The Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge was a Communist Party of Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia on the 17th of April, in the year 1975. The Khmer Rouge created the state of 'Democratic Kampuchea' in 1976 and ruled the country until around January in the year 1979. The existence of the Khmer Rouge party was kept a secret until the year 1977. No one outside of the Communist Party of Cambodia knew who its leaders were. The leaders called themselves ''Angkar Padevat''. At the time when the Khmer Rouge was in power, they set up policies that disregarded human lives which would've been a violation to the human rights. The Khmer Rouge produced repression and massacres on a huge scale. The Khmer Rouge basically transformed Cambodia into a huge torture center, which later became a graveyard for nearly two million people, even including their own members and even some of their senior leaders.


The Cambodian's communist movement; the Khmer Rouge began from the country's struggle against the French colonization that happened in the 1940s, and was also influenced by the Vietnamese. The movement was fueled by the first Indochina war that happened in the 1950s, the movement was beginning to grow during the next 20 years.

Overview:

· The Khmer Rouge killed nearly two million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979
· The Khmer Rouge took root in Cambodia's northeastern jungles as early as the 1960s
· The Khmer Rouge presented themselves as a party for peace and succeeded in mobilizing support in the countryside.
· The Khmer Rouge was planning the steps necessary for a radical shift to an agrarian society.