Modern Genocide: the Killing Fields of Cambodia

The Killing Fields of Cambodia: 1975-1979

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………... Page 3

II. GEOGRAPHY……………………………………………………….. Page 3

III. THE PEOPLE……………………………………………………….. Page 4

IV. HISTORY…………………………………………………………….. Page 6

V. POL POT AND THE KHMER ROUGE…………………….……. Page 7

VI. THE EXODUS…………………………………………………..….. Page 10

VII. END OF THE KHMER ROUGE………………………………….. Page 13

VIII. U.S. RESPONSE…………………………………………………... Page 15

IX. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY ……………………………….. Page 18

X. CAMBODIA TODAY……………………………………………… Page 20

XI. CONCLUSIONS AND THOUGHTS………………………………Page 21

XII. REFERENCES……………………………………………………… Page 22

I. INTRODUCTION

As a small country with weak political, economic, and military structure, Cambodia has suffered for centuries from poor leadership and outside influence. The Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979, in which approximately 1.7 million people lost their lives (21% of the country 's population), was one of the worst diabolical tragedies the world has laid witness to. The Khmer Rouge -- the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea -- was the totalitarian ruling party in Cambodia led ruthlessly by Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge forced an entire population into rural manual labor under brutal supervision.

II. GEOGRAPHY

Cambodia is geographically situated between India and China, bordered by vast woodlands and plains, which cover 70% of the country. These densely populated flat plains, formed by the basin of the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap (lake), provide ideal conditions for rice cultivation, the heartland of Cambodia economy. The Mekong River is the 12th largest river in the world. The Tonle Sap, also referred to as the Great Lake, is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. It is around the vicinity of Lake Tonle Sap and the Mekong that the densest concentration of people are found. Cambodia has two distinct seasons. The rainy season, which runs from May to October, can see temperatures drop to 22 °C and is generally accompanied with high humidity. The dry season lasts from November to April when temperatures can rise up to 40 °C around April. The jungles of Cambodia are home to a variety of birds, tigers, wild cats, buffaloes, monkeys, elephants, and various types of snakes. The Mekong River and the Tonle Sap undergoes a very unique phenomenon every year. During the rainy season, the Mekong River flowing through the capital city if Phnom Penh, discharges its excess water where it finally accumulates at the lake of Tonle Sap. When this happens, the surface area of the late expands enormously, forming a sea of over 13,000 square kilometers, whose waters yield enormous catches of fish each year. Over one million people earn their living directly from fishing and some three million live around the lake. Despite these natural resources, Cambodia still remains as on the world’s poorest countries, with an estimated per capita GDP of under $100.

III. THE PEOPLE

The overwhelming majority of the Cambodian population is rural. The country’s capital, Phnom Penh, is home to over one million people and is more than eight times the size of the largest town, Battambang, which has around 125,000 inhabitants. In 1970, 80% of the population was composed of ethnic Khmers, who follow Buddhist religion and teachings. Khmers are devoutly religions, practicing the Therava strain of Buddhism. One of the greatest horrors of the Pol Pot was the government’s attempt to stop religion. The central focus of village life is the Buddhist temple. The men are of small stature and dark complexion, but many of the women are fair in complexion. The majority of Khmers are peasants, farming and fishing the land along the riverbanks the same way as their remote ancestors. Those that inhabit the mountainsides follow traditional slash and burn cultivation of their rice. Many Khmers live in the same kinds of ancestral houses: palm thatch huts with bamboo frames raised on stilts to prevent from flooding and animals. Wooden buffalo carts and ploughs pervade the land. The Khmers follow a very routine lifestyle. The most tiring tasks are carried out in the morning: working in the rice fields plowing, harrowing, and sowing were done exclusively by men. The replanting, wedding, and harvesting were done by both the men and women. When the growing season is over, hunting devices are made, especially those to catch fish. Their frugal diets consist of rice, fruit vegetables and prahoc – a type of fermented fish paste that makes the bulk of their protein consumption.

