Outstanding Events in Cambodia
1979: January 7
In Cambodia, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army are forced to retreat into the jungle as Vietnamese troops besiege the capital Phnom Penh. After almost 5 years of terror, the dictatorial regime of Pol Pot with a policy of displacement of the urban population towards the countryside, has left two million Cambodians dead: malnutrition, forced labor, ill-treated illnesses, and more than 200,000 people tortured and executed without trial. Pol Pot will maintain command of the exiled Khmer Rouge for two more decades until his seemingly natural death in 1998. (42 years ago)
1975: April 17
In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge seize power by capturing the capital Phnom Penh and overthrowing General Lon Nol, who has ruled the country dictatorially since 1970. In this way the civil war ends but begins a totalitarian era of horrors known as the "Cambodian genocide. "in which between two and three million people will be exterminated. (46 years ago)
Reported deaths in Cambodia
1998: April 15Pol Pot, one of the greatest genociders of the 20th century and leader of the Khmer Rouge, dies of disease in the Cambodian jungle convinced that he has acted in accordance with the good of his country. He was responsible for the death of 2 million compatriots. (23 years ago)
