VOV News01/06/2009
Thirty years ago on January 7, a red flag with five yellow towers at its centre, signifying the Cambodian United Front for National Salvation, fluttered high above Phnom Penh, marking the fall of the genocidal Pol Pot regime and the start of national reconstruction in the war-torn country.
The genocide in Cambodia originated from the brutal dictatorship of a group of intellectuals represented by Saloth Sar known as Pol Pot. Unlike fascist dictator Adolf Hitler who suffered a bitter defeat in the end due to the capitalist policy, Pol Pot thought that he would succeed in establishing a dictatorship in Cambodia hold on to power and build communism in the country.
To realize his plan, he founded a military-ruled communist party known as the Khmer Rouge in which all Party members knew how to use guns. He acted as General Secretary and Commander in chief.
On April 17, 1975, Khmer Rouge guerrillas marched into Phnom Penh, four days after US Ambassador to Cambodia John Gunther Dean and acting Cambodian president General So kom Khoi fled the country. Four years later, Cambodia fell victim to a genocidal regime under the leadership of Pol Pot. He planned to build a special communist society in which only Khmer people were respected. City-dwellers were forced to move into rural areas and the entire population, including monks and intellectuals, had to work in Khmer Rouge-ruled communes. All non-Khmer people were tortured or executed. According to statistics, more than 3 million people were killed in the country, where there has been no freedom and no human rights but blood and tears. Cambodia was on the brink of mass genocide.
After April 17, 1974, Pol Pot alleged that Vietnam had developed a scheme to establish the Union of Indochina with the aim of taking over Cambodia. Besides chasing away and killing Vietnamese nationals in Cambodia, on May 10, 1975, the Khmer Rouge deployed its troops on Vietnam’s Tho Chu islands, arresting and killing hundreds of local islanders.
On April 30, 1977, the Khmer Rouge deployed 13 key divisions to launch attacks on Vietnam along the border. In late 1978, it sent in 19 out of its 23 key divisions to attack the Ben Soi area in the south-western border province of Tay Ninh in an attempt to support reactionary forces to overthrow the newly-established administration in Ho Chi Minh City.
However, three of its regular divisions were smashed by Vietnamese forces and its plot to overthrow the young administration was foiled.
On December 2, 1978, the Cambodia National News Agency and national radio announced that the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) had established the Cambodian United Front for National Salvation and released an appeal to the Cambodian people for support in their cause. On December 25, 1978, Vietnamese and Cambodian soldiers jointly launched counterattacks against the Khmer Rouge and liberated Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979. Pol Pot fled and his dictatorship crumbled into dust.
After the victory, the Cambodian people got down to work on the national reconstruction process under the leadership of the CPP. To defend the fruits of the revolution, in addition to Vietnamese volunteer soldiers, Cambodia asked Vietnam to send its specialists to the war-torn nation.
As a result, Cambodia alleviated hunger between 1979-1980 and gradually revamped its economy to meet its people’s needs. On September 27, 1989, all Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and specialists withdrew from Cambodia, completing their international humanitarian mission. The withdrawal testified to the fact that the Cambodian people had successfully escaped from the genocidal regime and begun to rebuild the country.
At a get-together in Phnom Penh on January 7, 1989 to mark their 10-year presence, State President Heng Somrin said that the Cambodian people would forever remember in their hearts and minds the great contributions to their nation by Vietnamese specialists and volunteer soldiers. In recent years, Cambodia has recorded notable socio-economic achievements with its annual GDP per capita increasing to US$589 and likely to hit US$1,000 by 2015, and its poverty rate dropping from 35 percent in 2004 to 31 percent in 2007.
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