Through Rob Hamill’s personal story, Brother Number One explores one of the “forgotten” genocides of the 20th century, examining how and why nearly two million Cambodians could be killed by a fanatical left-wing regime known as the Khmer Rouge.
Prior to 1970, Cambodia was a charming though impoverished and corrupt French colony presided over by the colourful Prince Sihanouk. Although the royals were popular, anti-colonial sentiment grew, inspired in part by political developments in Cambodia’s neighbour Vietnam. During the 1960s, support for the Cambodian communist movement grew, and the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), dubbed the ‘Khmer Rouge’ by Sihanouk, established itself in opposition to the reigning authority. One of the party’s young recruits was an educated, worldly and politically-informed student named Saloth Sar. The son of a wealthy landowner, Saloth Sar had travelled to Paris on a scholarship to study in the early 1950s. In France, he formed part of an elite group of young Cambodian scholars, who learned about the French Revolution, through the prism of the communist party, at that point heavily influenced by Stalin. This group would later form the inner circle of the Khmer Rouge, dubbing themselves the “Brothers”. Saloth Sar would rename himself “Pol Pot” and as leader of the Khmer Rouge was known also as “Brother Number One”.
At this stage, Cambodia’s politics were a volatile mix of anti-colonialism, anti-Americanism and anti-communism. In addition, the war in neighbouring Vietnam, fought between North Vietnam and its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the US and other anti-communist nations, had a signficant impact on Cambodia’s political state. In an effort to flush out the North Vietnam, a communist guerilla force, from Cambodia’s border regions, the US illegally carpet-bombed the entire country. During this period of increasing polarization, Sihanouk attempted to keep Cambodia neutral despite pressure from both the US and the Viet Cong to take sides. However, in 1970, while out of the country, Sihanouk was overthrown in a coup led by his army chief Marshal Lon Nol, who was vehemently anti-communist. There is some debate over whether the US, tiring of Sihanouk’s ambivalence, was behind this coup; regardless, it was convenient for American interests and once Lon Nol assumed power, there was plenty of American military funding forthcoming. China then stepped in on the side of the Communists, and persuaded Sihanouk (still revered by many Cambodians as the “God King”) to join forces with the Khmer Rouge, then a smaller guerilla force operating out of North-west Cambodia. This unlikely alliance (the Khmer Rouge had been enemies of the reigning Prince prior to the coup) caused many Cambodians, obeying their God King, to flock to the Khmer Rouge.
Additionally, Lon Nol’s brutal tactics, supported by the US, caused more to join the Khmer Rouge as many believed the situation could not get worse than it was. When the US subsequently lost the war in Vietnam and pulled its forces out, Lon Nol lost a powerful nearby ally and his position of power was weakened. The Khmer Rouge then won a decisive victory in April, 1975, Pol Pot (Brother Number One) and his comrades seized power, and Cambodia was renamed Democratic Kampuchea and its borders were closed. This was, they said, Year Zero, meaning the country would have to start again from scratch.
Pol Pot’s vision for Cambodia was the formation of an agrarian, egalitarian and classless society which was economically self-sufficient. His vision is sometimes referred to as ‘utopian’ because it imagined an idealised society of social equality, national solidarity and economic plenty. In practice, however, the implementation of the Khmer Rouge’s programme of social transformation was violent, brutal, and inhumane in the extreme, a totalitarian regime in which “enemies” of the government were “re-educated” through slavery, starvation and torture. The Khmer Rouge outlawed money, property, religious and traditional cultural practices, regular schooling, public and private transport, leisure activities and normal clothes (everyone wore the black CPK uniform). Most radically, families and communities were broken up, to discourage any kind of attachment other than a political allegiance to the regime. Children were separated from their parents and indoctrinated at government training institutions which took the place of schools. Gatherings of more than three people were considered potentially traitorous and were punishable by death. The Khmer Rouge forced everyone to become rural labourers, emptying the cities, including the capital Phnom Penh, and forcing every man and woman to do the same manual work in the countryside. Labourers were forced to work all year round, twelve hours a day, without adequate reit or food. Many collapsed from exhaustion or starved to death.
