Genocide in Cambodia

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Stupa with skulls of the victims in Choeung Ek (2005)

The genocide or genocide in Cambodia occurred in 1975-79 under the rule of the Khmer Rouge . In the genocide , out of a total population of approximately 8 million, between 750,000 and more than 2 million Cambodians were killed as a result of execution in the killing fields , forced labor , starvation and inadequate medical care. In order to distinguish these mass murders by the Stone Age communist Pol Pot regime from other genocides, they are sometimes referred to as autogenocide . The Khmer Rouge Tribunal leads the International Court since 2007 investigation against some senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea by because of the crimes committed.

prehistory

In the middle of the 19th century the Khmer Empire was threatened with extinction by Vietnam and Siam , so that in 1853 the Cambodian King Ang Duong asked France as a colonial power for protection. During the colonial rule of France, the past territorial losses to Vietnam, such as that of the Mekong Delta (Kampuchea Krom), which is inhabited by many Khmer, were confirmed, which in Cambodia laid the basis for a future nationalist liberation discourse. In addition, during colonial rule in the ethnically relatively homogeneous Cambodia, which was characterized by subsistence agriculture and Buddhism , prosperity was concentrated in urban merchants, who were largely immigrant Vietnamese and Chinese . In the administration of French Indochina , the colonial rulers preferred to use Vietnamese, whom they considered to be more industrious and more educated than the Khmer. The tensions rooted here partly gave rise to the recruitment potential of the Khmer Rouge and the motives for the later crimes of the Pol Pot regime.

The Pol Pot Regime

The genocide in Cambodia began on April 17, 1975 when the Khmer Rouge invaded Phnom Penh , marking their victory in the Cambodian civil war . By the end of the Pol Pot regime on January 6, 1979, according to the most popular estimates, two million people died, 40% of whom died of starvation and disease. This was a consequence of the agricultural policy in Democratic Kampuchea , which smashed traditional cultivation methods and social structures in favor of forced collectivization . The historically grown arrangement of the rice fields was sacrificed to a system of grid lines, markets were banned, canals and dams were built without technical aids and planned targets for the harvest that bordered on the fantastic were given. A large part of the rice production was not distributed to the local population, but mainly exported to the People's Republic of China . Certain ethnic, religious and social groups suffered particularly under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. The total population was divided into “new people” or “people of April 17th” and “common people”, of whom the latter were privileged in comparison, but nevertheless fell victim to the genocide in large numbers. The inhabitants of the cities were called "new people" on the country deported where they performed forced labor. Family structures were shattered and almost every aspect of life was controlled by the ubiquitous Angka , a front organization of the Communist Party of Cambodia. In addition, the health and education systems were practically abolished. The division of the population into different groups was partly indicated by symbols. The people who had been deported from the eastern provinces had to wear blue scarves in order to identify them as potential “Khmer with a Vietnamese spirit”. Political cleansing , which for those affected ended up in torture prisons like Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields , was justified with destroying "internal enemies" and "microbes" in order to "cleanse" society.

In jurisprudence , in particular, it is still controversial today whether the mass murders can be classified as genocide. Since the majority of the victims were Khmer , who are by far the largest ethnic group in Cambodia, the narrow definition of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide does not apply in this case . Therefore, this event is sometimes referred to as autogenocide to differentiate it from other genocides. In general, the genocide in Cambodia is spoken of in both journalistic and academic terms. Another problem with narrowing down the term is the timeline: mass crimes in Cambodia occurred on the one hand before the Pol Pot regime, i.e. during the Cambodian civil war, and through American area bombing such as Operation MENU , in which a third of the population was displaced and several hundreds of thousands were killed, on the other hand afterwards during the long civil war of 1979-98.

Support from the Chinese Communist Party

Mao Zedong , Peng Zhen , Sihanouk and Liu Shaoqi (1965).

Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge have long been supported by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Mao Zedong . Pol Pot had been to China frequently since the 1950s and received political and military training (particularly on "The Theory of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat ") from the CCP staff . From November 1965 to February 1966, high-ranking CCP officials such as Chen Boda and Zhang Chunqiao trained him on subjects such as the communist revolution in China, class struggle , the " Communist International" and the like. Pol Pot also met with other officials, including Deng Xiaoping and Peng Zhen . He was particularly impressed by Kang Sheng's lecture on political cleansing.

In 1970, King Sihanouk was overthrown by Lon Nol , and Sihanouk fled to Beijing , where Pol Pot was also visiting. On the advice of the CCP, the Khmer Rouge changed its position to support Sihanouk and established the Front uni national du Kampuchéa (FUNK). In 1970 alone, the CCP provided FUNK with 400 tons of military aid. In April 1974, Mao Zedong met with King Sihanouk, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan (two leaders of the Khmer Rouge) in Beijing . Mao agreed to Khmer Rouge policies but refused to leave King Sihanouk out after winning the civil war. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge defeated the Khmer Republic , proclaimed the Democratic Kampuchea and began the Cambodian genocide with the deportation of the city's population.

