Pol Pot & The Khmer Rouge's Reign Of Terror In Cambodia | Timeline

This is Cambodia, a country of impenetrable jungles and fabulous ruins lost in time, where kings became gods and monks still seek heavenly peace and now this mysterious land has begun to open up to reveal the dark beauty that has attracted adventurers here for centuries. My journey will last I delve deep into its exotic heart where landmines still kill and Khmer Rouge soldiers still patrol remote jungles as I try to discover how such a peaceful country could become killing fields. Hello, my name is David Adams and this is the deep jungle. of the Cardamom Mountains in southern Cambodia for more than 30 years, this wilderness has been isolated from the outside world and for much of that time has been a stronghold of the Khmer Rouge.

This primeval rainforest is one of the last natural areas in Southeast Asia that were entered until recently. Under their own responsibility, these impenetrable forests were once a refuge for guerrillas, but they were also a refuge for an incredible variety of unique wildlife. My journey starts at the Thai border from there, crossing Cambodia's large Tonle Sap Lake and then north into the desert before heading out. along the mighty Mekong to the capital, Phnom Penh, and finally to the cardamom jungles for 30 years. Cambodia's history has been a story of suffering, as it was bombed and brutalized by war.

France, the United States and Vietnam all played their part, but their greatest misery came from within in 1975 Cambodia came under the control of a radical communist government, the Khmer Rouge, but today there is another side to the Khmer Rouge. I'm with a group of former jungle soldiers who are setting up an ambush, but the prey is no longer humans, their weapons are cameras, and their targets are rare and endangered wildlife, in a way that both Soldiers like animals became allies as the Khmer Rouge hunted wildlife, they also kept everyone else out of the jungles that preserved the habitat of a large number of endangered species.

This dusty, looted town on the Thai-Cambodian border is called a pet koi. Just a few months ago it was home to one of Asia's most notorious rare animal markets to enter this illicit world. I need people who have access. Experienced guides who know their way. around the jungles and the former domain of the Khmer Rouge, his son, he and the hunter Weiler were just the boys at their job for Cambodia's wildlife protection office. They both traveled to the wildest regions of Cambodia, if they had their way a shot like this would be shut down. The way to save endangered animals is to stop the illicit trade in rare animal parts.

Well, this is a subspecies of the Indochinese tiger, it is quite small, yes, somewhat smaller than the Bengal tiger and one of these is the clouded leopard, also an endangered species. They spend a lot of time in the trees hunting birds, there are also Banting animal parts and rhino horns, crocodile skulls and tiger penises, skins, bladders and beaks, all valued as ingredients in traditional Eastern medicines, then there are the horns and trophy antlers, these two can be shredded. to use in the preparation of love potions, these are the prey of the Cupra, it is the national animal of Cambodia, perhaps it is completely extinct from the face of the earth and it is here for the first time that I see the horns of a rare creature, perhaps even mythical, Keating's War.

It is said to be a shy animal that eats snakes and its horn is supposed to be an antidote for snake bites. It is also sometimes known as the Cambodian unicorn despite having two horns. Have you ever seen one of these meaning for a living animal or against the mythology of Bob Cusack? tells us that the unicorn came from the east as in Keating's war, its horn was supposed to be a cure for poison and such was the demand for traditional medicine that it is not surprising to know that counterfeiters have moved into these real, approximately 90% of people say it's the quinoa you think honey well I don't know I'm skeptical about this one of all the joke horns that scientists have examined most of them caught are fake there is a very large fake market because of the scarcity of the animal and it is a high monetary value, so at what price would you sell them for the most expensive horn?

He said it's that $200 horn for a subsistence farmer, which is more than a year's salary. I can't help but wonder if there is a mythical scam going on here. I have a friend. In an effort to convince me, son, he takes me to meet an artist friend who can give me an idea of ​​what this Cambodian unicorn looks like on the wall. I see a poster of rare and endangered animals, including a Keating war, let's just call it - unicorn with horns so we know where we are this is one of his references the other is a set of horns but knowing how many fake horns there are such Maybe it also needs a little imagination little by little an animal takes shape in a setting that looks like a garden of Eden with a difference the snail is hit by the unicorn 201 so do you think it exists in the jungle somewhere where you reach more high?

