All language subtitles for Secret.Wars.Uncovered.S02E07.1080p.WEB.h264-BAWD_Subtitles01_Unnamed

NARRATOR: August 2021.

The last surviving leader
of Pol Pot’s inner circle,

90-year -old, Khieu Samphan,

asks for his 2018 conviction
for complicity

in the Cambodian genocide
to be overturned.

Even if his attempt were
to be successful, however,

he knows he will die in prison.

His appeal against
an earlier conviction

for crimes against humanity
has already been dismissed.

Samphan was Head of State
for the Khmer Rouge,

which ruled Cambodia with an iron
fist from 1975 and 1979.

- Somewhere between 1.7 million

and 2.2 million people

died during the Khmer Rouge regime.

NARRATOR: The Khmer Rouge - the
popular name for the Communist Party

of Kampuchea - came to power
in Cambodia in 1975,

at the end of the Vietnam War.

Its real leader was self-styled
workers’ revolutionary

Saloth Sar, or Pol Pot,
as he became known.

The question is how did Pot’s
small band of guerrillas

manage to take hold of an
entire nation so rapidly

and with such terrifying force?

- China, the Soviet Union -
later Russia,

France, the United States,

Japan, Indonesia,

have all found themselves interested

in Cambodian politics and economics.

NARRATOR: At the end
of World War II,

Cambodia was under
French mandate.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk
was nominally ruler,

but his power was limited.

French Indochina - encompassing
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam -

was still controlled by the
government in Paris.

- There was widespread sentiment

among Cambodia's urban elite

that the monarchy in Cambodia was
archaic and needed to be replaced.

These people formed
various resistance groups

based in various places
around the periphery of Cambodia.

Sometimes they cooperated.
Sometimes they were in conflict.

NARRATOR: Some of these
opposition elites combined

to form the Cambodian
Democratic Party.

The CDP quickly became the main
political force in the country.

In these early post-war years,

the movement for
Cambodian independence

gained significant momentum.

In 1953, Sihanouk travelled to Paris

to meet with the authorities of the
Fourth French Republic

to make his case.

On July the 3rd of that year

France announced that
it was ready to grant

full independence to Laos,
Vietnam and Cambodia.

Thus, the sovereign
Kingdom of Cambodia

was created and
French Indochina was dissolved.

The following year,
the Geneva Conference

recognised King Sihanouk as the
sole authority in the kingdom,

granting him the recognition
and approval

of the international community.

- Once Cambodia obtained
independence from France in 1954,

King Sihanouk decided that he wanted

to continue to dominate
political life in Cambodia.

So he abdicated the throne

and formed a political vehicle that
he called the Sangkum Reastr Niyum,

or Popular Socialist Community.

He decided everyone should join
his political vehicle.

Those who didn't, found themselves
running into all manner of bad luck

with Sihanouk's security forces.

NARRATOR: In the elections
of September 1955,

Sihanouk was elected
Prime Minister and the Sangkum

became the sole political
institution in the kingdom.

The authoritarianism of
this new government,

however, triggered an
armed insurgency,

to which the response
was swift and furious.

- Sihanouk unleashed
his security forces

on these would-be
Communist guerrillas,

and largely decimated them,
driving them from the cities

and reducing the
revolutionary forces to

small, isolated pockets of
guerrillas in the jungles.

NARRATOR: In November 1955,
the Vietnam War broke out,

tearing the newly
independent country in two.

- Vietnam was split into
communist-controlled northern part

and a French and later
American-controlled southern part.

NARRATOR: The United States wanted
to prevent the reunification

of Vietnam under a
communist government,

where the Soviets would be able
to gain a foothold in the region.

In Cambodia, Sihanouk
was caught in a dilemma.

Whilst he feared the ascendancy of
the communists in Vietnam,

he also resented the interference
of the United States.

He therefore adopted
a policy of uneasy neutrality,

trying to avoid confrontation
with either side.

But trouble for Sihanouk would
come from within Cambodia.