In June 1975, Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge officials met with Mao Zedong in Beijing, where Pol Pot learned from Mao the "theory of continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat". Mao also recommended two more articles by Yao Wenyuan and gave Pol Pot over 30 books written by Karl Marx , Friedrich Engels , Vladimir Lenin, and Josef Stalin . On the other hand, at another meeting in August 1975, Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai warned Sihanouk and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge, including Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary, of the danger of a radical movement towards communism and pointed to the mistakes in China's “ Great Leap Forward ”.

Senior CCP officials like Zhang Chunqiao later visited Cambodia to offer help. Pol Pot and others were influenced by the Chinese Cultural Revolution and also started the "Maha Lout Ploh" and copied the Great Leap Forward of China, which caused several million deaths in the " Great Chinese Famine ". During the genocide, China was the main international patron saint of the Khmer Rouge, providing "more than 15,000 military advisors" and most of its external aid. It is estimated that at least 90% of foreign aid to the Khmer Rouge came from China. Only in 1975 were interest-free economic and military aid amounting to 1 billion US dollars paid, "has ever granted to a country the biggest help that China".

Estimates of the number of victims

Estimates of the total number of victims diverge greatly, Ben Kiernan from the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University puts them at more than 1.6 million out of almost 8 million total population. A conservative estimate by Michael Vickery based on population statistics by Angus Maddison is 750,000. David P. Chandler cites 800,000 to 1 million victims as the lower limit, not counting the dead in the war against Vietnam. He states that it is likely that more than 1 million people died in the genocide in Cambodia as a result of the consequences of mass displacement, i.e. hunger, overwork and inadequate medical care. More than 100,000 other Cambodians were executed as enemies of the state. These executions resulted in a number of impulsive overreactions by young party cadres, particularly in rural areas, while the murders in Tuol Sleng and other torture prisons were more systematic. Tens of thousands of Cambodians died in the war with Vietnam. The demographer Marek Sliwinski and statistical analyzes by Vincent Heuveline and Bruce Sharp come to a number of victims of over 2 million. Former Prime Minister Lon Nol later spoke of 2.5 million dead and Pen Sovan , the first general secretary of the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party , named 3.1 million victims, reflecting Hanoi's official position. The American political scientist Rudolph Joseph Rummel defines the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge as a democide and gives a number of victims of 2.85 million for the period from 1975 to 1987. Current estimates based on the work of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal assume a number of victims between 1.6 million and 2.2 million people.

