CAMBODIA: DUST OF LIFE 3 OF 4

CAMBODIA: DUST OF LIFE PART 3 OF 4

-Cambodian Genocide-

The Khmer Rouge government arrested, tortured and eventually executed anyone suspected of belonging to several categories of supposed "enemies":

--anyone with connections to the former government or with foreign governments
--professionals and intellectuals - in practice this included almost everyone with an education, or even people wearing glasses (which, according to the regime meant that they were literate)
--ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Chinese, Cambodian Christians, Muslims and the Buddhist monks
--Homosexuals
--"economic sabotage" for which many of the former urban dwellers (who had not starved to death in the first place) were deemed to be guilty of by virtue of their lack of agricultural ability.

Through the 1970s, and especially after mid-1975, the party was also shaken by factional struggles. There were even armed attempts to topple Pol Pot. The resultant purges reached a crest in 1977 and 1978 when thousands, including some important KCP leaders, were executed.

Today, examples of the torture methods used by the Khmer Rouge can be seen at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The museum occupies the former grounds of a high school turned prison camp that was operated by Khang Khek Ieu, more commonly known as "Comrade Duch". Some 17,000 people passed through this centre before they were taken to sites (also known as The Killing Fields), outside Phnom Penh such as Choeung Ek where most were executed (mainly by pickaxes to save bullets) and buried in mass graves. Of the thousands who entered the Tuol Sleng Centre (also known as S-21), only ten are known to have survived.