We have a commune. Both son and hunter are driven by a passion to protect endangered animals. For me, the opportunity to photograph. a mythical creature, no matter how remote, is reason enough to join your expedition, the unicorn is a mythical beast with a very strange and distinctive horn and lives in the hearts and minds of some ancient people, perhaps it is like the unicorn from Cambodia; in this case, this uniform can actually I see, they exist, but they have never brought any bodies or skins or anything like that, so it's very hard to believe one thing that we do know, although our next stop was once the most of the planet and the earthly paradise they lost in the jungle.

For five hundred years Cambodia has been a strange mix of Southeast Asian and European culture. Icons of the ancient Khmer Empire rub shoulders with French colonial architecture. It was once part of French Indochina, but long before the French occupation. Cambodia was at the center of a great empire. which once boasted the largest city in the world, we are in the city of baton bang to pick up a boat that will take us to the ruined city of Angkor, as much of Cambodia is crisscrossed by rivers and canals, a boat is often the most efficient way. of transport, it is here that you see the other side of Cambodia, mile after mile of river communities along the pockets, there are domestic birds and floating villages, mostly subsistence fishermen, the proximity to Tonle Sap and its supply of fish were the main reasons for the successful expansion of Angkor, although today.

Botha fishing is threatening this great resource and it is not for the first time that when these incredible ruins were first rescued from the jungle, the world marveled at the lost capital of an ancient empire. From here, between the 9th and 13th centuries, the Khmer emperors ruled practically everything. of Southeast Asia this is what tourists see the great and cool temple of Wat what is not so well known is that the city of Angkor extended over a thousand square kilometers or 600 square miles in its day it was the largest city in the world in In reality it is like a large low-density industrial city like Los Angeles.

What population are we talking about? General estimates are on the order of one million within these thousand square kilometers. Meet Professor Roland Fletcher, an Australian archaeologist who has spent years studying the great cities of the ancient world. And how does that compare to saying Paris or London at the same time? Paris or London in that period was a couple of hundred thousand or less, so they have very small places, very small in fact, so how far does it really go beyond the tree line? It extends to the hills on the Lord horizon literally the horizon around everything around is absolutely a there.

I'm getting used to this ancient expanse when Professor Fletcher produces a radar map taken from the space shuttle's radar. The jungle reveals a vast network of ruined roads, suburbs and canals, the colors turning hidden ruins into a skeletal record of the civilization, that's Westborough, which is five miles away, that's the one there and what really interests me is this huge road that runs up to 25 miles up to the kalam hills, which is up to that high point in the hills and The point of all this, something went wrong even though it was the capital of a powerful empire located in a green and fertile land, Professor Fletcher died. think you know well why the reason I'm interested in it is because it's the largest low-density pre-industrial city and there are a lot of problems about why those low-density cities died because this is the biggest example, this is the key test and at this point our suspicion is that it is an ecological problem that has to do with excessive clearing of the land under all these trees and in fact, beyond the horizon there are n Korean period fields under the forests, for so this entire area would have actually been just rice paddy.

Countryside Plains with trees where the houses are along the streets, as seen in modern towns, part of this history here is perhaps repeating itself and that is what we wanted to evaluate, they filled the trees, they overfished in the lake and eventually ran out of food, population and purpose. Professor Fletcher believes this architectural time capsule sends a warning to the world: Los Angeles, Mexico City, was the London of its time and it died, but ecologically the same mistakes that he believes caused its demise are being repeated again in this moment. If it happened once, it could happen again, but much more recently Cambodia experienced an even greater cataclysm.

We are about to enter the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge and the final resting place of one of the world's bloodiest killers. In 1928 a child was born. to a peasant family in Cambodia for six years he lived and studied peacefully in a Buddhist monastery two of them as a monk then he went to study in Paris his name was Sol at Sur but he was better known to the world as Pol Pot and he became a killer how such a peaceful country could end up with such a brutal killer as its leader has always been a source of amazement to me we are in the far north of Cambodia heading to the small township of An Long Feng on our way to the Mekong River few people in the land have unleashed such chaos as Pol Pot in 1975 sent the Khmer Rouge to Pnom Penh to empty it was part of an experiment to establish an ideal peasant state they marched the population into the fields to work and isolated Cambodia from the world, they began again with the Year Zero temples, money and property were abolished and the purge that followed gave us the phrase The Killing Fields.