Moreover, the Khmer Rouge introduced a systematic regime of terror, torture and execution in order to crush possible rebellion. During their rule, they executed hundreds of thousands of intellectuals; city residents; minority people such as the Cham, Vietnamese and Chinese: and many of their own soldiers and party members, who were accused of being traitors. Tuol Sleng (known as S21), an old school on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, was centrally important to the Khmer Rouge organization as its primary torture and execution centre, headed by Comrade Duch. Here, thousands of ordinary people, including the elderly, women and children, were imprisoned without trial, shackled, starved and systematically tortured until they provided false confessions of anti-government activity, at which point they were sentenced to death. Mass executions took place across the country, in which people were clubbed to death and buried in mass graves now known collectively as the ‘killing fields’. In total, nearly two million people – a third of the country’s population – died in the rural labour camps, the torture prisons or the killing fields during the four year reign of the Khmer Rouge.
Finally, in 1979, Vietnamese troops supported by the Soviet Union and joined by defectors who had escaped from Cambodia, invaded Democratic Kampuchea and overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime. Leaders and loyal members of the Khmer Rouge withdrew to border regions where they continued to operate as a resistance movement for many years. A low level war continued until the mid-1990s. China had always backed the Khmer Rouge but by 1979, the US, and other Western nations (including New Zealand) and pro-US Asian states (such as Thailand), also threw their weight behind the regime that had committed such atrocities. By this time, the US and China, once bitter enemies, had become friends and they united against their mutual foe, the USSR which was backing the Vietnamese in Cambodia. The United Nations, bowing to Western pressure, accepted the Khmer Rouge as the UN’s representative during this period of instability. The extent of the genocide and its aftermath, however, became hard to ignore and UN-supervised elections were finally held in 1993, following the Paris Peace Accords of 1991. The Royal Government of Cambodia, which remains in power today, has, however, proved both unstable and corrupt
1 | Research the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge regime (this site is a useful starting point). Create a time line of political events in Cambodia from the collapse of French colonial rule in the 1940s to the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 (or, extend this exercise by creating a time line through to the eventual disintegration of the Khmer Rouge in 1999). Discuss and evaluate the political, economic and military conditions during this period which made the ascendency of a totalitarian regime possible.
2 | Choose a key figure in the history and legacy of the Khmer Rouge: For example - Pol Pot, Comrade Duch, or Prince Sihanouk. What do you understand about this figure based on your viewing of the film, Brother Number One? Research their social, cultural, religious and political background, and evaluate their contribution to the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. (The following clip is an outtake from Brother Number One, which offers a rare, first-hand account of an encounter with Pol Pot. Becker was one of three Western observers invited to Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge shortly before the fall of Democratic Kampuchea and the only journlist to meet with him while he was in power.)
FILM CLIP: ELIZABETH BECKER MEETS POL POT
3 | What do you understand by the following political terms: Communism, Socialism, Marxism, colonial rule, the Cold War, democracy, Western Imperialism? Research the meaning of these concepts (and any other terms you can identify) and evaluate their significance for the history of Cambodia.
4 | One of the slogans of the Khmer Rouge was “Secrecy is the key to victory. High secrecy, long survival”. This meant that an elite group of decision makers controlled the party, the military and the millions of Cambodians subject to its regime. What is the relationship between ‘secrecy’ and power? What were the consequences for ordinary Cambodian citizens and how did this policy impact on their human rights (consider the law against public gatherings and discussion)? How did a policy of secrecy extend to international relations and what were the long-term effects of this?
5 | The film Brother Number One provides historical context for the rise and rule of the Khmer Rouge regime. The film seeks to represent the politics that led to the brutal regime’s rise. Evaluate the extent to which the context of the Cold War and relations amongst the superpowers influenced the politics of Cambodia both before and after the Khmer Rouge reigned. Can you describe another conflict in the past, or alive today, that similarly grew out of a Cold War context?
6 | Brother Number One provides an insight into life in Cambodia before and during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Use the following clips as a starting point for further research into the origins of the Khmer Rouge regime, and the devastating impact this regime had on the Cambodian people.
FILM CLIP: RISE OF THE KHMER ROUGE
FILM CLIP: LIFE UNDER THE KHMER ROUGE
FILM CLIP: AFTER THE KHMER ROUGE
7 | One of the strategies of control used by the Khmer Rouge was the conscription of many thousands of child soldiers. For instance, Tuol Sleng photographer Nhem En, who is interviewed by Rob and Kulikar in Brother Number One, was 11 when he first became a Khmer Rouge soldier. With reference to the following clips, evaluate the use of child soldiers and its impact on the individuals concerned, their families and Cambodian society then and now. Reflect on how this could complicate the trial process (i.e. How responsible were Khmer Rouge recruits for their actions?).
NEW CLIP: KHAN ON CHILD SOLDIERS
