How long was the khmer rouge

Many of the remains were ground down to make fertilizer in an effort to meet quotas for the rice crop. Others, like those found by soil excavators in , were buried intact with arms bound behind them or weighed down by rocks, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia DC-CAM. They tortured people, so he deserved to die. People should have peace of mind. According to Buddhist beliefs, even though Noun Chea and other Khmer Rouge leaders are dead, the souls of their victims and those who survived still do not have a peaceful mind.

Nuon Chea died without the dignity that comes with age, said Youk Chhang, and his death is drawing mixed reactions. Documentary filmmaker Thet Sambath interviewed Nuon Chea extensively in the late s, and then co-produced the award-winning documentary "Enemies of the People," about the Khmer Rouge leadership. Search Search. Home United States U.

The insurgents were driven by Marxist ideology and their army was led by a man called Pol Pot, who had earlier lived in France and became a member of the communist party there. When the Khmer Rouge took power in known in the country as Year Zero , millions were immediately sent to work in labor camps in the countryside, on the idea that this was a step toward the creation of an agrarian utopia.

Mass killings primarily targeted the middle class and intellectuals — such as doctors, lawyers, journalists, artists and students — as well as ethnic Vietnamese and Cham Muslims. Private property, money, religion and traditional culture were abolished, and the country became known as Democratic Kampuchea.

But even then, the Khmer Rouge was seen by many in the West as a powerful challenge to Vietnamese influence in Cambodia, and maintained support and military assistance from the U.

From , the Khmer Rouge held onto its seat in the U. General Assembly, and was recognized as the only legitimate representative of Cambodia. When Pol Pot died in , he was only just about to face the possibility of trial before the world.

Cambodia historian David Chandler says that, as time wears on, Cambodians are steadily overcoming the trauma. In the early years, however, the Khmer Rouge had few victories.

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After 27 years of international amnesia over bringing the Khmer Rouge to justice, and following six years of intense negotiations between the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia ECCC , was established in The tribunal is a UN-assisted national court, with international participation of prosecutors and judges.

On 4 February , the Khmer Rouge's second in command, Nuon Chea, now 81 years old, made his first appearance in court. For many of the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, the court appearance of Nuon Chea, though 29 years delayed, was highly significant -- the best proof that justice, denied for so long, would at last be achieved. Everyone hoped that the spectre of the Khmer Rouge, which had haunted Cambodia since the s, would finally disappear. However, many of them and those in the international community are still puzzled why it took so long for the tribunal to begin the proceedings.

To be able to grasp this mystery, we have to go back to history. The Khmer Rouge started as a small communist insurgency against Prince Norodom Sihanouk's neutralist Government in the cold war, and grew into a terror regime during its rule from April to January This resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1. Massive bombings of eastern Cambodia by the United States and the overthrow of Sihanouk by a pro-American right-wing general in March radicalized the rural youth, turning many of them into the arms of the regime.