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Among the dominant Khmers, were several large groups of minorities including the: Chams, Vietnamese, Muslims and Chinese. The Chinese and Vietnamese, who have been or present since pre-Angkorean time, are primarily city dwellers and fisherman. Some townspeople are involved with the bureaucracy, others in liberal professions or small-scale commerce in the service sector. The Chams, who speak their won language and practice the Sunni version of Islam, are the descendants of the once might empire of Champa, which was conquered by the Vietnamese in 1471. They are renowned present day cartwrights and woodworkers. [pic]

IV. HISTORY

The Khmer Empire flourished in Cambodia from the 9th to 13th century. Around the 13th century, Theravada Buddhism, the still most widely practiced form of religion in Cambodia today, was introduced to the area through monks from Sri Lanka. The empire 's centre of power was the city of Angkor, where a series of capitals were constructed during the empire 's zenith. Angkor was the world 's largest pre-industrial civilization. After a long series of wars with neighboring kingdoms, Angkor was sacked by the Thai people and later abandoned in 1432 because of ecological failure and infrastructure breakdown. During the next three centuries, the Khmer kingdom alternated as a vassal state for Thai and Vietnamese kings, with short-lived periods independence in between. In 1863, King Norodom sought protection from France from both the Thai and Vietnamese government, after tensions grew between them. In 1867, the Thai king signed a treaty with France. The terms of the treaty were that Cambodia would remain under partial French rule, and the cities of Battambang and Siem Reap were to be officially become part of Thailand. These provinces were later ceded back to Cambodia by a border treaty between France and Thailand in 1906. After King Norodom 's death in 1904, Norodom 's brother, Sisowath, was ruler to the throne. In 1941, the throne became vacant again after the death of Monivong, Sisowath 's son. France did not pass the throne over to Monivong 's son, Monireth, feeling he was too independently minded and not capable of being a heir to the Cambodian throne. Instead, Norodom Sihanouk, who was eighteen years old at the time, was the new leader of Cambodia. The French thought young Sihanouk would be easy an easy target to control, but they were wrong. Irritated by the French’s refusals to grant new protocols in self-governance of his country, King Norodom Sihanouk launched a crusade for for independence from their French oppressors. Cambodia gained independence from France on November 9, 1953.
V. POL POT AND THE KHMER ROUGE Born in 1925 to a bourgeois family, Saloth Sar, who later became known as Pol Pot, grew up with strong hate for monarchy and the bourgeoisie, never speaking of them without vilifying them and expressing a desire to see them taken out of power. In 1949, at age 20, Pol Pot traveled to Paris on a scholarship to study radio electronics but became absorbed in Marxism. He lost his scholarship and returned to Cambodia in 1953 and joined the underground Communist movement. Pol Pot spent his next years mainly in the countryside and jungles, organizing and fighting with the Khmer Rouge or “Red Cambodia”. By 1962, Pol Pot had become leader of the Cambodian Communist Party and was forced to hide in the jungle to escape the wrath of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the leader of Cambodia. Pol Pot formed an armed resistance movement that became known as the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians), waging a guerrilla war against Sihanouk 's government. Cambodia 's neighbor to the east, Vietnam, had also fought against the French to gain independence. As a result of civil tension, Vietnam haf divided in two: communist North Vietnam and pro-Western South Vietnam (backed by the US). The Viet Cong, a group of Vietnamese communist guerrillas (backed by North Vietnam and China), based themselves in the jungles of South Vietnam and fought against the South Vietnamese army. In 1964, the U.S. entered the Vietnam War, with airpower, firebombs and poisonous defoliants, but found they could not budge the determined Vietnamese communists. The inconclusive war in Vietnam cost many American and Vietnamese lives, devastated the country, and achieved nothing but misery for anyone caught up in it, including the Cambodians. Sihanouk adopted an official policy of neutrality during the Vietnamese civil war by giving a little to both sides: Vietnamese communists were allowed to use a Cambodian port to ship in supplies, and the U.S. was allowed to secretly bomb Viet Cong hideouts in Cambodia. In 1970, Sihanouk was taken out of power by a U.S. backed military coup led by Prime Minister General Lon Nol. Lon Nol was a pro-American, but he was also corrupt and incompetent. He secluded himself and remained out of touch with the affairs of Cambodia, even suspending Parliament. The United States, though, only cared that he was an anti-Communist and spent $1.85 billion between 1970 and 1975 in advancing his regime. After Lon Nol took over, the U.S. launched a Cambodian invasion code-named “Operation Shoemaker.” During the next four years, Republic of Vietnam forces and U.S. forces bombed and briefly invaded Cambodia in an effort to disrupt the Viet Cong and growing popularity of the Khmer Rouge. American B-52 bombers, using napalm and dart cluster-bombs, killed up to 750,000 Cambodians in their efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. Estimates show two million Cambodians were made refugees by the war and fled to Phnom Penh, the country’s capital. After the bombings ended in 1975, the country faced famine with 75% of its animals destroyed. All of these events resulted in economic and military destabilization in Cambodia and a surge of popular support for Pol Pot. The heavy American bombardment, and Lon Nol 's collaboration with America, drove new recruits to the Khmer Rouge. Also, the Chinese and North Vietnamese backed Pol Pot, providing training for the Khmer guerillas. By 1975 Pol Pot 's force had grown to over 700,000 men. Lon Nol 's army was kept busy trying not only to suppress Vietnamese communists on Cambodian territory, but also Cambodia 's own brand of communists, the Khmer Rouge. By 1975, the U.S. had withdrawn its troops from Vietnam. Cambodia 's government, plagued by corruption and incompetence, also lost its American military support. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Pol Pot 's Khmer Rouge army, consisting of teenage peasant guerrillas, marched into Phnom Penh and on April 17 effectively seized control of Cambodia. The regime changed the official name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea.
VI. THE EXODUS The Khmer Rouge developed its own unique political ideas. Pol Pot began by declaring, "This is Year Zero," and that society was about to be "purified." Capitalism, Western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign influences were to be extinguished in favor of an extreme agricultural reform based on Mao Zedong 's Cultural Revolution. Mao’s economic program included forced evacuations of Chinese cities and the purging of "class enemies." Pol Pot would now attempt his own "Great Leap" in Cambodia. Immediately upon taking over Cambodia, Pol Pot held a Special Assembly for Cabinet Minister and all Zone and Region Secretaries. Pol Pot mad eight points at the assembly: 1. Evacuate people from all towns 2. Abolish all markets 3. Abolish Lon Nol regime currency, and withhold the revolutionary currency that has been printed. 4. Defrock all Buddhist monks, and put them to work growing rice 5. Execute all leaders of the Lon Nol regime beginning with the top leaders. 6. Establish high-level cooperative throughout the country with communal eating. 7. Expel the entire Vietnamese minority population. 8. Dispatch troops to the borders, particularly the Vietnamese border.