An estimated 1.5 million people died in Pol Pot's death camps as we approach. I feel a sense of foreboding there are already signs of war many people died on this road basically everyone who lives here is a Khmer Rouge X soldier or a member of their families this area was the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge movement here It's where Paul Pott had his headquarters and these were the last air route maps in the fall and all Campbell, are we going to get through okay or are they difficulties with the government troops, oh I see, they're just what we need, so you won't be here.

You, Marlene, wouldn't know anything about him. I mean, wouldn't everything be fine when I don't see Padma at a checkpoint? We offer a small gift. It's not a bribe, it's a courtesy and it can mean a lot to a man who only makes 20 dollars a month this is the first checkpoint in what was and probably still is the heartland of the Khmer Rouge and up here on this mountain it is where Pol Pot died and whether he was assassinated or died of old age is still open to conjecture but his body and all his remains are still up here and very few people have still been allowed in here and although it is now part of government territory , it is still very much Khmer Rouge, echoes of the war are abandoned everywhere and rusting tanks are reminders. of the last resistance of the Khmer Rouge and then another checkpoint is the entrance to Pol Pot's headquarters more soldiers to negotiate with and again there are signs of fighting these statues are revolutionary and they have all had their heads blown off we approach the soldiers cautiously although they wear the insignia of the modern Cambodian army these men were guards of the Khmer Rouge in the time of Pol Pot, he said that any person is like everyone, yes, why do so many people like him, John, we find that guarantee, but disappeared, is it force forcing, are they forced? he forced him to like him there, so most people didn't like him, yeah, it's not at all clear what he believed or believes.

The days of the Khmer Rouge are not behind us, in case there is trouble ahead, soon arrange one of the soldiers to come withus to ease our way, the road gets worse, so after the death of 1.5 million people, how could anyone continue like Pol Pot? I think a lot of people really liked Paul Puck because he was such a guy, that's what I heard from all the people. individually, you know, respectful even though he killed all those people, every time there's a sense of dread when we get to the toilet here, Pol Pot's last headquarters, this was where he died.

Hello, the greeting, although friendly, this is a real government soldier, not a former Khmer Rouge border sensibility. They have changed and today it is the government in charge I understand that Pol Pot spent his last days here and that he died here and his body was burned there is a current team to pour in the meantime for Port Monkey but I can't know how he made me suggest he didn't is here and put a spoon in that kitchen shows like you that there is not much left of the desert at first it all seems a little mundane a scattering of Pol Pot's possessions, even the remains of his toilet and then they showed him his grave, which is the place where they pushed Morty after his death, so nothing was removed, it's just the ashes of a body, they piled up his possessions, put his body on the funeral pyre and burned everything.

It's hardly a state funeral, it's some kind of anomalous ending for one of the great butchers of history between one and two million people controlling all of Cambodia at the same time, this is Pol Pot's monument of austerity, not too impressive, probably correspond to millions of deaths, endless suffering and all that remains is a dirty mound and a broken toilet in a jungle clearing, yet the soldiers still speak quietly in At his graveside, the memory of Pol Pot and the Queues in the fields still have a profound effect on the Cambodian people as they collect what remains of their funeral pyre.

I notice incense sticks, Buddhist offerings at the grave of a communist who despised religion, a day's drive from Pol. Pot's grave is the reason hunter Wire Lawrence has come to this remote part of the jungle. They have met with some former Khmer Rouge soldiers who have become professional wildlife trackers and are tracking the Keating semi-truck to Cambodia. -legendary - horned unicorn these guys are some of the most skilled wildlife hunters in Cambodia today they are working for the Wildlife Conservation Society an organization that is changing the way locals view the jungle and the animals there in her.