In 1959, with the support
of South Vietnam,

Thailand and America,
Cambodian governor Dap Chhuon

orchestrated the Bangkok
conspiracy to overthrow Sihanouk.

CRAIG: This attitude was encouraged
by US intelligence agents

operating out
of nearby Bangkok, Thailand.

And US intelligence agents
began to supply Dap Chhuon

with money,
material and equipment,

such as radio transmitters.

NARRATOR: When word of
the Bangkok plot made its way

to a clearly rattled
Prince Sihanouk,

he became even more disenchanted
with US interference in the region.

- He considered it a
foreign-inspired coup plot.

He had Dap Chhuon
assassinated.

Sihanouk, thereafter,
was very suspicious

of the motives and behaviour
of the United States government.

NARRATOR: For Sihanouk,
threats were coming from all sides.

While his distrust of
the Americans grew,

deep in the Cambodian jungle,

a movement was gaining strength.

- In 1960, a very small group
of communist revolutionaries -

most of whom had been
educated in Paris -

broke away from the existing
Khmer People's Revolutionary Party

and formed an organisation they
called the Khmer Workers Party.

In 1963,
the leader of that party

disappeared, probably killed
by Sihanouk's security forces,

and Pol Pot -

at that time known as Saloth Sar -

became the top leader.

NARRATOR: Preoccupied with
concerns about the Vietnam war

and American influence
in the region,

Sihanouk paid little
attention to this

incipient left-wing
guerrilla movement.

But his growing mistrust of America

meant that he was willing to allow
incursions into the Cambodian jungle

by the Vietcong, in order to
resupply their troops.

The series of
secret supply routes

in and out of Cambodia became
known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

In response, and due to
its growing concern

at the strengthening ties between
North Vietnam and Cambodia,

the United States began
secretly bombing areas

in and around Cambodia's
borders from 1965 on.

- The total tonnage of bombs that
was dropped on Cambodia

was in excess of all
of World War II Europe,

including on the
Japanese side,

Hiroshima and Nagasaki
tonnage equivalent.

NARRATOR: Not only were
American bombings and raids

threatening the Sihanouk government,
but from within Cambodia

a rebellion was brewing.

NARRATOR: In 1965, the
US started to secretly bomb

Cambodia’s borders
to break the supply routes

to the North Vietnamese.

American troops, supported
by South Vietnamese forces,

also attacked several villages
in Cambodian territory.

The attacks went unnoticed
by the American press,

and Cambodia did nothing
to raise the alarm

to the international
community either.

- It was not an open fact

that the US was incurring
into Cambodia.

The American public did not know
what was happening.

CRAIG: The long-term effect
of this bombing,

for its intended purpose -

stop the flow of supplies
along the trail -

was largely a failure, as the
supplies continued to flow

and the Vietnamese simply
repaired the trails

that were damaged by the bombing

and replaced the personnel
and material

that was destroyed in the bombing.

NARRATOR: By the mid-1960s,
after a decade of fighting,

there was no end in sight
to the Vietnam War.

Cambodia, engulfed
by the conflict,

was ruled by a leader
who pretended to be neutral

whilst secretly allowing communist
forces to use his territory.

Sihanouk’s behaviour
was now beginning

to seriously antagonise
the United States.

- It became clear to the US military
that the North Vietnamese

were using the border region with
Cambodia as a staging point,

not only for their troops,
but as a logistical hub

to move anything they needed -
weapons, arms, goods -

down to the south, down
to the frontline with the US.

- He essentially was
somebody who wanted to balance

between the US and the Vietcong.

And at times, that meant getting
closer to the US.

At other times, it meant giving
sanctuary to the Vietcong.

Somehow, he wanted to thread that
needle for Cambodia.

NARRATOR: In the late 1960s, under
relentless American bombardment,

Cambodia’s economy began
to deteriorate sharply.

In 1967, a group
of Cambodian farmers

were smuggling rice
to sell it at higher prices,

avoiding government’s taxes.

