The Khmer Rouge government was finally overthrown in by invading Vietnamese troops, after a series of violent border confrontations. The higher echelons of the party retreated to remote areas of the country, where they remained active for a while but gradually became less and less powerful. In the years that followed, as Cambodia began the process of reopening to the international community, the full horrors of the regime became apparent.
Survivors told their stories to shocked audiences, and in the s the Hollywood movie The Killing Fields brought the plight of the Khmer Rouge victims to worldwide attention. Pol Pot was denounced by his former comrades in a show trial in July , and sentenced to house arrest in his jungle home. But less than a year later he was dead - denying the millions of people who were affected by this brutal regime the chance to bring him to justice. The UN helped establish a tribunal to try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, beginning work in Only three Khmer Rouge leaders have ever been sentenced.
Kaing Guek Eav - known as Duch - was jailed for life in for running the notorious Tuol Sleng prison. In November , the tribunal also found them guilty of genocide over the attempted extermination of the Cham and Vietnamese minorities. It remains the first and only genocide conviction against the Khmer Rouge.
Cambodian Genocide Program. Human Rights Watch. Image source, Getty Images. Cambodia is a young country, with nearly half its population under the age of Most Cambodians have no direct experience of the conflict. That idea extends to attitudes toward the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. Contact us at letters time.
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The level of support the Khmer Rouge received from fellow communist states North Vietnam and China also meant there were concerns over the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. In , the Khmer Rouge aimed outwards with the goal of creating a new Angkorian empire. At the time, China opposed the action by Vietnam. Because of the support from China, the Khmer Rouge regime was able to keep its seat at the UN until , three years after it lost power.
The occupation by Vietnam, the support from China, and the fact that the Khmer Rouge held power in many parts of rural Cambodia for more than a decade after the Vietnamese invasion, further complicates the international reaction to the genocide. The Cambodian Genocide continues to play a role in Cambodia today. Although Cambodia has made the transition back to a functionary democracy since its constitution was ratified in as part of the UNTAC operation, the country still has difficulty addressing the crimes of its past.
In , the Cambodian government approached the United Nations for assistance in prosecuting senior members of the Khmer Rouge.
After the Vietnamese had taken power in , many leaders had been tried in absentia, but were never formally punished. The courts in Cambodia, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, attempted to identify the senior members of the regime who were most complicit with the crimes occurring.
Since the court was convened, it has indicted five members of the Khmer Rouge. Three of them have been convicted and are currently serving life sentences, one died during trial, and the fifth was deemed unfit for trial and is pending further evaluation.
The Khmer Rouge trials have been a source of controversy in Cambodia because of their cost and perceived ineffectiveness. In addition to the trials, the courts are also tasked with providing victim support and documenting the crimes.
There is no deadline for the court to cease operating. Many of the locations connected with the genocide are now popular tourist sites. The Tuol-Sleng museum is housed in the former S prison, the scene of many executions. The museum itself was created by the Vietnamese and used to display the horrific crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge. It is left in a state as the Vietnamese found it. The killing fields, popularized by major motion pictures, are also popular tourist sites in Cambodia.
Signs often mark the burial places of hundreds located in mass graves. The country continues to grapple with monetizing places connected with a terrible past and the desire of tourists to experience them.
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