The Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979) refers to the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge political party over Cambodia, which the Khmer Rouge renamed as Democratic Kampuchea.
The four-year period saw the death of approximately 2 million Cambodians through the combined result of political executions, starvation, and forced labor. Due to the large numbers, the deaths during the rule of the Khmer Rouge are often considered a genocide, despite failing to...
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The Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979) refers to the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge political party over Cambodia, which the Khmer Rouge renamed as Democratic Kampuchea.
The four-year period saw the death of approximately 2 million Cambodians through the combined result of political executions, starvation, and forced labor. Due to the large numbers, the deaths during the rule of the Khmer Rouge are often considered a genocide, despite failing to meet the legal definition of genocide.
The Khmer Rouge period ended with the invasion of Cambodia by neighbor and former ally Vietnam in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, which left Cambodia under Vietnamese occupation for a decade.
The deportations were one of the markers of the beginning of the Khmer Rouge rule. They demanded and then forced the people to leave the cities and live in the countryside. Phnom Penh—populated by 2.5 million people —was soon nearly empty. The roads out of the city were clogged with evacuees. Similar evacuations...
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