Sihanouk sent army troops to
normalise the situation,

but it only made things worse.

- An area of Battambang
province called Samlaut,

some local farmers decided

to resist this tax
on their rice crop

and they actually attacked
and killed

several of the troops who
were sent to collect those taxes.

Sihanouk reacted very badly to that

and he ordered
a scorched earth reprisal,

burning villages and killing
villagers in the area.

Unfortunately, it was
a serious miscalculation,

because this revolt quickly spread
to other areas of Cambodia,

very soon overwhelming
the capabilities

of Sihanouk's military forces
to suppress this revolt.

NARRATOR: Thus began
the Cambodian Civil War,

a conflict that would pit
the followers of the Communist Party

of Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge,
together with the Viet Cong,

against the forces of the
Kingdom of Cambodia,

South Vietnam,
and the United States.

By this point, the
United States had begun

covert Operation Daniel Boone.

- The United States launched a
series of reconnaissance missions

that were known initially
as Daniel Boone,

where US soldiers would be inserted

into Cambodia to hide out
along the trail

and observe what was
happening there.

- In many ways, Operation
Daniel Boone was successful.

They detected a massive buildup
of Vietnamese forces

on the Cambodian border
and General Westmoreland,

who was running this,
said back to US HQ,

we need to launch
massive attacks

to try and degrade the Vietnamese
forces, stop them moving down.

NARRATOR: The Americans then
launched Operation Menu,

a covert bombing campaign
over Cambodia,

authorised by President Nixon and
his National Security Adviser,

Henry Kissinger.

- And that resulted, of course, in

113,000 tonnes of bombs

dropped on Cambodia,
or more than that,

depending on the period
of time you're looking at,

but it was essentially
incredibly destructive.

CRAIG: Operation Menu
had the effect

of driving Vietnamese forces
deeper into Cambodia,

away from the border,
and indeed,

destabilising parts of Cambodia
for the Cambodian government.

NARRATOR: In the eyes of the
international community,

however, and even the US Congress,

Cambodia remained a neutral state

and was not an active participant
in the Vietnam war.

- Operation Menu was
done without any notice

by the Nixon administration
to Congress.

So the relevant
congressional committees

that had oversight
of US military operations

did not know this was happening.

And when they found out much later,
they were very displeased.

NARRATOR: In May 1969,
news of the attacks

was leaked to the US press.

It was a serious setback for
the Nixon administration.

The President had tried to hide
the bombing campaign

from the American people
and then pass it off

as a successful way to
bring the war to a swift close.

- I think the American people
are very thankful

that the President
ordered what was necessary

to save the lives of their men
and shorten this war.

NARRATOR: By 1970, American bombing
raids were ripping through Cambodia

and a huge economic crisis

was threatening the country's
urban elites.

In addition, Sihanouk’s inaction

in the face of Viet-Cong incursions
into the country

had taken a huge
toll on his popularity.

Lon Nol, a long-serving Cambodian
military officer,

had been Sihanouk's army commander
and defence minister.

But the general's
pro-Western tendencies

increasingly clashed
with the ruler's policies.

In early 1970,
whilst on a mission to Moscow,

Sihanouk was overthrown by his own
military and political leaders,

led by Lon Nol.

Although there is no evidence that
the CIA was actively involved

in supporting Lon Nol's coup,

the general's rapprochement
with the United States was evident

in its aftermath.

- US intelligence was
actively monitoring the situation

in Cambodia,
and US intelligence agents

became aware of this coup plot
before it occurred

and they did nothing
to discourage it.

Indeed, they may have even told
the coup plotters

that should this occur, the United
States would look upon it

with favour. In the immediate
aftermath of the coup,

the United States quickly
shifted policy

to support this new regime
that had emerged in Cambodia,

flying in soldiers
from southern Vietnam

to assist them in
establishing security,

and soon providing a great deal of

military, political, economic,
and diplomatic support.

