What were the killing fields?
The killing fields were sites in Cambodia where the Communist government (a system in which the state plans and controls the economy and only one political party has power) of Pol Pot (1928?–1998) conducted executions or put people in forced labor camps (also called re-education camps). After Pol Pot, head of the Khmer Rouge, took over the Cambodian government in 1975, he ordered the arrest of anyone who had been associated with the previous regime of Lon Nol (1913–1985). Pol Pot’s policies resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2,000,000 people. Pol Pot was removed from power in the Vietnamese invasion of 1978 to 1979, and died in hiding in 1998. On December 29, 1998, two former Khmer Rouge leaders, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, surrendered to authorities and appeared in a televised news conference. Asked if he was sorry for the deaths of millions of Cambodians, Khieu Samphan answered…
