1. Location – Where is the area located? Cambodia is located in the middle of Southeast Asia. It is south of Thailand and Laos and southeast of Vietnam.
2. What are the dates of the conflict? The dates of conflict are 1975 to 1979 when the Communist leader, Pol Pot came into power.
3. Who are the groups involved in the conflict? Give background as to the identity of each group. Who is committing the genocide? What leader is involved in the genocide? The groups involved in this conflict are the Khmer Rouge and the local Khmer after the United States had pulled out troops from Vietnam and Cambodia’s corrupt government l lost the US support. The Khmer Rouge was a Communist movement who emerged during the struggle against French colonization during the 1940s. The group was influenced by the Vietnamese and after fighting the first Indochina War in the fifties, the Khmer Rouge had a growing influence. The genocide was committed by the Khmer Rouge against the “Cambodian in body, but Vietnamese in mind” and it was a purge of the Khmer population. Vietnam became involved when they started to infiltrate the border and start to control the country. Eventually, the Vietnamese pulled back and gained an anti-Pol Pot army of Khmers, because the horrors of the genocide happening, were spreading to everyone that had supposedly been declared “pure of heart”.
4. What are the reasons for this conflict? Briefly describe the purpose of the conflict. The purpose of the genocide was to abolish what was left of the “old society”. A quote associated with it is, “What is rotten, must be removed.” Anyone who was educated, wealthy or held a very high occupation, doctors, lawyers, teacher, police and former government officials, were executed with their families. Anyone who was suspected of disloyalty to Pol Pot, were eventually all executed. The largest minorities, Vietnamese, Chinese and Cham Muslims were attacked by the Khmer Rouge because they had made a choice to live in cities, which was a form of supporting the capitalist government instead of the communist government. There was meant to be no class system and everyone had to work as simple peasants in the rural areas.
5. How many people died during the genocide? How many people were missing? How many people became refugees? 2,000,000 people died during this genocide. Over 2 million people became displaced to Phnomh Penh, Thailand and Vietnam.
6. What international groups became involved to help end the conflict? OR What groups did not become actively involved in attempting to stop the genocide? No international group became involved in stopping this event because Cambodia had shut its borders to international interference. All embassies were closed and foreing people were kicked out or killed.
7. How did the genocide end? In the case of Darfur, what has prevented this situation from stopping? Even though the Khmer Rouge were a Communist group, it took another Communist group to overthrow the Pol Pot regime. The Vietnamese ran the government from 1979 until 1993; when the first democratic elections were held. During the time when the country was run by the Vietnamese puppet government, religion was allowed again as well as the private ownership of land.
8. Were the issues in this conflict resolved? Why or why not? The issues of the genocide were eventually resolved when Pol Pot along with his Khmer Rouge followers, were kicked out and forced to hide in the jungles of Cambodia. The Vietnamese, even though they were Communist, managed to bring the extent of Pol Pot’s horrific rule. Cambodia was covered in graves and 25% of the population was dead. An entire generation had been wiped out and there were pits in the
