| The new regime under the leadership of the Angkar
("Organisation"), the secretive team of Khmer Rouge leaders who
dictated the lives of every Cambodian citizen, started by cleansing Cambodian society from all
elements that had any relationship to the corrupt regime of the Khmer
republic. Even teachers were killed. In the years that followed, more
than a million people perished.
This figure needs some elaboration.
Hundreds of thousands were
killed because they or their family members were tainted by the corruption
of Lon Nol's clique or because they were suspected to be agents of
the CIA or the Vietnamese. This paranoia for CIA agents must be understood
in the light of the covert activities by the
CIA under the regime of prince Sihanouk.
Over a million
more died from starvation and exhaustion from forced labour. Famine
already threatened the country when the Khmer Rouge came to power because rice
crops were not planted as a result of the indiscriminate bombing or rural
Cambodia and the destruction of the infrastructure. Forced labour was used
to rebuild the infrastructure, not always in a very successful way because
the Angkar had 'cleansed' away most of their intelligentsia who had
sufficient understanding of engineering.
Thousands of Phnom Penh residents celebrated in the streets as
victorious Khmer Rouge troops entered the capitol, not because they
supported the Khmers Rouges, but because the country was finally at peace.
But celebrations did not last very long. One of the first actions of the Angkar after the fall of Phnom
Penh was to order the evacuation of the city. All inhabitants were forced to the
countryside and Phnom Penh was turned
into a ghost city.
The reason for this evacuation remains unclear, some
claim it may have been be
related to the lack of rice and food for the people. Another possible
reason was the ideology of the Angkar: the regime tried to create an agrarian utopia. They instigated a
Cambodian version of the cultural revolution, more 'pure' and deadlier
than the Chinese one.
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Farmers who had remained on their land and who
had not changed their way of life, the 'old people' as the Angkar
called then, were the heroes of the Cambodian revolution. City dwellers,
the 'new people' were seen as
the root of capitalist evil and had to be forced to work on farms or in
dike building projects. Money, culture, Buddhist religion, education and all other facets of urban life
were to be abolished. 90% of the educated population died unnatural deaths
in those years
Prince Sihanouk, who had received refuge after the coup of Lon Nol in
China and North Korea was encouraged by Beijing to return to Phnom Penh
in order to give the regime legitimacy. Witnessing the atrocities, committed
by the new regime, he requested to retire, citing his age and bad health
as motives, but the Angkar refused. He effectively became the prisoner
of the Khmer Rouge in his royal palace in the emptied town of Phnom Penh.
The Chinese support to the regime however guaranteed his safety, whereas
many members of his family were killed.
Soon after the take-over, hostilities arose with Vietnam because the
latter claimed islands that belonged to Cambodia. The hostilities reached
a climax in September 1977 when Pol Pot spoke for
nearly five hours on Cambodian radio. For the first time, he acknowledged
to the world that Cambodia was now run by a 'communist' government.
The regime isolated Cambodia from the outside world, and it took some
time before the international community realised the atrocities that were
going on under the new rule. But inside the country, the genocide prompted
Cambodians to start a movement to liberate the country, the
United Front for the National Salvation of Kampuchea.
When in 1978 the Khmer Rouge regime started purifying their ranks from
elements that had joined the movement for less 'pure' reasons than the Angkar
ideology, the nationalists, the patriots and anti-colonialists were forced
to flee. |
