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border-bottom: none; } This did give China the cover it needed to disengage from the Khmer Rouge, which did then effectively collapse as an effective force, making a return to peace at last possible.

} border: 1px solid #e3e3e3; border-bottom: dotted 0.1rem #333333 letter-spacing: normal; But as an effective reactive mechanism, when prevention has failed, the record since the Libyan case ran off the rails in 2011 has been manifestly poor, above all in Syria. TheUNChronicle isnot an official record. This site is created by Alpha History and contains 313,290 words in 409 pages. .node-sidebar-item-body ul { Support for the Khmer Rouge grew steadily, fuelled by opposition to Lon Nol and continued American bombing in Cambodia. margin: 10px 0px; } } font-size: 4.5rem !important; Partly, and this was certainly the case for the Western political leaderships of the time, it was a matter of cynical self-interest, one of the most extreme manifestations of which that has made its way on to the public record being then US Secretary of State Henry Kissingers observation to Thai Foreign Minister Chatichai seven months after the Khmer Rouge had marched into Phnom Penh: Tell the Cambodians that we will be friends with them. } PRK was isolated politically and economically, although the former Soviet Union and its allies, including a number of non-aligned countries, notably India, continued to support and recognize it, but were outvoted in the General Assembly. This Cold War site contains articles, perspectives and sources on global events and tensions between 1945 and 1991. } Many residents of Phnom Penh, pleased to be finally rid of Lon Nol, cheered and welcomed the victors. text-decoration: underline !important; padding-right: 6px; } The English press in Phnom Penh dubbed its members the Khmer Rouge (Red Khmers). The Khmer Rouge threat did not disappear with the Vietnamese invasion: supported by China, it remained a significant force in the provinces, and large-scale civil war continued to take its toll of Cambodians in terms of death, injury, displacement into cross-border refugee camps, general immiseration and loss of life opportunity. box-shadow: inset 0 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.05); We all share one planet, and global problems transcend all boundaries, which means the solutions need to as well. border-bottom: none; Plastic pollution doesnt know political or cultural borders. font-size: 14px !important; } In 1975, the Cambodian government was seized by a left-wing insurgency led by the ruthless Pol Pot. And it is a country with a tradition of violence. text-align: left; Massive bombings of eastern Cambodia by the United States (1969-1973) and the overthrow of Sihanouk by a pro-American right-wing general in March 1970 radicalized the rural youth, turning many of them into the arms of the regime. .text-tagline { .heading-underlined-blue { Suddenly, the Khmer Rouge's unspeakable atrocities were revealed and had generated an outcry echoed throughout the world. It is right because the horror that Cambodia experienced then, whether or not it be strictly legally definable as genocide within the meaning of the Genocide Convention, remains along with Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990s the talismanic Post-World War II case globally of conscience-shocking group violence, be it driven by race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, class, politics or ideology. .observance-item { /************ some interactivity */ font-size: 1.75rem !important; ol.ol-decimal, ol.ol-lower-latin { content: "\f10d"; They were also noticeably young, some in their early teens. In the present international environment with China and Russia now behaving as they are it will be a long and difficult process to recreate any kind of Security Council consensus as to how to react to the hardest of cases. Cambodia gained its independence in 1953. padding: 10px 0px; .top-bottom-dashed-line { /* **** icons for links ***** */ For that to happen many arguments need to be effectively made to many different constituencies.

The Khmer Empire went into a gradual decline and eventually collapsed in the mid-1400s. Internally there were four warring factions with Hun Sens Government waged against a fragile coalition of the non-communist Sihanoukists and Son Sanns KPNLF with the communist Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot, and each group immensely distrustful of all the others; regionally, Vietnam supported Hun Sen and the six ASEAN members of the time supported his opponents; and, at the great power level, China supported the Khmer Rouge and Prince Sihanouk (as he then was); the Soviet Union supported Hun Sen; and the United States supported the two non-communist resistance groups. One was Saloth Sar, a history teacher who wanted a more radical movement. } ul.block-list li { margin-bottom: 1em; /* ******************** end added by Gedi ***************** */. Instead, the Khmer Rouge maintained a cloak of secrecy around its leaders. However, when UNTAC left Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge was firmly perched in their jungle redoubts, fully armed and occupied more territories than when UNTAC arrived. content:'\f17b'; } color:#ffffff !important; margin-bottom: 10px; bottom: 20px; } .vertical-line-right { padding: 1.5rem 0; ul.block-list li h4 a:before { margin-top: 1em; Twelve days later the United States military evacuated American diplomats, foreigners and some Cambodian officials. } font-size: 2.5rem !important; list-style-type: decimal; Most Cambodians were herded into collective farms, where they were put to work in the fields and forced to labour from dawn to dusk. } Everyone hoped that the spectre of the Khmer Rouge, which had haunted Cambodia since the 1960s, would finally disappear.

