How was the events that took place in Cambodia a genocide?

by ali239

Hey, I was wondering why the events that took place in Cambodia are classified as genocide. Wouldn't it be classified more as crimes against humanity? I'm doing research for a school assignment and I've seen people refer to the events as genocide when I can't find any indication of Khmer Rogue targeting a specific racial/ethnic group, as they were mainly targeting educated people (doctors, teachers, etc.) and people who follow any religion. Could you please clear things up for me?

jschooltiger

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Metzger90

According to Marriam-Webster a genocide can include the killing of a political group, as well as racial, ethnic or religious groups. The main targets of the Khmer Rouge's genocide was the urban population of Cambodia because they wanted to create a completely agricultural society to usher in their vision of a Marxist society as well as insulate the population from foreign influences. When the urban population was forced into the countryside they were expected to produce three times as much rice per hectare as was previously possible. The fact that people from the city, who had no knowledge of farming were expected to do this obviously lead to problems, on top of this any foraging was usually pubished. Working hours were usually around 12 hours a day without rest or food. Also many other forms of food production such as fishing were banned fairly early on. Basically it was a genocide because the policies put in place were clearly designed to target and kill the urban population of Cambodia either by famine or direct government action.

The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khemer Rouge, 1975-1979 by Ben Kiernan