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CASE STUDY CAMBODIA As Already Demonstrated in the Introduction Of CHAPTER THREE CASE STUDY CAMBODIA As already demonstrated in the introduction of this study, the destruction of cultural property is present in almost every armed conflict. Furthermore, the destruction of valuable cultural property occurs during peacetime. Much has been published on the destruction of mosques and churches during the armed conflict in the former Yugoslavia and the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan and other religious institutions in Afghanistan. However, in many more conflicts during the last decade, the destruction of cultural property has been an issue. One example is the destruction of Buddhist institutions during the Khmer Rouge Regime, which will be anal- ysed in the following. § 1 Background to the Khmer Rouge Regime I. Democratic Kampuchea A detailed account of all the events in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 would go beyond the scope of this writing. Nevertheless, in order to get an idea of Democratic Kampuchea, the main events will be described in the following. In April 1975, the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), also known as the Khmer Rouge,1 removed the Prime Minister of the then so-called Khmer Republic, Lon Nol,2 after a five-year-long internal armed conflict from power and renamed the country “Democratic Kampuchea”.3 The CPK’s 1 “Khmer Rouge” was the name King Norodom Sihanouk gave to his communist oppo- nents in the 1960s and has since been used. See, Dy, pp. 1, 9. For an overview on the estab- lishment of the Khmer Rouge, see, Dy, pp. 5–12; Harris, pp. 57–62. 2 Lon Nol had been brought to power 1970 in a coup d’état. He replaced King Norodom Sihanouk, who had ruled the Kingdom of Cambodia from 1954 until 1970, after Cambodia had gained independence from France. During the early 1970s the Khmer Republic became involved in the war in Vietnam and sided with South Vietnam. See, Keller, paras. 3–4. For a detailed account of the reign of King Sihanouk and the subsequent overthrow by Lon Nol, see, Carney, Unexpected Victory, pp. 17–21; Chandler, pp. 85–235. 3 For a detailed account of the CPK’s way to power, see, Carney, Unexpected Victory, pp. 21–35; Frieson, pp. 33–50. <UN> 176 chapter three leadership, also called Central Committee, comprised, among others, Pol Pot (born Saloth Sar) as the Secretary of the CPK and Prime Minister, Nuon Chea as the Deputy Secretary of the CPK and President of the People’s Representative Assembly, Ieng Sary, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as Khieu Samphan, who became the Head of State of Democratic Kampuchea after Prince Sihanouk’s resignation in 1976.4 There have been many attempts to analyse the ideology of the Khmer Rouge Regime.5 A detailed assessment of these analyses would exceed the scope of this writing, which is why only a short introduction will be given. The intellectual roots of the Khmer Rouge lie in communism, that is, according to Karl Jackson, “Maoism, European Marxism, Fanonism, per- haps Stalinism, and certainly Khmer nationalism”.6 The Khmer Rouge expressed those intellectual roots in a commitment to a dictatorship of the proletariat, which was marked by a desire for a pure Khmer nation, which should be completely sovereign and self-reliant and free of subjugation by foreign as well as class enemies.7 This ideology partly fed upon the long- held fears among Cambodians that Cambodia’s neighbours, in particular Vietnam, sought to take over the country. To corroborate these assump- tions, the Khmer Rouge pointed out the loss of territory since the historical days of Angkor,8 inter alia the loss of parts of the Mekong Delta to Vietnam.9 To achieve the aim of a dictatorship of the proletariat, the Khmer Rouge called for a total revolution, which would involve the reorganisation of the economic and social structure of the country as well as the persecution and physical elimination of those elements in the Cambodian society regarded as enemies of the new system. Soon after the Khmer Rouge came to power, by invading Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, they evacuated Cambodia’s cities and forced their inhabitants into the countryside. Within a week the people of Phnom Penh and other cities were moved to rural areas in order to do agricultural work.10 The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities to abolish urban 4 Dy, pp. 18–22; Carney, Organization of Power, pp. 101–102; Chandler, pp. 264–265. 5 Harris, pp. 70–80. For attempts to analyse the Khmer Rouge’s ideology, see, Chandler, pp. 237–246. 6 Jackson, Intellectual Origins, p. 250. 7 Jackson, Ideology, pp. 39, 49; Kiernan, Pol Pot Regime, pp. 25–26. 8 Becker, p. 29: “The touchstone of Cambodian history, of Cambodia’s identity, is the temple complex at Angkor. Those massive stone wonders are to modern Cambodians what the Parthenon is to today’s Greeks – architectural masterpieces and solid, visible reminders that Cambodia was once the premier state and culture of the region.” 9 Jackson, Ideology, p. 58. 10 Dy, pp. 14–17: Between two and three million people were moved to the countryside to become agricultural workers. See also, Chandler, p. 247. <UN>.
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