodus or did not move fast enough were eliminated on the spot. Even the young, old and sickly were forced to take part in the exodus. All intellectual men or women or professional men were killed (even those who worked in the army). Civilian deaths during this period of time caused by execution, starvation disease and exhaustion are estimated to be well over two million, this is estimated to be twenty five percent of the population.
The Chinese have repeatedly tortured, imprisoned, and murdered Tibetans all for what they claim is national unity. While the oppression of the Tibetan people began in the 1950’s with the invasion of China, it continues just as strongly today. From religious oppression and unfair trials to the torture of nuns and monks, the Chinese abuse even the most reverent aspects of Tibetan culture. Political prisoners, whether they are monks, nuns or lay people, are tortured with utter disregard for human rights. Chinese laws have also been established to eradicate the Tibetan people entirely. Women often must endure forced abortions and sterilization due to Chinese birth policies. Through all of these crimes against humanity, China repeatedly commits acts of genocide as established by the United Nations.
At least every Asian country with a Buddhist community has experience some sort of civil war, foreign invasion, or systematic poverty and tyranny. During the Khmer Rouge era, Buddhism was nearly destroyed. Monks were tortured, killed and forced into lay life. Buddhist temples were destroyed and used as a prison area. After the defeat of the Khmer Rouge, Buddhism remained repressed within Cambodia. Some Buddhist monks or leaders responded with forms of social engagement. That being said, Maha Ghosananda is one the monks who played a key role in rebuilding Buddhism in Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. His work, Dhammayietras was the first program to set up for peace and non-violence in Cambodia. The Dhammayietras consisted of peace walks through war-torn, landmine-infested regions. This non-violence and social action is considered to be “engaged Buddhism.” The idea of “engaged Buddhism” places an emphasis on the need for compassion for compassionate action is rooted in the Buddhist practice. Ghosananda activism rebuilt Buddhism in Cambodia by teaching peace through example. T...
The question of moral validity has plagued societies for millennia. Unsurprisingly, this question afflicted Indonesia between 1965 and 1966. In the early days of October 1965, a group of conspirators took and killed six generals. The disagreement of whom caused this coup caused the killing of more than 80,000 (1,000,000 in some areas) people. This caused a social change from aristocrats to an Indonesian business class. For other peoples around the world, the view of this genocide was a victory over communism. While these killings were clearly morally deplorable, the result was an improved and restructured government; a victory for capitalism at the height of the Cold War.
When 1937 arrived, Japanese soldiers raided China’s capital of Nanking and began to mass murder citizens. A sole leader of the Japanese Imperial Army was non-existent. There were many of people in power such as generals who allowed these behaviors to occur. Baron Koki Hirota, Foreign minister at the time, proceeded to do nothing while being well aware of the Japanese’s persecution of the Chinese. These unsympathetic murders of those who were thought to be Chinese soldiers as well as woman, children and elderly. This massacre lasted between the 1937 and 1938. Within this time 300,000 Chinese citizens were viciously killed. This genocide is called Rape of Nanking because of raping the woman before killing them. Most likely this group was selected because the second world war happened in Asia. This was significant because a country was able to kill half the population of another. I believe the reason of this Genocide was for Japan to take advantage of China while expand Japan. Most likely the Japanese wished to exterminate China’s entire population.