Under Pol Pot 's leadership, and within days of overthrowing the government, the Khmer Rouge embarked on an organized mission. The Khmer Rouge, using loudspeakers in Cambodia cities, forcibly told the inhabitants to evacuate immediately under the threat of death. The ill, disabled, old and very young were driven out as well, regardless of their physical condition: no-one was spared the exodus. People who refused to leave were killed. At Phnom Penh, two million inhabitants were evacuated on foot into the countryside at gunpoint. As many as 20,000 died along the way. Those who made it were combined with the local population and subjected to forced labor. Pol Pot 's brother – Chhay, who worked as a Republican journalist in the capital – was reported to have died during the evacuation of Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge considered the farmers in the countryside to be the proletariat; the true representatives of the working class. The Khmer Rouge believed that the population must be made to work as laborers in one huge federation of collective farms. They also wanted to eliminate anyone suspected of "involvement in free-market activities". "Eyeglasses were as deadly as the yellow star" as they were seen as a sign of intelligence. One of their mottos was "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss.” Throughout Cambodia, deadly purges were conducted to eliminate remnants of the "old society" - the educated, the wealthy, Buddhist monks, police, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and former government officials. Ex-soldiers were killed along with their wives and children. Anyone suspected of disloyalty to Pol Pot, including eventually many Khmer Rouge leaders, was shot or bludgeoned with an ax. "What is rotten must be removed," a Khmer Rouge slogan proclaimed. All political and civil rights were abolished. Embassies, factories, schools and universities and hospitals. Private property was abolished overnight. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists and professional workers in all fields (including the army) were murdered, together with their extended families. Any foreign, economic, and medical assistance was expelled. Religion was banned, all leading Buddhist monks were killed and almost all temples destroyed. Music radio sets and newspapers were also banned. It was possible for people to be shot simply for knowing a foreign language, wearing glasses, laughing, or crying. Personal relationships were discouraged; so were expressions of affection. People soon became weak from overwork and starvation, and after that fell ill, for which there was no treatment except death. Pol Pot planned to seal Cambodia from “contaminating influences” from the outside world. The Khmer Rouge believed parents were tainted with capitalism. Consequently, children were separated from parents. Children were a "dictatorial instrument of the party” and were given leadership in torture and executions. Children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced labor camps. Families would rarely be complete again. Those lucky enough to escape murder became unpaid laborers, working for minute rations and for impossibly long hours Workdays in the fields began around 4 a.m. and lasted until 10 p.m., with only two rest periods allowed during the 18 hour day, all under the armed supervision of young Khmer Rouge soldiers eager to kill anyone for the slightest infraction. Citizens in Pol Pot 's "killing fields" quickly began dying from overwork, malnutrition and disease on a diet of one tin of rice (180 grams) per person every two days. During nearly three years, most of the inhabitants consumed practically no fats and very little protein—even though Cambodia is one of the world’s richest countries in fish. Starving people were forbidden to eat the fruits and rice they were harvesting. After the rice crop was harvested, Khmer Rouge trucks would arrive and confiscate the entire crop. Ten to fifteen families lived together with a chairman at the head of each group. All work decisions were made by the armed supervisors with no participation from the workers who were told, "Whether you live or die is not of great significance." Every tenth day was a day of rest. There were also three days off during the Khmer New Year festival. Also targeted were minority groups, victims of the Khmer Rouge 's racism. These included ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and also Cambodians with Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai ancestry. In the late 1960s, an estimated 425,000 ethnic Chinese lived in Cambodia, but by 1984, as a result of Khmer Rouge genocide and emigration, only about 61,400 Chinese remained in the country. Half the Cham Muslim population was murdered along with 8,000 Christians. The Khmer Rouge even repeatedly interrogated their own members, imprisoning and executing them on the slightest suspicion of treachery or sabotage. The victims were executed and buried mass graves. In order to save ammunition, the executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks. Civilian deaths in this period, from executions, disease, exhaustion and starvation, have been estimated at well over 2 million deaths.
VII. END OF THE KHMER ROUGE