We recruit the best of the ancient hunters. and we turn them into wildlife rangers and the people we have recruited would say that probably 80% of the tigers are killed by 25% of the hunters. There is an elite species that specializes in large mammals and these are the people we have gone after. So we have taken ten of the best hunters out of circulation in this province. Each of those hunters is capable of killing several tigers a year, so it is a dramatic impact to take so many experienced hunters out of circulation and put them aside. of conservation, yes, here the stories come together of the Khmer Rouge and endangered wildlife and together the possibility of a bright future for this beleaguered land, so they were once very lucky recently with their efforts, the cameras are beginning to reveal what lies beneath the canopy and From this province we have the tiger Gower and Banting, two endangered wild cattle stem bar deer, and China, various birds and any signs of cattive that we are not yet expecting.

As we walk back, we stick strictly to the path thanks to the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia is one of the countries with the most landmines on the planet, with six million of them still scattered throughout the country. One wrong step and you could lose a leg or worse, every day, somewhere in Cambodia, a landmine explodes under someone, every person who lives in this village, like they were on a mine or related to a victim everyone is here because of this extraordinary man, but Gibbons, this is a Vietnam veteran who decided to return to Indochina to try to help those maimed by landmines.

He couldn't do much about the landmines, but he could try to help the victims rebuild their lives afterwards, so he opened a factory to make low-cost artificial limbs. It's time to pay, you know, it's time to pay for what I didn't do, but we were part of it. the past and also to share some of the incredible wealth and incredible knowledge that we as Americans have, everyone who works here is missing a limb or has been severely maimed, but they soon realized that providing the limbs would not was enough in Cambodia for such victims. They are usually rejected as unemployed, unmarriageable, and generally a burden on society.

If his plan was going to work, he had to learn more about using the limb. No problem. For two weeks we give them training on how to lose their balance. That kind of things. Then they go back to their village, that's where I think the problem is because they can't find a way to support themselves financially or financially. Now they are mechanically supported by this limb, but they have no work, so they need to have some way. to get money, but in their landmine victims they started a silk industry and it's good silk that fetches high prices and it's all made by the mutilated and limbless, they grow their own mulberries to feed their own silkworms, then They spin it, weave it and market it.

They show it to the world on the Internet, what they do is give them back their respect for themselves with the money they earned, they bought land and built houses, many have gotten married and now they educate their children in the school that they themselves built, and now their children even die. abilities to those who have limbs and much of this is due to the drive and initiative of a former soldier in such an impoverished society. It's amazing what hope and support can achieve, especially when they have been dealt such a cruel blow by war. the people feel both elevated and humbled but we must move forward the Mekong River is home to pirates since the end of the war attacks on ships have steadily increased tomorrow we will face these modern buccaneers in one of the most dangerous sections The Mekong River is 2,700 miles long, or 4,300 kilometers, making it one of the longest rivers in the world.

From here it is a 200-mile drive to Phnom Penh, a trip the government advises against all Westerners due to banditry and piracy. Wildlife Protection Officers. The hunter and his son have made the journey many times, although the jungles that line the banks are a rich source of wildlife for the poachers they are trying to eliminate. At first, the river looks like a large drifting lake, but it is not as serene as it seems. This river is a nightmare for boaters. The crew places a plate of fruit on the bow as an offering to the river spirits to ensure the passage goes smoothly.

These rapids make another. Yes, they have, sir, all, you know, in the way. of them trying to throw it, I think it is one of the smallest, not the largest, soon the water begins to ripple, then it simmers and the whirlpools break and the currents burst at this moment. I'm glad these are the little wrappers the stone guys put up. established by the French a century ago sets the course the helmsman must apply just the right amount of power to the rudder or the ship would be torn apart by the rocks below for a moment even the captain looks worried but just for a moment he has complete faith in his helmsman, his son and I suppose I should too.

