Due to uncertainty over RFA funding, we are publishing this special report marking 50 years since the Khmer Rouge capture of Cambodia’s capital ahead of the actual anniversary, which falls on April 17.
March 20, 2025
In 1975, a radical communist band of guerrilla fighters known as the Khmer Rouge conquered the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Their takeover ignited a genocide that claimed the lives of between 1.5 million and 2 million people, or a quarter of the country’s population.
Under the leadership of a man known as Brother Number One, or Pol Pot, a systematic campaign of persecution, killing and starvation began within hours of his troops claiming Phnom Penh on the morning of April 17, 1975.
Under Pol Pot’s rule, the goal was absolute.
Citizens had no rights. The nation’s past would be erased to create a new future. Parents were separated from their children, and everyone was forced to pledge allegiance to Angka, as the organization headed by Pol Pot was known.
Within hours of taking the city, the entire population was ordered out of the capital. Within days, the new Khmer Rouge regime had killed thousands of military personnel.
The next four years would be hell on earth. Forced labor, mass killings and starvation. Cambodia became a graveyard. Until today, many survivors don’t know where or even when their family members died.
But they can’t forget.
On the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge’s arrival in Phnom Penh, four of our colleagues at Radio Free Asia are sharing their personal stories for the first time.