The Khmer Rouge 's ill maltreatment of Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese fueled hostility between the Pol Pot government and Vietnam. On December 25, 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion into Cambodia of over 100,000 strong, backed by tanks, artillery, and aviation. On January 7, 1979, Phnom Penh fell and Pol Pot was relieved of power. Vietnam (now a communist republic forging links with the Soviet Union) set up a puppet government composed mainly of recent defectors from the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot and the Khmer guerrillas were driven into the western jungles of Cambodia, extending into Thailand. Guerilla bases were established along the Thai-Cambodian border and guerrilla wars ensued against a succession of Cambodian governments lasting over the next 17 years. Cambodia was on the brink of famine when Vietnam invaded. The retreating Khmer Rouges soldiers took all the rice they could carry and burned down crops and fields. An estimated 325,000 to 625,000 people died within the first year of liberation. Pol Pot 's policies had ruined the economy, there wasn 't much foreign aid; all the competent professionals, engineers, technicians and planners had been killed. The elegant capital of Phnom Penh became nearly deserted. Social life had collapsed and old familial relationships broken forever. There were significantly more females than males in the population after the genocide. Following the fall of the Pol Pot regime, a temporary coalition government was established, making it legal to own land. The country’s main religion, Buddhism, was revived. Many Cambodians, particularly those who were part of the Khmer Republic government or armed forces, sought to flee their country after the Khmer Rouge invasion of 1975. During the Khmer Rouge period however, very few people were able to escape the tight, military control of the border. But after the Vietnamese invasion and the dissolution of the Khmer Rouge, more than 700,000 people fled to Thailand. Under international pressure, Vietnam finally withdrew its occupying army from Cambodia. This decision had also been forced by economic sanctions on Cambodia (the US 's doing), and by a cut-off in aid from Vietnam 's own backer, the Soviet Union. The last troops left Cambodia in 1989, and its name was officially restored. In the 1978-1989 conflict between the two countries claimed up to 65,000 deaths, 14,000 of whom were civilians. In 1991 a peace agreement between Vietnam and Cambodia was signed. The United Nations was given a mandate to enforce a ceasefire, and deal with refugees and disarmament. The former monarch, Prince Sihanouk, was elected to lead the new government. After a series of internal power struggles in the 1990s, Pol Pot finally lost complete control of the Khmer Rouge. The Cambodian government, meanwhile, made plans for a tribunal to bring the former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice. Pol Pot remained unapologetic for his actions and beliefs throughout his entire life. On April 1998 at age 73, Pol Pot died of an apparent heart attack following his arrest before he could be brought to trial by an international tribunal for the events of 1975-79.

