The Killing Fields by resuimages

About "The Killing Fields"

by resuimages

About the artwork

The military leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, was responsible for the murder of 21% of the Cambodian population. The genocide in Cambodia was the result of the Khmer Rouge's socio-political project, which was based on Mao's communism and aimed to create a classless agrarian society. The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 17 April 1975 to 7 January 1979 and murdered between 1.6 and 3 million people (21% of the population of around 7.8 million) during this time. The Cambodian civilian population died of starvation, torture, executions, medical experiments, untreated diseases, forced marches, forced labour and other forms of violence.
The Khmer Rouge ruled a totalitarian state in which citizens had virtually no rights. They abolished civil and political rights, private property, money, religious practices, minority languages and foreign clothing. The government built huge prisons where people were imprisoned, tortured and executed. The most notorious of these prisons was S-21 in the capital Phnom Penh, where traitors and their families were abducted, photographed, tortured and killed. Of the approximately 17,000 men, women and children who were taken to S-21, only about a dozen survived. Mass graves, known as the Killing Fields, were created throughout the country. When Vietnam invaded in November 1978 and put an end to the excesses of the Khmer Rouge, millions of Cambodians died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.