NARRATOR: Cambodia's neutrality
in the Vietnam War

was now officially at an end.

The Khmer Republic was established
and Lon Nol's government

promised to expel the North
Vietnamese communist forces

operating in
Cambodian territory,

as well as dismantling
the Khmer Rouge.

Cambodia was now rushing
headlong into the war

in support of
the Americans

and Sihanouk was plotting
his return.

- Sihanouk essentially is a
pretty angry figure

at that point. When he
loses power in 1970,

he decides that the only
way for him to return

is essentially to align himself
with the Khmer Rouge.

He goes into these broadcasts
to the people of Cambodia,

secret broadcasts, in which he says
that he's going to return

and he's going to return with the
help of this other movement,

and he creates this kind of
provisional government outside

that lends support, essentially,
to the Khmer Rouge

and to their eventual victory.

NARRATOR: The overthrown prince
aligned himself with the Khmer Rouge

in the hope of overthrowing
Lon Nol’s government.

This royal endorsement
gave the Khmer Rouge

the legitimacy it craved.

- That caused an explosive
growth in the communist

revolutionary movement now
that everybody thought

the communist movement
was led by Sihanouk;

but in fact, Sihanouk was
just a figurehead.

NARRATOR: After long-time
Cambodian ruler

Prince Norodom Sihanouk
was overthrown in a coup

led by the leader
of his armed forces,

General Lon Nol, in 1970,
the deposed monarch

threw his support behind
the Khmer Rouge

in the hope that it would aid
his return to power.

It was not only
Sihanouk's support,

however, that gave strength
to the radical left.

It was also unwittingly fuelled by
the actions of the United States.

- Immediately after Sihanouk
was overthrown the United States

launched a major military incursion

from Vietnam into eastern Cambodia,

attempting to attack north
Vietnamese base areas

along the
Vietnamese-Cambodian border.

This caused North Vietnamese troops,

who were stationed in that area,
to withdraw deep into Cambodia,

where they quickly seized territory
throughout the country,

9greatly expanding the control

of the Communist Party of Kampuchea

and providing them the base areas
they needed

to pursue their fight to overthrow
the Lon Nol regime.

NARRATOR: With the Khmer Rouge
strengthened,

the civil war was escalating and
General Lon Nol’s new regime

was coming under serious pressure.

Sihanouk, living in exile in China,

continued to rely on
the communist insurrection

as his best chance of
regaining power in the country.

- Sihanouk always believed that
China would be a special friend

of Cambodia, and it did, in fact,

behave that way with respect
to Sihanouk himself.

I mean, he would always
get special welcomes

when he visited China,

and he felt very special

or treated very special
by China.

NARRATOR: China provided the
Khmer Rouge with large quantities

of arms and supplies.

The Soviets, meanwhile, focused
their support on North Vietnam,

to whom they provided sophisticated
technological equipment,

aircraft and anti-aircraft weapons
that were key

in influencing the final
outcome of the war.

- At 12:30 Paris time today,
January 23, 1973,

the agreement on ending the war
and restoring peace in Vietnam

was initiated by Henry Kissinger on
behalf of the United States

and special advisor Le Duc Tho
on behalf

of the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam.

NARRATOR: Despite Lon Nol
declaring a ceasefire,

the brutal fighting in Cambodia
continued unabated

even after the end
of the war in Vietnam.

- The communist guerrillas
did not agree to this ceasefire.

So in less than two weeks,

by the beginning of February 1973,

the United States resumed
bombing in Cambodia,

struggling against the still
fighting communist guerrillas there.

- I would not want to rule out

the possibilities that

we might have to take action

beyond the borders of South Vietnam,

particularly since a large part of
the problem

involves infiltration through
the territories

of Laos and Cambodia.

CRAIG: The Khmer Republic
forces were confined

to most of the major cities
of Cambodia,

surrounded almost everywhere
by communist forces.

So, the Communist guerrillas
and their military forces

were, in effect,
laying siege to all of the cities.