color:#ffffff; } background-color: #f5f5f5; display: none; A lot depends in this respect on the willingness of the United States, United Kingdom and France to acknowledge that they, more than anyone else, were responsible for the breakdown of that consensus by their actions in Libya in 2011 not by their missteps after Gaddafi was overthrown, which they frankly acknowledge, but their refusal to accept that the military intervention mandate agreed by Security Council, in the face of an imminent massacre in Benghazi, was for limited civilian protection purposes, and did not extend to open-ended warfighting designed to achieve regime change. While its rise to power and significance were very much the result of foreign intervention, the regime's final demise was basically accomplished by Cambodians themselves. Despite the formal global acceptance since 2005 of R2P, which I will come back to below, the unhappy reality remains to this day that if preventive efforts are non-existent or fail, and genocidal violence does erupt, the international will to take strong measures including, in the last resort. border-bottom: #eeeeee dotted 2px; A foretaste of things to come came with Hun Sens refusal to accept his defeat at the UN supervised election in 1993, insisting on a power-sharing arrangement which the international community did not resist, as in retrospect we certainly should have. } Cambodia was given its independence in November 1953. box-shadow: inset 0 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.05); On 4 February 2008, the Khmer Rouge's second in command, Nuon Chea, now 81 years old, made his first appearance in court. This resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through execution, exhaustion and starvation. } .unorg-home-hero.col-md-3 { } color:#ffffff; color: #ffffff !important; During the four years of Khmer Rouge rule, between 1.2 and 2.2 million Cambodians and foreigners died either at the hands of Pol Pots murder squads or from malnutrition, starvation and disease in the collective farms. For many of the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, the court appearance of Nuon Chea, though 29 years delayed, was highly significant -- the best proof that justice, denied for so long, would at last be achieved. .back-button { padding: 2rem; The Khmer Rouge was forced from power in early 1979. .flag-container { While this may be true, one could equally argue that, in 1979, if an amendment to the UN resolution proposed by India, calling for the Cambodian seat to remain vacant, was adopted, the dilemma would most probably have ended sooner and with less lopsided provisions. text-align: center !important; display: inline-block; They must be won again each day. .observances { /*line-height: normal !important;*/ width: 95%; The major successes of UNTAC were the conduct of the elections, in which 90 per cent of eligible voters participated, and the return of 370,000 refugees from the Thai border camps. Everything really does depend on effective prevention, and a great deal of that is going to have to come from brave internal actors willing to push back against authoritarian overreach. #memberStatesIndex a { padding: 1rem; } ol.ol-decimal li, ol.ol-lower-latin li { .carousel-caption.top-text { } The key to the successful UN peace plan, which I am proud to say that Australia played a central part in forging, was to find a face-saving way for China to withdraw its political and financial support from the Khmer Rouge, which denied that support would either at best immediately collapse or at worst over time wither and die on the vine. .carousel-caption.top-text p { background: #eee; For more information on usage, please refer to our Terms of Use. .top-padding { margin-bottom: 3em; .observance-item-title { margin-left: 25% !important; font-size: 18px !important; After all, it would allow the big powers to extricate themselves from a never ending proxy war. } list-style: none;

Sar was variously referred to as Pol Pot, Brother Number One or One with the Gun. left: 5%; And for all the progress that has been made in recent years, as an international community we are still, as the events in Syria, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and elsewhere in recent years graphically demonstrate, falling a long way short of being able to confidently say, when it comes to genocide and other mass atrocity crimes, Never Again.. font-size: 1.2em; } font-size: 2.25rem !important; A Khmer Rouge soldier in Pnomh Penh, 1975. During the mid-1960s, the CPK worked on recruiting, training its members and gathering arms and supplies. font-weight: 500; The Vietnamese eventually withdrew from Cambodia in 1989. Most were armed, well-disciplined and clad in black. While the United States and Vietnam do share responsibility for much of Cambodias sorrows, ultimately Cambodians were the victims of their own leaders and their own traditions and history. Cambodia is a south-east Asian nation bordered by Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. padding: 20px; margin-top: 1.0501050105rem; margin: 3rem auto; @media only screen and (min-width: 992px) { This will also allow the Government and its people to go on with their battle against poverty, disease, injustice and ignorance. -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.05); border-right: 1px solid rgba(51,51,51,.2); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 10px 20px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.19), 0 6px 6px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.23); Untangling all this was a formidably complex and protracted diplomatic process, but one that did eventually bring peace. The Khmer Rouge leader Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot. margin: 4rem 0 auto 0; font-weight: 600; .card-body a { }

The ECCC trials, while flawed, will hopefully bury the Khmer Rouge spectre forever, thereby putting to an end a dark chapter in Cambodian history. Its not clear that any of this would have prevented the Khmer Rouge victory in Cambodia in 1975, but it is the kind of approach which has helped Burundi stop falling into the volcano over the last two decades despite a profile almost identical to its neighbor Rwanda in the mid-1990s. For more info, visit our FAQ or Terms of Use. .horizontal-line-top-blue-arrow { After 27 years of international amnesia over bringing the Khmer Rouge to justice, and following six years of intense negotiations between the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), was established in 2006. The Khmer Rouge, led by Saloth Sar (Pol Pot), seized control of Cambodia in April 1975. .blue-well h3, .blue-well h4 { There were reports of patients undergoing surgical procedures being forced onto the road, still bleeding from wounds and incisions. display: block; For most, however, it would be more than three years before they returned to Phnom Penh and many would never return at all. font-family: 'Fontawesome'; Demands for justice were voiced everywhere by journalists and civil society. .blue-well-large-text { } font-size: 2rem !important; padding: 5rem; 365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5203 right: 60%; .blue-well p, .blue-well ol, .blue-well ul, .blue-well li, .blue-well a, .blue-well a:hover, .blue-well a:active { text-align: right; Most were killed with pickaxes, their bodies disposed of in mass graves or left in the open to rot.