Cambodia historian David Chandler says that, as time wears on, Cambodians are steadily overcoming the trauma. Cambodia is a young country, with nearly half its population under the age of Most Cambodians have no direct experience of the conflict.
That idea extends to attitudes toward the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. Contact us at letters time. By Casey Quackenbush. Get our History Newsletter. Put today's news in context and see highlights from the archives. Please enter a valid email address. Please attempt to sign up again. Sign Up Now. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later. Skilled workers were also killed, in addition to anyone caught in possession of eyeglasses, a wristwatch, or any other modern technology.
In forced marches punctuated with atrocities from the Khmer Rouge, the millions who failed to escape Cambodia were herded onto rural collective farms. Between and , an estimated two million Cambodians died by execution, forced labor, and famine. In , Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia, capturing Phnom Penh in early A moderate communist government was established, and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreated back into the jungle. In , Pol Pot officially retired but remained the effective head of the Khmer Rouge, which continued its guerrilla actions against the government in Phnom Penh.
In , however, he was put on trial by the organization after an internal power struggle ousted him from his leadership position. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than On April 15, , two bombs go off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three spectators and wounding more than other people in attendance.
The Khmer Rouge government was finally overthrown in by invading Vietnamese troops, after a series of violent border confrontations.
The higher echelons of the party retreated to remote areas of the country, where they remained active for a while but gradually became less and less powerful. In the years that followed, as Cambodia began the process of reopening to the international community, the full horrors of the regime became apparent. Survivors told their stories to shocked audiences, and in the s the Hollywood movie The Killing Fields brought the plight of the Khmer Rouge victims to worldwide attention.
Pol Pot was denounced by his former comrades in a show trial in July , and sentenced to house arrest in his jungle home. But less than a year later he was dead - denying the millions of people who were affected by this brutal regime the chance to bring him to justice. The UN helped establish a tribunal to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, beginning work in Only three Khmer Rouge leaders have ever been sentenced.
Kaing Guek Eav - known as Duch - was jailed for life in for running the notorious Tuol Sleng prison. In November , the tribunal also found them guilty of genocide over the attempted extermination of the Cham and Vietnamese minorities.
It remains the first and only genocide conviction against the Khmer Rouge. Cambodian Genocide Program. Human Rights Watch. Image source, Getty Images.
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