"Who were the Khmers Rouges? How did they come to power? With five Khmer Rouge leaders awaiting trial for crimes committed by the regime and an increasing number of Cambodians unclear of their country's history, VOA Khmer, in collaboration with the Documentation Center of Cambodia, presents an AUDIO VERSION of "A History of Democratic Kampuchea."
The 2007 book, written by the Documentation Center's Dy Khamboly, charts the regime's rise and fall, from guerrilla movement to ruling government of Cambodia to international pariah. It outlines the regime's administrative divisions, its four-year plan, the daily life of its people, its security policies and its prisons—and maps the road to atrocity.
"Khmer Rouge" was the name King Norodom Sihanouk gave to his communist opponents in the 1960s.
The Cambodian communist emerged from the struggle against French colonization in the 1940s.
April 17, 1975 ended five years of foreign interventions, bombardment, and civil war in Cambodia.
Although the Khmer Rouge had fought against Lon Nol's Khmer Republic for five years, very little was known about the movement.
In 1976, the CPK divided Democratic Kampuchea into six geographical zones.
The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities in order to abolish urban living and to build a new Cambodia.
During the 1970-1975 civil war, most of the people living in the areas liberated by the Khmer Rouge were organized into teams.
The East Zone purges of 1978 were the most severe in DK, hundreds of thousands of people were arrested.
The most important prison in DK was known as S-21 (Security Office 21).
Democratic Kampuchea had diplomatic relations with China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Egypt.
A weakened populace, CPK key members purged, and clashes with Vietnam resulted in the demise of the Democratic Kampuchea regime.
The regime claimed nearly two million lives and left tens of thousands of widows and orphans.
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