Living Under The Khmer Rouge

NO FREEDOM
NO CHOICE
NO LIFE

There was no free choice or freedom living under the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot wanted to establish a communist society, strictly egalitarian. The atrocities perpetrated on the Cambodian people can be easily traced back to Pol Pot, the Cambodian leader at the time. It is ironic that a man who professed a communist ideology would subject his people to such brutality. The main principle of communism is equality, not genocide.

Khmer Rouge soldiers

 

People were forced to work as slaves to fulfill the KR's plan in creating a communistic society. Being in a commune meant that things were always shared and no one had any personal belongings. Farming completely collectivized, eating was communal; peasants worked according to schedules and rules set up by the Khmer Rouge cadre, each of whom had absolute command over the life or death of each peasant. They forced the people to work for long hours without adequate amounts of food or sleep and under extreme conditions. People were worked to death and were given only a bowl of salty rice soup, sometimes not even a bowl. Many died of malnutrition, starvation, fatigue and diseases. Medical attention was not available because there were no doctors and no medicine. Cambodians worked virtually everyday from dawn till dusk. The Khmer Rouge enforced a system of terror.

The Cambodians who had lived under the Khmer Rouge suffered tremendously. People suffered from the loss of separation of family members, malnutrition's, forced labor and diseases. My mother for example lost her child because she did not have enough food for the baby nor did she had the appropriate medications. I would have had another sister if it had not been for the Khmer Rouge regime taking over the country. My aunt's husband was taken from her and killed. Everyone on her husband's family side was killed.

People were systematically killed as well if they did not obey the rules of the Khmer Rouge. Life under the Khmer Rouge meant having to live in fear. There was not enough food distributed, people became weak and starved due to inadequate food and forced labor. During the rainy season, especially, people died due to malaria or drowned in flooded areas. The Khmer Rouge divided sections in Cambodia in areas called zones. They had for example, the Eastern zone, Southwestern zone, and Northern zone, Central Zone etc. People were separated from their families and were sent to the different zones and were forced to work for the Khmer Rouge. Children were separated from their parents and husbands and wives were separated as well. There were cases where the husband and wife were separated and forced to marry different people. People were not allowed to travel so they could not be with their family members if they missed them. Anyone who spoke without permission was killed. Money was also abolished; the only system they used was the barter system. People were not allowed to practice any religious doctrine.
The Khmer Rouge divided Cambodians into two categories. One was the "old people" and the other the 'new people". According to the Khmer Rouge the new people were the city dwellers, the upper class and the middle class. The old people were the poor, peasants and lower class who are farmers. They lived in the countryside and are usually uneducated. To them, the "new people" were not so useful for them, so they were mostly the ones subjected to the most torture and killing. Since Pol Pot wanted to establish a completely peasant based society, the "old people" were more reliable and were less corrupted from the western ideology and easier to manipulate. The "new people" were treated worse than the "old people", they were subjected to work in harsh conditions and were given less food so they did not survive as long as the "old people".

 

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