US airpower beat them back

with extremely high casualties
to the communist forces.

But at the same time,
the United States Congress

was growing increasingly angry

with policies of the Nixon
administration in Cambodia,

and by the end of 1973,

had forced a halt
to US bombing in Cambodia.

- We want out of Cambodia.
We want the bombing,

the senseless bombing to stop.

NARRATOR: As the United
States withdrew its troops

from Vietnam and Cambodia,
South Vietnamese forces

were also forced to withdraw,

weakening Lon Nol
government's resistance

against the communist guerrillas.

- Due to the vast devastation and
the increase in civilian harm,

it's argued that the
US bombing campaigns

directly contributed to
the rise of Pol Pot,

and the ruthless
Khmer Rouge.

Well, it gave the Khmer Rouge
a carte blanche

to conduct ruthless attacks
and acts of barbarism

that we know the Khmer Rouge
are known for.

You can directly link
that US bombing campaign

to the genocide that follows.

NARRATOR: On April 17, 1975,

the Khmer Rouge entered
the capital of Cambodia,

Phnom Penh, and deposed
the military dictatorship

of Lon Nol. Thus ended the bloody
Cambodian Civil War,

which had lasted for almost
a decade.

However, something far worse

was about to take hold
in the country...

the dictatorship of Pol Pot.

Saloth Sar was the youngest
of seven sons

from a wealthy landowner’s family.

After studying in Paris in the 1940s

he joined the French Communist Party

before returning to Cambodia
in 1953,

where he became one of the leaders
of the outlawed

Kampuchea Labor Party.

In the 1960s Saloth Sar hid
from government repression

in the jungle and formed
the communist militias,

rising to become
the General Secretary

of the Communist Party
of Kampuchea.

By the '70s, with the power of
the Khmer Rouge growing,

he changed his
name to Pol Pot

and persuaded the recently deposed
Prince Sihanouk to join his cause.

Once Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge
swept to power in April 1975,

Prince Sihanouk returned
to the country in triumph.

Sihanouk was given the
position of nominal head of state,

but it was clear that he
was merely a front man

and mouthpiece for the movement.

He felt powerless and
began to bicker

with his communist partners.
Eventually he resigned

and was held under house arrest.

- He ended up being a prisoner
in his own royal palace

and then they replaced
him with another Khmer Rouge,

Khieu Samphan.

NARRATOR: In 1976, a new
constitution came into force

and Cambodia was renamed
Democratic Kampuchea.

The Khmer Rouge’s government aimed
to establish a classless society

based on the expansion of
its agrarian economy.

Two million people were
expelled from Phnom Penh

and forced to retire to the
countryside to grow rice.

- It's difficult for most people
to comprehend

how horrible life was under
the Khmer Rouge regime.

The very first thing they did

was to empty Cambodia's cities

of all of their inhabitants.

Millions of people -

bankers, shopkeepers, policemen,

mothers, fathers, everyone -
were marched into the jungle

and ordered to hack out
new settlements,

basically, with
their bare hands.

And if this turned out to
be too difficult for you,

then you just died.

NARRATOR: Soon, the relentless
search for "traitors within"

the revolution, began.

- So, they began to
execute students,

people who were not

effectively parroting
communist slogans.

As their economic policies
continued to fail,

they decided there must be enemies

within their own organisation
and they began to

heavily purge their own
communist movement,

drastically weakening
their own forces,

executing their own most
well-educated members.

NARRATOR: The Khmer
Rouge prison system

and torture centres were barbaric.

In just one of them,
located in the capital

and known as S21,

it is estimated that
at least 14,000 people died.

- The brutality of the Khmer Rouge
government was legendary.

A friend of mine has written
about his sister

being killed by the Khmer Rouge

when they said that she
had stolen rice

or eaten rice without permission
or something or another

and so, she denied
it and they said she did.

And so, the way that they got
to the bottom of this

was to open her up,
slice her open

and see whether there
was rice in her belly.

