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What is terrorism
Terrorism is the use of violence against civilians in order to achieve political aims.
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What is state terrorimm
- State terrorism can be defined as violence upon a population committed by national governments or their proxies when not in a state of armed conflict with that population.
- Can be committed directly; at the hands of national military or security forces or indirectly; through state sponsored terrorist organisations.
- E.g. Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong
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What are the 'Killing Fields'
- The mass graves where the Khmer Rouge dumped the millions of prisoners that were killed.
- During the reign of the Khmer Rouge over Cambodia, most of the country was transformed into an agricultural paddock with multiple dumping grounds for dead bodies.
- It is estimated that at least 1 300 000 victims were deposited of in the Killing Fields.
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S-21/Tuol Sleng
- The notorious prison of the Khmer Rouge.
- Educated people were taken to the prison to be photographed, ordered to write a short biography then put into a cell with about 60 other prisoners.
- Prisoners were forbidden to sit down in their cells
- Diet consists of two or three spoonfuls of rice gruel in the morning and at nighttime.
- Prisoners were blindfolded when they were taken from their cells for interrogation and torture.
- 20 000 people were tortured and killed, 7 survived.
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Year Zero
- 1975: Phnom Penh purged by Khmer Rouge.
- All previous cultural values and inventions would not be tolerated. Cambodia was to be turned into a nation of uneducated, rural peasants.
- All Cambodians were stripped of identity; forced to wear black garments.
- Everyone in the city of Phnom Penh was evacuated and the whole history of Cambodia was to be erased. This includes the destruction of government buildings, power lines etc.
- Ethnic cleansing, whole country turned into work zones, state farms and prison camps.
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Angkar
- Angkar Loeu is the political identity of the Khmer Rouge.
- Based on secrecy, deceit and violence.
- Political ideologies were loosely based on those of Marxist-Leninist: to seize total control
- All Cambodians must serve Angkar’s theories. Angkar is to be the sole inspirations and idol for Cambodians.
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Goals of Angkar
- -to destroy a person’s individuality
- -to eliminate the human will to resist
- -to promote fear, confusion and anxiety via indiscriminate violence
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Dith Prahn
- In 1975, Pran and New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg stayed behind in Cambodia to cover the fall of the capital Phnom Penh to the Communist Khmer Rouge. Schanberg and other foreign reporters were allowed to leave the country, but Pran was not.
- Due to the suppression of knowledge during the genocide, he hid the fact that he was educated or that he knew Americans and pretended to be a taxi driver.
- When Cambodians were forced to work in labor camps, Pran had to endure four years of starvation and torture before Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge in December 1978.
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