Communist Khmer Rouge leaders found guilty of genocide today: 2 million killed in 3 years and 2 months

“We will burn the old grass and the new will grow.” - Pol Pot, leader of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge (1975 - 1979)

Communist Khmer Rouge leaders guilty of genocide

Earlier today in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state Khieu Samphan, 87, and "Brother Number 2" Nuon Chea, 92, the two most senior living members of the Maoist group that seized control of Cambodia from April 17, 1975-January 7, 1979, were found guilty of genocide by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, killed two million Cambodians from overwork, starvation and mass executions over the course of three years and two months in power. They were also guilty of targeting ethnic Vietnamese and Cham Muslim minority groups.

What took place in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge was a communist revolution that followed through on its program to its logical conclusion while many in the West looked the other way, or worse normalized them.

Khmer Rouge victims photographed and numbered prior to execution

There are two documentary films that you must see to gain a deeper understanding of what happened in Cambodia. One of them Enemies of the People was screened in 2010 at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York City. The other S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (French: S-21, la machine de mort Khmère rouge) was released in 2003. 

Both are works of art that transcend the confines of documentary film making to serve an important role in truth telling and national reconciliation. Members of the Khmer Rouge were placed on trial and the first verdicts were read out in July of  2010, but the verdict on their ideological project is still the subject of fierce dialogue and debate. Both these films can serve to not only inform but provide context into understanding revolution. 

The films compliment each other. Enemies of the People offers the perspective of the revolutionary leadership, their ideological vision, and how they applied it as government policy. While S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine documentary allows the viewer to see how that policy was implemented in day by day accounts by the prison guards and surviving prisoners.

Enemies of the People offers the perspective of the documentary's director Thet Sambath, a senior reporter for the Phnom Penh Post, and he is regarded as one of Cambodia’s best investigative journalists. On the other hand in S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine the director, Rithy Panh, is a lifelong filmmaker and a survivor of the Khmer Rouge camps who lost his parents, sister, and many other relatives to the genocide. 

Both films offer something I have never seen before in a documentary the voice of the individuals who committed the atrocities. In Enemies of the People the party’s ideological leader, Nuon Chea aka Brother Number Two – break a 30-year silence to give testimony never before heard or seen laying out what and why they did it, and in S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine it is the guards themselves walking through S-21 prison with one of their former captives describing in detail what was done there.

Enemies of the People was shown at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival on June 18, 2010 at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater in New York City. The film opened in New York City on July 30, 2010 at the Quad Cinema and was the winner of the 2010 Human Rights Watch Film Festival Nestor Almendros Award for Courage in Film making.

The award is named after famed filmmaker Nestor Almendros who co-directed two important films about human rights in Cuba: Mauvaise conduite aka “Improper Conduct” (1984) about the persecution of gay people in Revolutionary Cuba and Nadie escuchaba(1987) aka "Nobody Listened"and both documentaries are available for viewing online. 

 S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine is also available online. 

Today, the Trial Chamber of #ECCC convicted former senior Khmer Rouge leaders #NUONChea and #KHIEUSamphan of #genocide, #crimesagainsthumanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. NUON Chea and KHIEU Samphan Sentenced to Life Imprisonment in Case 002/02 pic.twitter.com/c0kkMEpUBE

— KR Tribunal (ECCC) (@KRTribunal) November 16, 2018