Apr 17: Cambodia: Khmer Rouge conquers Phnom Penh, the capital
Terror regime in Cambodia 1975–1979 CE…
–Murders 1.7 million (of Cambodia’s own) people (many torture–murdered).
So, 22% of the country’s entire population of 7.5 million was murdered by its own regime. The prime targets were anyone conceivably a threat to the regime. This included the country’s professional and/or educated elite, very broadly–defined, to put it mildly. For example, if one wore glasses, one was considered an intellectual and was doomed.
The Cambodian cities were emptied and everyone forced onto “collective farms” or into forced labor projects.
The regime was eventually thrown out by invading (Communist) Vietnamese forces, who entered in November 1978 to rescue ethnic Vietnamese from the Khmer Rouge’s pickaxes.
Broadly–speaking, the United Nations commenced reorganizing the devastated country in 1991.