It's legendary what they did,

they just, you know, did whatever
it is they needed to do

to get the answers they wanted,
which tended to be

scripted answers for
the party leadership.

NARRATOR: Terror reigned during
Pol Pot's five-year reign,

a dictatorship that would
change Cambodia forever.

- The Khmer Rouge eliminated money,

markets, modern medicine,

they eliminated religion.

They banned families
and broke them up,

insisting that all
love and affection

must be directed only to
the Communist Party.

- Cambodians lived in
complete dictatorship,

in fear of their lives.
My own father was killed.

My wife's father,
my father-in-law was also killed.

It was a regime that essentially
did not care about life.

NARRATOR: Between 1975 and 1979,

it’s estimated that the
Cambodian genocide,

led by Pol Pot's regime,
killed nearly two million people.

The consequences of the
Khmer Rouge regime

were also experienced
outside its borders.

Its relationship with Vietnam
was particularly volatile.

- After the Khmer Rouge
seized power in 1975,

communist forces throughout
the world -

Soviet Union, China,
and North Vietnam -

considered it a great victory.

However, immediately following
the Khmer Rouge victory...

..the Khmer Rouge began
to attack Vietnamese forces

along the border area
and offshore islands

that were disputed between
Cambodia and Vietnam,

and they also expelled

all ethnic
Vietnamese-Cambodian citizens.

These accumulating tensions

created conflict between
Cambodia and Vietnam,

which eventually resulted

in combat between their forces.

NARRATOR: At the end of 1978,

after three years of tensions
and almost continual skirmishing

along their shared border,
Vietnamese forces

invaded Cambodia and began

a powerful offensive
towards Phnom Penh.

The significantly smaller
Khmer Rouge military

could do little to stop them.

With Vietnam's victory imminent,

the Khmer Rouge released Sihanouk
to act as a spokesman,

in a plea for support from
the international community.

- Vietnam has aggressed us

since the beginning

of the present...

..dry season.

Vietnam has launched
against us...

..hundreds of tanks,

made in USSR.

Hundreds or thousands
of tanks, I must say.

NARRATOR:
In January 1979,

Vietnam forces arrived in the
Cambodian capital

and seized power, establishing

the People's Republic of Kampuchea,
backed by the Soviet Union.

Pol Pot's brutal rule
was finally at an end.

But the arrival of a pro-Soviet
government in Cambodia

further intensified the global
tensions of the Cold War.

Pol Pot found refuge in Thailand,

from where the Khmer Rouge
continued their struggle

to regain power in Cambodia.

Sihanouk broke away from them and
founded a new political party,

the United National Front
for a Neutral, Peaceful

and Cooperative Cambodia.

This would form part of an
anti-Vietnam coalition.

Joining Sihanouk’s
United National Front Party

in this coalition was the
Khmer National Unity Front,

founded in 1979 by former Cambodian
Prime Minister Son Sann,

and Pol Pot's Democratic
Kampuchea Party.

- They were supported
by the United States,

China, to a certain extent,
European forces,

Australian forces and countries

of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations.

NARRATOR: On the
22nd of June 1982,

the Coalition Government of
Democratic Kampuchea

was established in exile,
headed by Sihanouk,

with Son Sann as Prime Minister.

Although this government was
recognised by the United Nations,

within Cambodia's borders the
Vietnamese proxy government

continued to rule.

- This led to a very long standoff

throughout the 1980s,
when neither Vietnamese forces

backing the People's Republic
of Kampuchea

or Western forces and China,

backing the Khmer-Rouge-dominated

Coalition Government of
Democratic Kampuchea

could achieve victory
over one another.

NARRATOR: The UK, seeking
to undermine Soviet influence

in the region, began covert
intelligence operations

in support of the
Cambodian opposition,

conducted by its Special Forces.

- In the late 1970s,

Cambodia had a puppet
Soviet regime installed

and Thatcher sanctioned
special forces

to train rebels

who were engaged in civil war,
against the communist government.

