The Khmer Rouge Essay Example for Free

The Khmer Rouge Essay There are many genocides that people are not aware of. One of them is the attempted genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge was able to gain power and remain in control of Cambodia for years without interference because they isolated the country from any foreign influence. Other countries had no idea what was happening inside Cambodia until years later. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, wanted to create their own ideal communist society. So how did The Khmer Rouge gain so much power and control? Some argue that Pol Pot was the only one responsible for the power and control gained by the Khmer Rouge. On the other hand, others say that the notion of social hierarchy was reversed and that is how power and control was gained. The Khmer Rouge was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge leader was Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, during which time two million Cambodians died from torture and starvation (The Khmer Rouge-Wikipedia 1). Anybody who was seen as a threat was killed by the Khmer Rouge. This organization is remembered primarily â€Å"for its policy of social engineering, which resulted in genocide† (The Khmer Rouge-Wikipedia 2). They tried to transform agriculture, but instead it led to hunger, insisting on absolute independence, even in the supply of medicine. Thousands died from treatable diseases. People were brutally murdered and tortured for no reason. The Khmer Rouge seized power by using force, authority, and fear. Cambodians had no choice, it was either obey or be killed. During Pol Pot’s time in power, he forced urban dwellers to move to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labor camps. His goal was to â€Å"restart civilization† (Kiernan). Thousands of families from Cambodia were moved from their homes and were forced to work. Overnight everybody from Cambodia became a farmer including doctors, clerks, cooks, and business owners. They took Cambodians into the countryside, where they became peasants starving to death (Carvin 3). Some say that Pol Pot was responsible for the power and control of Cambodia because â€Å"Pol Pot cut Cambodia off from the world. He banned foreign and minority languages and attacked the neighboring countries of Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand in an attempt to regain ancient ‘lost territory’† (The life of Pol Pot- Cambodia ). This statement is true because the Khmer Rouge did gain part of their power by isolating the country, but Pol Pot is not fully responsible for that. There were other people involved, like Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan all of these people were also leaders in the Khmer Rouge. Nuon Chea was the second leader in the Khmer Rouge he is known a s â€Å"The evil genius of the movement† (Chandler 1), because he is the one who was in charge of the prison system. He was one of the one’s with a heartless mind, planning tortures and executing innocent people. There was also Ieng Sary who was the one responsible for the deaths of many intellectuals who were supposed to be re-trained at a camp, but instead were killed (Chandler 2). Sary was also a cold blooded man who contributed in The Khmer Rouge, killing intellectuals thinking they were prone to exploit others. Sary is another accomplice of the Khmer Rouge who helped gain power. Son Sen was the prime minister of the Khmer Rouge he was also in charge of S-21 which was a jail. Sen was killed in 1997 by Pol Pot for participating in a peace process outlined by the Paris Peace Agreements (Son Sen 2). Even though he may have regretted what he did, he was still part of the Khmer Rouge and did not make any attempt to stop anything when he was supposed to. Last was Khieu Samphan, David Chandler a Professor of International Relations, explains that Samphan was described as having in his prime a nimble, even mischievous mind – but at the same time was meticulous, doctrinaire, slavishly obedient to his party superiors and extremely rigid in his thinking. Samphan would do anything he was asked to do step by step. The argument that Pol Pot was the only responsible for the power and control in Cambodia is weak because as we can see there were many master minds that helped the Khmer Rouge, they all worked together to gain control. According to Judy Ledgerwood a cultural anthropologist, power and control was gained by the notion of social hierarchy being reversed. Those who were wealthy and educated were treated as slaves, monks and kings from Cambodia were nothing but labor workers for the Khmer Rouge. Ledgerwood says that â€Å"crucial reversal was with regard to age. The Khmer Rouge saw adults as already poisoned by the previous regime, but children were still pure and could be properly indoctrinated† (Ledgerwood 3). The idea that adults were â€Å"poisoned† by previous regimes is ridiculous. The Khmer Rouge just knew that adults had more reasoning and experience to understand what was happening. They used children to brainwash them and turn them against their parents and adults. Children helped the Khmer Rouge maintain power since they were being trained to spy on their parents, maybe to see if any parent was a threat to the Khmer Rouge. Gender rolls also played a part; young women were given a degree of political and military authority (Ledgerwood3). The Khmer Rouge knew they needed women in their side; they had the potential to help them politically succeed and gain more power in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot wanted an ideal communist society. According to Andy Carvin, â€Å"peasants, in fact, were the Khmer Rouge communist ideal†¦ Peasants were seen as simple, uneducated, hardworking and not prone to exploiting others† (Carvin 3). The Khmer Rouge did not want any Cambodian to be smart or successful. If there were any educated Cambodians they would be killed, since Pol pot and the Khmer Rouge did not want anyone to get any ideas that might- over throw their plan. It was a smart idea but they did not need to kill to have their â€Å"ideal communist society†. The Khmer Rouge could have used those people to create better ideas for his plan, a plan that did not involve killing people. Secrecy was also one of the best tools for controlling the population. Cambodians were told that the country was being run by Angka, no leaders were mentioned (Carvin 1) to keep the identities of the leaders hidden. They just controlled the people by lying and tricking them into believing whatever the Khmer Rouge wanted them to believe. This also helped them maintain their power and control over Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge was able to gain control and maintain it for so many years because of the secrecy, the fear that was created, how they trained and brain washed the children as well as the adults and isolating the country. Without any of these, the Khmer Rouge could have been stopped and they would not have gained so much power and control. Secrecy was important to hide their identities, and to not be blamed for all the murders. Fear was a powerful tactic to use because Cambodians knew that they had to obey to everything, if not they would get killed. Children were a key to maintaining their power and control, because the Khmer Rouge trained them their way and converted them into heartless, cold blooded children. Isolating the country was the most important in gaining power and control, because Cambodia was helpless. There were no outsiders involved, and that help them maintain power and control.