The rapids and shallow waters make traveling the Mekong dangerous after dark, not to catch pirates, so we looked for a place to rest for the night, sailing this river is very much family friendly. The subject living on board is the captain's wife, his mother-in-law, his children, his wives, and a new crew member. Her grandson, without a doubt, he too will one day be a captain on the Mekong and this is like sweet rice with which they simply shelter themselves. those banana leaves keep it lovely and fresh, I need it like a king in the Mekong. The water of the Mekong River is not the purest in the world, but after a hot day it has to be the most refreshing and, as the sound of singing reaches us through these waters again I wonder if such a peaceful country could having suffered so much as dawn breaks, the fishermen return from a night of work and the river shines rich and golden as we cast off our moorings and prepare to continue our journey and for me there is no chance of sleeping as the engine accelerates soon takes care of that.

I wouldn't say it's the best night's sleep I've ever had, lots of mosquitoes and very sticky, but it's wonderfully cool now. I must say that it is an incredibly quiet place and the cone of meat you expect. River incredibly full of humanity, but there is nothing, it's just jungle and really beautiful, yet this desert has remained not out of a desire for preservation, it has remained simply because civil unrest meant that no one could live safely here and it was a land of opportunity for pirate bandits. and renegade units of the Khmer Rouge we said when we stopped the boat to fire the gun and then they let me in to take all the people into the jungle and then those people go into the boat and do Ted and see everyone as much as they want.

A drag away tells me that a few shots over the bow from the jungle would announce the attackers. It happened so often that he once had to cover his boat with armor. Our conversation ends as we approach the shallows of the river, they check the depth, but again no. One is really worried because everyone has been like this many times before, but then nature disappears and on the shores another brand of piracy, illegal loggers cutting down the great forests in a desperate attempt to earn dollars in a cash-strapped country, but spending the Heritage. It is what happens when order is broken and a country is torn apart by the greed of war and opportunism and when the war came to Phnom Penh it was not just a city devastated by bombs, it was an empty city cleaned out by the Khmer Rouge. which they had all forced at gunpoint, so it is with some relief that I find a vibrant and busy city and it is here that I applaud one of Cambodia's leading journalists and I couldn't have hoped for a better guy, let me pick out about four Phnom Penh, it's really a small town, quite a bit of traffic, easy motorbike ride, cafes everywhere and then this wonderful architecture led by the French, a really lovely town, so the palace, yes, even this very Cambodian structure was built by the French, so what happened next, hunter, is a newcomer to recently peaceful Phnom Penh, having lunch at home.

I found out about the traps that the Khmer Rouge played on me, but you are no longer with your wife, yes, but I couldn't say no. I say no, it would be unpredictable. appeal, yes, but you're a survivor and you like it, and millions of people disappeared to bring me face to face with the demons of Cambodia's past. Chia takes me too high slang now known as the Genocide Museum. High slang was once a high school. but the Khmer Rouge turned it into a torture chamber here they interrogated anyone they considered an enemy of the state, which seemed to be almost everyone how many people were killed here how many people died over 20,000 people 20,000 or died in this in this prison and just they brought them and tortured them, tortured them and then sent them to Chennai and killed them, which were the extermination camps, yes millions of people were killed there, the silence is eerie as we move towards this terrible place, the morbid fascination is overcome by horror, this wasn't just a place where people died, it was a place where they died horribly in a horrible place, yes, it was an American boy's map of Cambodia, pretty macabre, wasn't it?

Yes, they were intellectuals and farmers and I made a Madison, yes, my God, the tragedy can be seen in their faces, victims and victors, side by side, those of the Khmer Rouge, defiant and arrogant, those of the victims simply defeated, it is impossible not to be moved by the unspeakable suffering and brutality that took place here as you walk, I wonder how any ideology or hatred could ever justify such evil, however acclaimed, it must be particularly confronting, you know, I feel sad and I remember it last day when I saw this photo, yes, it's just amazing, yes, so remind me today in the past about a Khmer who live hungry in fear what do you think about it?

