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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Solon who wrote (4267)	5/5/2010 1:36:31 PM
From: Greg or e	1 Recommendation Respond to of 69300

Another wonderful FREETHINKER! POL POT moreorless.au.com 1975 - Now in control of most the Cambodian countryside, the Khmer Rouge surround and isolate the capital Phnom Penh, which has swollen with refugees fleeing the Khmer Rouge and the US bombers. The noose steadily tightens. On April 17, Phnom Penh falls. Within days the city's entire population of over two million is marched into the countryside at gunpoint. Pol Pot declares 'Year Zero' and directs a ruthless program to "purify" Cambodian society of capitalism, Western culture, religion and all foreign influences in favour of an isolated and totally self-sufficient Maoist agrarian state. No opposition is tolerated. Foreigners are expelled, embassies closed, and the currency abolished. Markets, schools, newspapers, religious practices and private property are outlawed. Members of the Lon Nol government, public servants, police, military officers, teachers, ethnic Vietnamese, Christian clergy, Muslim leaders, members of the Cham Muslim minority, members of the middle-class and the educated are identified and executed. Towns and cities are emptied and their former inhabitants are deemed "April 17th people" or "new people." The country's entire population is forced to relocate to agricultural collectives, the so-called "killing fields." Inmates exist in primitive conditions. Families are separated. Buddhist monks are defrocked and forced into labour brigades. Former city residents are subjected to unending political indoctrination. Children are encouraged to spy on adults. An estimated 1.5 million are worked or starved to death, die of disease or exposure, or are summarily executed for infringements of camp discipline. Infringements punishable by death include not working hard enough, complaining about living conditions, collecting or stealing food for personal consumption, wearing jewellery, engaging in sexual relations, grieving over the loss of relatives or friends and expressing religious sentiments. Khmer Rouge records from the Tuol Sleng interrogation and detention centre in Phnom Penh (also known as S-21) show that 14,499 "antiparty elements", including men women and children, are tortured and executed from 1975 to the first six months of 1978. Only seven of those detained at the centre will leave it alive. At least 20 other similar centres operate throughout the country. Terror and paranoia reign, reaching a climax in 1977 and 1978 when Pol Pot launches a bloody purge against the "hidden enemies, burrowing from within" and the Khmer Rouge cadres turn on themselves. At least 200,000 are executed. 1976 - The Khmer Rouge declare the new state of Democratic Kampuchea on 5 January. Sihanouk resigns as head of state on 2 April and is placed under virtual house arrest in Phnom Penh. Pol Pot is made prime minister, although his identity and the identities of other members of the 'Angkar' group are kept secret from non-members. To most inside and out of Cambodia he is a shadowy figure known as 'Brother Number One'. The subordinate leaders of the party are known as 'Brother Number Two', 'Brother Number Three', and so on. It is not revealed that 'Angkar' is in fact the Kampuchean Communist Party until September 1977. A four year plan is introduced that seeks to treble the country's agricultural output within a year.