Genocide in Cambodia
Few events have ever conjured as much terror and hatred as the genocidal killings in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge; more than 2 million people were shot, strangled, beheaded, starved or tortured to death in the 20th century. The United States, when monitoring human rights violations such as genocide, should play essential roles in abolishing these law-breaking habits, establish a clear understanding of repercussions, and provide social and finical aid for the rebuilding of a distressed nation. Yet, throughout history the nature of imperialism has created great dynasties and destroyed many of them, from the Romans to the Nazis to the Khmer Rouge; one way to dominate the world is by destroying cultures or civilization to have more control, this is known as genocide. Genocide is the systematic killing of all the people from a national, ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do this for power. Thus this is one of the reasons for the horrific killings by the Khmer Rouge, which will be discussed more in depth throughout this paper along with gruesome details of their actions, life before and after the regime, connections between this human rights violation and others that took and take place in Cambodia, my view point along with oth
Before disaster struck, Cambodia was the center of Khmer, the Cambodian kingdom of ngkôr, a great empire that dominated Southeast Asia for 600 years. A monarchy since ancient times, Cambodia was a French protectorate from 1863 to 1953. A republic replaced the monarchy in 1970, and in 1975 a Communist regime known as the Khmer Rouge took power, naming the country Democratic Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge's vicious cruelty and drastic communist restructuring devastated Cambodia's society and economy. Society to me incorporates both culture and religion; by devastating these two important qualities of life they killed the Cambodians spirits and esteem which in my belief is the first step in genocide. This was the beginning of the end of life as most Cambodians new it. The Khmer Rouge killed intellectuals, merchants, bureaucrats, members of religious groups, and any people suspected of disagreeing with the party. In my outlook I see that people of influence such as bureaucrats and religious figures were a threat to the Khmer Rouge and were wiped out do in fear, this happened in World War II when Hitler killed many Polish intellectuals in fear of being overthrown. Millions of other Cambodians were forcibly relocated, deprived of food, tortured, or sent into forced labor and in the end unfortunately died as the others did. Secondly, without identifying themselves as Communists, the Khmer Rouge quickly introduced, as the Nazis did in Germany, many communist rules segregating races and ethnicities. The people given the most power in the new government were the largely illiterate rural Cambodians who had fought alongside the Khmer Rouge in the civil war. Democratic Kampuchea (DK) leaders severely restricted freedom of speech, movement, and association, and forbade all religious practices. As I said before they are destroying the people of Cambodia by degrading them, and depriving them, according to the Universal Document of Human Rights, "You have the right to live, and to live in freedom and safety." DK leaders broke this human right along with many others. The regime controlled all communications along with access to food and information. Former city dwellers, now called "new people," were particularly badly treated. In order to commit genocide in my opinion you must win over a majority of people and discriminate against a minority of people, persuading the majority to dislike the minority is the key point. In discriminating the minority of a nationality you leave them vulnerable; you take their freedom and pride, thus enabling the minority to give up hope and as a result bring down their shields, at this time many can be murdered and tortured and the strong will enviably turn weak. Consequently, many human rights violations such as restricting freedom of speech, movement, and association, forbidding all religious practices, forced labor, and torture must first take place to achieve the greatest evil, wiping out a faction of innocent people for self assured power. In my outlook any individual can see clearly that the suffering is virtually everywhere. And as the government continues to allow the "virtual rape" of the country, it can be expected to worsen. In my opinion in spite of Cambodia being the highest recipient of foreign aid, for more than five years, the deforestation increases...in spite of foreign aid. The drug network increases...in spite of foreign aid. The Human Rights abuses, the killing of journalists, editors, protestors and others continues, and will continue, in spite of foreign aid. "The United States continued aid would only serve to prop up a tyrannical regime." (Hoak, 8/29/00) An estimated 35 percent of Cambodia's adult population is literate. Public education is free and required for the first 6 years. Primary school attendance has increased rapidly in the 1990s, and by 1996 virtually all children were enrolled, as well as many older people who were unable to attend school in earlier years due to the
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Approximate Word count = 3081
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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