Movies

literature

  • Daniel Bultmann: Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge: The creation of the perfect socialist . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78692-0 .
  • Ben Kiernan : Genocide and Resistance in Southeast Asia: Documentation, Denial, and Justice in Cambodia and East Timor. Routledge, Oxon 2017, ISBN 978-1-4128-0669-5 .
  • James A. Tyner: From Rice Fields to Killing Fields: Nature, Life, and Labor under the Khmer Rouge. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 2017, ISBN 978-0-8156-5422-3 .
  • Alexander Goeb, Helen Jarvis: The Cambodia Drama: God-Kings, Pol Pot and the Process of Late Atonement - Reports, Commentaries, Documents. Laika, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-9442-3350-5 .
  • James A. Tyner: The Killing of Cambodia: Geography, Genocide and the Unmaking of Space . Routledge, Abingdon 2016, ISBN 978-0-7546-7096-4 .
  • Various authors: Cambodian Genocide. In: Paul R. Bartrop , Steven Leonard Jacobs (Eds.): Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection . Volume 1, ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2015, ISBN 978-1-61069-363-9 , pp. 439-631.
  • Karl D. Jackson (Ed.): Cambodia: 1975-1978, Rendezvous with Death. 3. Edition. Princeton University, Princeton 2014, ISBN 978-1-4008-5170-6 .
  • Susan E. Cook (Ed.): Genocide in Cambodia And Rwanda: New Perspectives. 4th edition. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick 2009, ISBN 978-0-7658-0308-5 .
  • Ben Kiernan: The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79. 3. Edition. Yale University Press, New Haven 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-14434-5 .
  • Edward Kissi: Revolution and Genocide in Ethiopia and Cambodia . Lexington Books, Lanham (MD) 2006, ISBN 0-379-10691-4 .
  • Chanrithy Him: When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge . WW Norton, New York City 2000, ISBN 0-393-04863-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Daniel Bultmann: Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge: The creation of the perfect socialist . P. 23f.
  2. ↑ Daniel Bultmann: Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge: The creation of the perfect socialist . P. 33.
  3. ^ David P. Chandler : Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot. Revised edition. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai (Thailand) 2000, ISBN 974-7551-18-7 , pp. 9f.
    Ben Kiernan: The Pol Pot Regime. Race, Power and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 . Second edition. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai (Thailand) 2005, ISBN 974-9575-71-7 , pp. 5f.
    Daniel Bultmann: Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge: The creation of the perfect socialist . P. 28f.
  4. ↑ Helen Jarvis: Cambodian Genocide Overview. In: Paul R. Bartrop , Steven Leonard Jacobs (Eds.): Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection . Volume 1, ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2015, ISBN 978-1-61069-363-9 , pp. 441f.
  5. ^ David P. Chandler: Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot. Revised edition. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai (Thailand) 2000, ISBN 974-7551-18-7 , pp. 3f.
  6. ↑ Helen Jarvis: Cambodian Genocide Overview. In: Paul R. Bartrop, Steven Leonard Jacobs (Eds.): Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection . Volume 1, ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2015, ISBN 978-1-61069-363-9 , pp. 442-444.
  7. ↑ a b Sebastian Strangio: China's Aid Emboldens Cambodia. In: Yale University. May 16, 2012, accessed November 26, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b c d e f The Chinese Communist Party's Relationship with the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s: An Ideological Victory and a Strategic Failure. In: Wilson Center. December 13, 2018, accessed November 26, 2019 .
  9. ↑ a b c d China-Cambodia Relations. In: www.rfa.org. Retrieved November 26, 2019 .
  10. ^ A b Dan Levin: China Is Urged to Confront Its Own History. In: New York Times. March 30, 2015, accessed November 26, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b c d e Wang Xiaolin (王晓林): 波尔布特 ： 并不 遥远 的 教训. In: Yanhuang Chunqiu. Retrieved July 12, 2020 .
  12. ↑ a b c d David P. Chandler: Brother Number One: A Political Biography Of Pol Pot . Routledge, 2018, ISBN 978-0-429-98161-6 , pp. 77 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  13. ↑ a b c d e f 西哈努克 、 波尔布特 与 中国. In: ifeng.com. April 10, 2008, Retrieved November 26, 2019 (Chinese).
  14. ↑ 宋 梁 禾, 吴仪 君: 中国 对 柬埔寨 的 援助 ： 评价 及 建议 . In: Xiamen University Forum on International Development . No. 6 , 2013, p. 54–58 (Chinese, available online ( Memento from April 14, 2019 in the Internet Archive ; PDF) [accessed November 25, 2019]).
  15. ↑ 人间 正道 ： 审判 红色 高棉. In: ifeng.com. Retrieved November 28, 2019 (Chinese).
  16. ↑ Julio A. Jeldres, Monash University: A Personal Reflection on Norodom Sihanouk and Zhou Enlai: An Extraordinary Friendship on the Fringes of the Cold War. In: Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, e-Journal (No. 4). UC Berkeley, September 2012, accessed July 13, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Pao-min Chang: Kampuchea Between China and Vietnam . Ed .: NUS Press. 1985, ISBN 978-9971-69-089-2 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  18. ↑ John D. Ciorciari: China and the Pol Pot regime . In: Cold War History . tape 14 , no. 2 , April 3, 2014, ISSN  1468-2745 , p. 215-235 , doi : 10.1080 / 14682745.2013.808624 .
  19. ↑ Youqin Wang: 2016: 张春桥 幽灵. In: The University of Chicago. Retrieved July 13, 2020 (Chinese).
  20. ^ How Red China Supported the Brutal Khmer Rouge. In: Vision Times. January 28, 2018, accessed November 26, 2019 .
  21. ^ David Chandler: A History of Cambodia . Routledge, 2018, ISBN 978-0-429-96406-0 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  22. ↑ Ben Kiernan: The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 . Ed .: Yale University Press. 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-14299-0 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  23. ^ Laura Southgate: ASEAN Resistance to Sovereignty Violation: Interests, Balancing and the Role of the Vanguard State . Ed .: Policy Press. 2019, ISBN 978-1-5292-0221-2 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  24. ↑ Ben Kiernan: The Pol Pot Regime. Race, Power and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 . Second edition. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai (Thailand) 2005, ISBN 974-9575-71-7 , p. 458.
  25. ↑ Steven Rosefielde : Red Holocaust . Routledge, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-203-86437-1 , p. 119.
  26. ^ David P. Chandler: Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot. Revised edition. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai (Thailand) 2000, ISBN 974-7551-18-7 , pp. 4, 160.
  27. ↑ Steven Rosefielde: Red Holocaust . Routledge, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-203-86437-1 , pp. 119, 120.
  28. ↑ Rudolph J. Rummel : "Demozid" - the commanded death: mass murders in the 20th century . LIT Verlag, Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-3469-7 , p. 239.
  29. ↑ Daniel Bultmann: Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge: The creation of the perfect socialist . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78692-0 , p. 7.