VIII. U.S. RESPONSE

Nearly all U.S. and European journalists had safely managed to escape the first days of the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975. The U.S. embassy, diplomatic staff, and U.S correspondents were also evacuated from Cambodia. Nine friendly Communist countries retained embassies in Phnom Penh, but even those personnel were limited in movement to a street around 200 yards long and accompanied at all time by a Khmer Rouge soldier. Following the U.S. embassy evacuation, rumors and reports of widespread killings and the evacuation of major cities were talked about. In response to these rumors, the US used satellites and observed images of hundreds of thousands of people leaving the capital Phnom Penh. The evacuation of Phnom Penh had been confirmed, but there was no evidence of murder. Also, the U.S. government had lost reliable sources inside Cambodia. The closing of the U.S. embassy dwindled the capability of the U.S. intelligence-gathering capabilities. Journalists were barred from visiting. The media was wary of the reports that were leaking out of the country. They viewed the information coming from Cambodia as “inconclusive accounts” and “unconfirmed reports.” They American public eye simply did not want to sensibly draw conclusions unless they knew the full story. A senior Khmer Rouge official was quoted as saying “Only through secrecy, could the Khmer win victory over the enemy who cannot fund out who is who.” Representative John Ashcroft went so far as to accuse the media of “downplaying the killings.” At the same time, Senator Alan Cranston stated that there seemed to be tens of thousands dead, and he publicly condemned the regime. By the end of 1975, the US government knew that there had been an evacuation of Phnom Penh and assumed that at least tens of thousands were dead. Unfortunately, these facts and assumptions alone did not constitute genocide in anyone’s eyes, and the real facts and figures remained hidden from the outside world because of the alienation of Cambodia to the outside world. In 1976, the only major development in the US Government was a report written by Representatives John P. Murtha and Clairborne Pell speaking of disturbing developments in Cambodia, but listed few facts. The majority of data was compiled from second and third-hand reports of what was occurring. The report caused little stir in Washington, and the year ended with no urgent calls for intervention or assistance. In the beginning of 1977, Jimmy Carter took office as the new president of the US. By then, the number of reports of atrocities in Cambodia had risen to the point that they needed to be officially addressed. In May 1977, Congressional Hearings were held to determine if US intervention would be required. Unfortunately, with little hard evidence to work with, Congress allowed a pool of Cambodian experts to testify as to their opinions of what was actually occurring inside Cambodia. The experts testified that all of the reports that the US had been concerned about were in fact gross exaggerations. They pointed out once again how the sources of all this information could not be trusted nor verified. When confronted with evidence of the evacuation of Phnom Penh, the Cambodian experts defended the move as a necessity of the new regime. They took the stance that although the evacuations were unusual, were reasonable explanations as to why the new government might chose to do such a thing and that there was no cause for alarm. The Cambodian experts all agreed and testified that the US should not intervene in the internal affairs of Cambodia. In the end, Congress approved a resolution condemning the Khmer Rouge, but decided against taking any official action. In January of 1978, acting Secretary of State Warren Christopher re-iterated the US condemnation of the Khmer Rouge, but publicly stated that the “State Department has no leverage”. Shortly thereafter, Canada, Norway, Britain, the US, Australia, AI, and the IRC all pooled their collective information to present to the UN Commission of Human Rights. Even the UN Commission conceded that all of the known information had been gathered from interviews and radio broadcasts and that there were no credible first-hand accounts of the events inside Cambodia. By August 1978, Senator George McGovern became disgusted by the reaction of the international community to what he saw as an undeniable mountain of accumulating evidence. He went so far as to officially call for an international force to overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. The US had determined not to intervene in the internal affairs of Cambodia, but would help the increasing flow of refugees seeking asylum in foreign countries. In October of 1978, the Dole-Solarz Bill was passed to allow 15,000 Cambodian refugees to re-settle in the US. When Phnom Penh fell to the Vietnamese on 7 January, 1979, the curtain was lifted on the Cambodian genocide. As the world began to see what had occurred within its borders, even the US found it difficult to fathom what had actually occurred. The US still defended its stance that Cambodia was responsible for its own internal affairs, and had a right to its own sovereignty. As a result, the US actually condemned Vietnam for the liberation of Cambodia and backed Pol Pot as the legitimate leader of the country.

