Why where Khmer Rouge guards ordered to kill babies and children?
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5572HZ20090608 Khmer Rouge jailer says ordered killing of children Mon Jun 8, 2009 8:07am EDT PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – Pol Pot’s chief jailer told Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge tribunal on Monday that children of inmates at the regime’s S-21 prison were murdered to keep them from seeking revenge later in life. Duch, the first of five senior cadres to face trial for the 1975-79 reign of terror in which 1.7 million Cambodians died, said he accepted responsibility for the children’s deaths but was following orders. “When children arrived at the center I gave the order to kill them because we were afraid those children would take revenge,” the 66-year-old told the court. “I had to implement the policy of the Communist party,” said the former chief of the S-21 interrogation center where more than 14,000 men, women and children were killed. Only a handful of inma
The Khmer Rouge (Khmer: ខ្មែរក្រហម) was the communist ruling political party of Cambodia — which it renamed Democratic Kampuchea — from 1975 to 1979. Losing power following a Vietnamese military intervention in December 1978, the Khmer Rouge maintained control in some regions until 1998 when their final stronghold, in Anlong Veng District, fell to the government. The term “Khmer Rouge,” French for “Red Khmer”, was coined by Cambodian head of state Norodom Sihanouk and was later adopted by English speakers. It was used to refer to a succession of Communist parties in Cambodia which evolved into the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and later the Party of Democratic Kampuchea. The organization was also known as the Khmer Communist Party and the National Army of Democratic Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people or 1/5 of the country’s total population (estimates range from 850,000 to 2.5 million) under its regime, through executi
A former Khmer Rouge commander testified Monday that he was responsible for the brutal deaths of babies under an official policy aimed at ensuring children of the Cambodian regime’s adult victims could never avenge their parents’ deaths. “I am criminally responsible for killing babies, young children and teenagers,” Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, told a UN-assisted genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh. Duch, 66, is being tried for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. He was the commander at the Khmer Rouge’s notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Penh. Sources: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/06/08/khmer-rouge-trial008.