I've never seen anything like it. The Holocaust in Germany must be similar, similar, yes, I just haven't seen it, so this is it. I've never seen anything like this and you managed to live this before you know how to live in this food equation I think you're lucky to be alive come on guys help me yeah what's a drink going to get you? It's okay, despite everything they've been through or suchMaybe that's why when Cambodians have the opportunity, they have fun like there's no tomorrow and karaoke is the preferred urban entertainment when they sing, they do it without the slightest shame, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not especially when it's my turn, it's hard to believe that not long ago the entire population of Phnom Penh was forcibly relocated leaving the city empty tomorrow at 2 I must leave the city as I head to the last of Southeast Asia's great wilderness areas the Cardamom Mountains The Southeast Asian monsoons were intense this year in the Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia and few of the roads survived so we resorted to a hangover from the communist days a Russian built six wheel drive and it's like rhyming an angry elephant Brendan's watch That every year is the worst road I've ever been on, my fellow travelers from the Wildlife Protection Office Hunter Wyler soon invited local journalists to join us so I can witness firsthand what's happening in the cardamoms. one more time.

We are heading towards the Khmer Rouge as former territory. It was not far from here where I was stationed when I was a Khmer. Red soldier almost everyone who lives here was once in the Khmer Rouge this is where they last ruled the longest it is the most remote and wild corner of Southeast Asia the Cardamom Mountains are on the southern coast of Cambodia and are one of the last wilderness areas of Southeast Asia Our destination is the remote village of Assam. Cardamoms are covered in thick rainforest full of wildlife. This is what Cambodia would have been like before land clearing and massive exploitation of forests.

Ironically, if the country had stayed under the Khmer Rouge, the loggers would have been kept at bay, this is illegal people cutting down trees very fast and they are moving into the garbage room and blowing up the elephant and the tiger, so I'm afraid it will be all three and the animal will disappear in the next video or two years if the government does, if the government does not take any measures to stop this type of activity and it is not just the loggers, in recent years some have moved five thousand refugees, they want land, so they slash and burn the jungle, this is the village of Osan, if the Khmer Rouge had their way, all of Cambodia would have been like Assam for them it was the ideal community there was no money or religion organized was free of intellectuals and decadence - the Khmer Rouge this was a communist peasant Utopia The elders of the village of Osan are animists, they worship the spirits of the forest.

The Khmer Rouge tolerated these beliefs as they pose no threat other than their isolation and this simple and uncomplicated lifestyle is coming to an end, the cardamoms are about to get caught in a pincer movement, on the one hand, the forces of exploitation as loggers strip the forests, on the other hand, the forces of ignorance, as refugees slash and burn for Hunter and Sun Haiyan, it's a race against time they must discover what animals live in these jungles, so Otherwise they will not be able to present an argument for its preservation. Camera traps are the key and provide compelling evidence that this nature must be preserved.

Fortunately, they are already finding a treasure trove of rare species. animals that our cameras capture wild cattle from Southeast Asia, sambar deer, clouded leopards and a rare Indochinese tiger, but unfortunately not: the horned unicorn, the elusive Keating war, although if it exists anywhere it will be here, in the mountains of cardamom, even expert hunters who spend years in the forest only encounter one of these animals, perhaps one three five seven ten years. Generally it is once or twice in a lifetime. From what we could learn, Cerreta has never seen one and has spent more than 15 years in the forest. 12 years as a Khmer.

Red gorilla as a hunter of the girl who supplies him with meat, he is one of the most skilled hunters in Cambodia and he, in the cardamoms, for 12 years in the forest, has never seen him jokingly, so I guess if the wild boar KT he's a hero, he's an academic because this actually the forest may not be here in five years, that's why we're all working so hard to establish a new protected, logging-free forest to preserve the species we know and probably other unknown species that may not be as big and glamorous with the Just kidding, but surveys in the past year have revealed new species of snakes, butterflies, moths.

This is a treasure trove of biodiversity and we need to inventory it thoroughly when we need to preserve what we have in a small sanctuary. I find a monk giving blessings to all who enter and I can't help but leave a prayer of hope on the ancient altar, it's too late to stop the killing fields and it's probably too late to save the snake that eats the unicorn with horns, but it is not too late to stop the destruction in the Cardamom Mountains and it is not too late to prevent other endangered wild animals in Cambodia after the Keating War.

It is also not too late to consider the lessons of the old and the new. central, although next time there may not be any trees left to take revenge here at the end of the earth your