Kampong Thom, Cambodia

Category: Genocide

3. 1.5-1.7 Million death toll.

International influence-
After Vietnams invasion, the retreating Khmer Rouge had some help from American relief agencies—20,000 to 40,000 guerrillas who reached Thailand received food aid—and the West also ensured that the Khmer Rouge held on to Cambodia's seat in the United Nations. The Cold War continued to dictate what allegiances and priorities were made. The Khmer Rouge went on fighting the Vietnam-backed government. Throughout the 1980s the Khmer Rouge forces were covertly backed by America and the UK (who trained them in the use of landmines) because of their united hostility to communist Vietnam. The West's fuelling of the Khmer Rouge held up Cambodia's recovery for a decade. Under international pressure, Vietnam finally withdrew its occupying army from Cambodia. This decision had also been forced by economic sanctions on Cambodia (the US's doing), and by a cut-off in aid from Vietnam's own backer, the Soviet Union. The last troops left Cambodia in 1989, and its name was officially restored. In the 1978-1989 conflict between the two countries (and their behind-the-scenes international string-pullers) up to 65,000 had been killed, 14,000 of whom were civilians. The Khmer Rouge guerrillas, of course, opposed Cambodia's political reforms, but their organization had begun to crumble.

(photo- a mass grave of deceased Cambodian victims)