Surviving the horrors of the Khmer Rouge
Fifty years later, four RFA staff members look back on life under Pol Pot and the organization known as Angka.
In 1975, a radical communist band of guerrilla fighters known as the Khmer Rouge conquered the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Their takeover ignited a genocide that claimed the lives of between 1.5 million and 2 million people, or a quarter of the country’s population.
Under the leadership of a man known as Brother Number One, or Pol Pot, a systematic campaign of persecution, killing and starvation began within hours of his troops claiming Phnom Penh on the morning of April 17, 1975.
Under Pol Pot’s rule, the goal was absolute.
Citizens had no rights. The nation’s past would be erased to create a new future. Parents were separated from their children, and everyone was forced to pledge allegiance to Angka, as the organization headed by Pol Pot was known.
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