Khmer Rouge was the communist party that ruled Cambodia after overthrowing the Cambodian government. It is a brutal, disastrous rule that changed the country forever and shocked the world.

In 1970, the Khmer Rouge soldiers began an insurgency against the government. They were helped by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, and used this combined power to gain control over more than two-thirds of the country in a short time. The popularity of the Khmer Rouge is witnessed by the dramatic rise in strength from 3,000 in the year 1970 to 30,000 in 1973. With this, most of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops had withdrawn.

Under the leadership of Pol Pot, in 1975, “Democratic Kampuchea” came into existence after the government was brought down. Everything changed for the Cambodian people and all the peace and quiet vanished overnight, and the monstrous rule of the Khmer Rouge took over. They started demolishing everything that was held dear by the people of Cambodia. They evacuated full cities, destroyed property, closed factories and schools and made thousands of workers turn to farming. The worst part was the assassinations of millions of people. Later it was revealed that the death toll was more than 2 million people.

By the year 1979, tensions with Vietnam increased and Vietnamese troops invaded, helping the rival Communists factions in deposing the new Khmer Rouge government. But the Khmer Rouge continued to have a huge army of 30,000 near the Thai border and was also recognized by the United Nations as the official Cambodian government.

This government formed a coalition in 1982, with Norodom Sihanouk, the former premier and the non-Communist leader, Son Sann. Pol Pot gave up his leadership for Khieu Samphan, but it was said to Pol Pot who continued to call the shots. On the request of the different factions in Cambodia, who signed a treaty, the United Nations assumed administration of the government in 1991 and help elections in 1992. Around that time, the Khmer Rouge withdrew itself from the peace process did not accept the results of the elections which led to the formation of a coalition government in Cambodia, and began fighting again.

Internal disputes led the Khmer Rouge to disintegrate in 1997, leading to the imprisonment of Pol Pot. He died soon after in 1998, bringing to a close what was the worst reign of modern times. By 1999, all the other members of the Khmer Rouge were defected, captured or surrendered.

Not many scholars believed the reports of mass killings in Cambodia before 1979; however, when the Khmer Rouge was overtaken by the Vietnamese, the extent of the disaster was clear to all.

Khmer Rouge is considered to be the deadliest and most shocking reigns of the modern era. The death toll is not an indication of the brutalities that Cambodians had to suffer in the hands of unscrupulous elements that formed the government. It created such an impact on the world that there never was another revolution that was worse than the one in Cambodia.

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