The Americans were quite happy
that Britain

was doing this because this is post
Iran-Contra scandal.

And so, Reagan was quite happy
that Britain and Thatcher

were taking the lead here,

it took the heat off the Americans
a little bit.

NARRATOR: During the 1980s,
Cambodian cities

were repopulated and freedom of
movement within the country

was restored,
strengthening its economy.

Schools reopened and some
religious practices resumed.

But recovery was incredibly slow.

Western diplomatic and
economic sanctions

imposed on the nation due
to its Soviet affiliation,

remained in place.

- And as a result, Cambodia was
not allowed to receive aid.

And there was an embargo
on Cambodia.

NARRATOR: Hundreds of thousands
of Cambodians fled the country.

The refugee camps - some of which
had been set up

on the border with Thailand in the
Pol Pot era - were overflowing,

and the conflict continued
with little hope of resolution.

Many of these refugees
joined the struggle

of the Democratic Kampuchea
Coalition in exile.

By this time,
the Khmer Rouge was in decline,

riddled by factionalism
and desertions.

Although Pol Pot
ostensibly remained in charge,

his influence was waning.

His removal from the political
and military leadership

of the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1980s,
finally paved the way for peace.

- This ultimately led to
the Paris Peace Agreements

that resulted in a United Nations
peacekeeping operation

in Cambodia between 1991 and 1993.

And, ultimately, elections,

which led to a new coalition
government in Cambodia,

although the Khmer Rouge
finally did not agree

to participate in that government
or in the peace process.

So, there was effectively

another ten years of war in Cambodia

until the Khmer Rouge
were finally defeated.

NARRATOR: With peace agreements
finally in place,

a forensic examination
of the full horrors

that had persisted in the country
under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge,

could finally be carried out.

- Experts studying this question
over the last several decades

have come to the conclusion
that somewhere between

1.7 million and 2.2 million people

died during the Khmer Rouge regime,

which was approximately
one quarter

of the entire population
of Cambodia.

SOPHAL: Cambodia has been set back
decades economically.

Human resources lacking, their
targeting of educated individuals,

people who wear glasses,
for example, seen as

that means you may be able to read,
therefore you should be killed.

Really targeted.

Like, when we talk about these days
and complain about lawyers,

they really did kill all the lawyers
in Cambodia.

There were no more lawyers
as a result

and so, you can just imagine
how can laws be drafted?

How can you have judicial processes?

Judges today in Cambodia,
some of them are...

barely have even a
high school education

and they're sitting in judgement
of processes, people,

and so on that
they have no idea,

really, what in
the world they're doing,

and that's thanks to
the Khmer Rouge,

that's what happened
to the country.

NARRATOR: In 2006
a body was established

by the Cambodian government
and the United Nations,

to put the leaders of the
Khmer Rouge on trial.

The Extraordinary Chamber
of the Cambodia Tribunal,

as it was called, raised the
prospect of prosecutions

for war crimes,
as well as compensation

for those who lost
loved ones in the genocide.

But progress has been slow,

and convictions and settlements
hard to arrive at.

- In 2021,

15 years after it was founded
and began operations,

the Khmer Rouge Tribunal
in Cambodia

is still in operation
and over that entire time,

they have only managed
to achieve

three convictions of individuals

for war crimes, genocide, and other
crimes against humanity in Cambodia.

International prosecutors
at the tribunal

wanted to charge and try
several more people,

but the Cambodian government
has resisted that

on the fear that this could have

a negative impact on national
reconciliation in Cambodia.

NARRATOR: Reconciliation
for many survivors

of the Khmer Rouge genocide cannot
be achieved until justice is done.

Pol Pot may have died in April 1998,

but the very fact that he was
allowed to die peacefully,

from natural causes, rather than be
tried for his horrific crimes,

has only strengthened the resolve

of those courageous survivors in
their on-going fight for justice.

- (speaking Khmer)

Subtitles by Sky Access Services