IX. INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

On Dec 11, 1946, the UN General Assembly declared genocide a crime under international law. On Dec 9, 1948, the UN adopted resolution 260A(III), the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which obliged “Contracting Parties” to “undertake to prevent and to punish…acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.” Between 1975-1979, Cambodia blundered into a “Modern Dark Age.” Its attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine. About 1.5 million Cambodians are estimated to have died in waves of murder, torture, and starvation, aimed particularly at the educated and intellectual elite. Because of the large number of deaths, and because ethnic groups and religious minorities were targeted, the deaths during the rule of the Khmer Rouge are often considered a genocide as defined under the UN Convention of 1948. [pic] In 1997, Cambodia established a Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force to create a legal and judicial structure to try the remaining leaders for war crimes and other crimes against humanity, but progress was slow. On March 30th, 2009 the first trial of a Khmer Rouge leader for genocide got under way in Cambodia, more than 30 years after the fall of the brutal ultra-Maoist regime. Kaing Guek Eav was being tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his part in the regime 's "Year Zero" policy, which disastrously aimed to create an agrarian utopia. Duch was charged with "personally overseeing the systematic torture of more than 15,000 prisoners" at "killing fields" in Choeng Ek, a city on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh. Today that site is marked by a grim memorial of thousands of human skulls excavated from the site. The sentencing is till pending in international court. [pic] Kaing Guek Eav

X. CAMBODIA TODAY

Cambodia today is still desperately poor and under developed. To many Khmers, the January 7th holiday of their liberation, commemorates their freedom from the tyranny of Pol Pot’s revolution. Whether Cambodia will be able to overcome its problems due to underdevelopment and authoritarianism is still remained to be seen. Today, around 50% of Cambodia’s budget comes from overseas aid. But government corruption, poverty, an HIV/AIDS pandemic and new ecological crises face Cambodia.

XI. CONCLUSIONS AND THOUGHTS The Cambodian genocide was an undeniable tragedy of horrific proportions. The Khmer Rouge effectively sealed Cambodia off from the outside world for four years. Very little information escaped its borders, and the stories that did were discounted even by the experts. The fact that the Khmer Rouge was able to silence Cambodia for four years was amazing, but it did occur in a time before modern communications made such an effort impossible or difficult to achieve. It seems to me that more effort could have been made. How can the world stand blind to the mass murder of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people? Perhaps a strong and more stringent approach in Cambodia would’ve resulted in saving hundreds of thousands – if not millions of lives. I have learned a lot about genocide this semester. Prior to this class, I had very little knowledge about genocide. My view of genocide was related with that of the Holocaust, but now I can that genocide is widespread and continues (sadly) to pervade in our present time. It amazes me the lack of international and domestic response to these real events. More reports on genocide by the media to the American public and a strong international coalition has to occur in order to advance the knowledge of and awareness of genocide.

XII. REFERENCES

Ablin, David, and Marlowe Hood, eds. The Cambodian Agony. New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 1990

Barron, John and Anthony, Paul. “Murder of a Gentle Land” Readers Digest, February 1977
Becker, Elizabeth Pol Pot 's End Won 't Stop U.S. Pursuit of His Circle, New York Times, April 17, 1998.
Chandler, David. The Tragedy of Cambodian History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991

Clymer, Kenton. “Jimmy Carter, Human Rights, and Cambodia.” Diplomatic History, April 2003, Vol. 27, No. 2

Gibney, Frank. “Counting the Victims.” TIME International, 18 March 1996, Vol. 147, No. 12

Istivan, Zoltan. “Killing Fields” Lure Tourists in Cambodia. National Geographic Today, 10 January 2003

Jackson, Karl. Cambodia 1975 – 1978. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989

Kamm, Henry. Cambodia: Report from a Stricken Land. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1998

Kamm, Henry. “Refugees Depict Cambodia as Grim, Work-Gang Land”, The New York Times, October 31, 1977

Kiernan, Ben: The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79

Power, Samantha. A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. pp. xvii-xviii. Basic Books, 2002.

Symonds, Peter. “The Death of Pol Pot.” World Socialist Web Site, 18 April 1998

Taylor, Christopher. Sacrifice as Terror. Oxford: Oxford International Publishers, 1999
Zbigniew Brzezinski, China Acted Alone, Letters, New York Times, April 22, 1998.

References: Ablin, David, and Marlowe Hood, eds. The Cambodian Agony. New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 1990 Barron, John and Anthony, Paul Becker, Elizabeth Pol Pot 's End Won 't Stop U.S. Pursuit of His Circle, New York Times, April 17, 1998. Chandler, David. The Tragedy of Cambodian History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991 Clymer, Kenton Jackson, Karl. Cambodia 1975 – 1978. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989 Kamm, Henry Kamm, Henry. “Refugees Depict Cambodia as Grim, Work-Gang Land”, The New York Times, October 31, 1977 Kiernan, Ben: The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 Power, Samantha. A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. pp. xvii-xviii. Basic Books, 2002. Zbigniew Brzezinski, China Acted Alone, Letters, New York Times, April 22, 1998.