The Cambodian genocide follows many of the same inevitable patterns established by previous genocidal regimes, like the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians during the First World War and Nazi Germany in World War II. According to Gregory H. Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, genocide is a process which develops in eight predictable stages. The process is not linear, however, and preventive measures taken by the international community can presumably stop it at any stage if there is a desire to do so – as we recently saw with NATO’s involvement in the Libyan uprising.

The first stage of genocide is classification, which categorizes people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or national origin. There is usually a strong religious element to those being persecuted, or in the case of communist Cambodia, an extremely non-religious element. The pattern of religious persecution and marginalization is present in virtually all genocides, particularly under communist regimes like China and the former Soviet Union. In Cambodia, the city-dwellers and intellectuals were considered “new” people who needed to be re-educated. The rural peasants were considered the virtuous “base” people. All others were looked upon as ‘enemies of the state’ including Buddhists monks, Muslim Chams, and ethnic Vietnamese, Thais and Chinese. New people were the root of all capitalist evil in the eyes of the Khmer Rouge.

Symbolization is the next stage, where names or other symbols are given to the classifications. People are labeled (sometimes physically) as “Jews”, “gypsies”, “New People” or “imperialist stooges”, which distinguish them from members of the dominant group, like the yellow Star of David for Jews under the Nazis or the Khmer Rouge’s blue scarf for people from the Eastern Zone in Cambodia. All city-dwellers and educated people became enemies of the new communist state. Religion, money and private ownership were all banned, communications with the outside world eliminated and family relationships were dismantled.

The next logical step toward genocide is de-humanization, where the dominant ethnic group denies the humanity of the other group (or groups). Members of the targeted factions are equated with animals, vermin, insects, or diseases like cancer. The Khmer Rouge deployed these tactics very effectively. De-humanization allows the perpetrators of war crimes to overcome the normal human revulsion against murder, especially against children and the elderly. State-sponsored hate propaganda is broadcast through the local media and is often used to vilify the victim group in order to incite violence against them. Citizens living in genocidal societies usually lack constitutional protections against government-sanctioned oppression. In the power vacuum that ensued following the rise of the KR, this was certainly the case.

Organization is the next stage. Genocide is always well-organized by the state. “Angka” literally means The Organization in Khmer. The Nazis had it down to a science, tracking Jews across Europe with the help of early computer technology acquired from IBM. The Khmer Rouge were clearly not as high-tech, but perhaps even more effective. Technology was anathema to the great new agrarian society which the KR hoped to create – but their methods were brutally efficient nonetheless. Whole families were killed and buried in mass graves. In most cases of genocide, local militias are utilized by the state to do the ‘dirty work’ to allow the government to deny any direct responsibility for the killings. Special army units or militias are often trained and armed, creating death-squads to quell any dissent and assassinate opposition members who might emerge. In Central and South America, many of these militia leaders were trained at the ‘School of the Americas’ now based in Fort Benning, Georgia. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge lieutenants were radicalized by French Marxists while studying in that country.

Genocidal societies drive local ethnic groups apart through polarization. Laws are passed forbidding social interaction with targeted ethnic groups, including intermarriage. State-sponsored groups broadcast divisive propaganda to the population. Community members are forced to spy on one another and make false accusations regarding their lack of loyalty to the state. This was true in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. During the first couple of years of the Khmer Rouge regime most Cambodians had no idea who was actually running the country. The Communist Party believed that secrecy was one of the best tools for controlling the population. All citizens were told was that the country was under the control of the all-powerful, all-knowing ‘Angka.’ No leaders were ever mentioned by name – there was only Angka. The less people knew about Angka the better, so the logic went.

It takes a lot of preparation for a society to move into the next phase of genocide. Victims are identified and separated based on their ethnic or religious identity. Lists of names are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols or sent away to work camps like many of the Cambodian children we studied in class. Their families’ property was taken from them on the pretext that the desire for personal wealth was the product of perverted western values. Citizens were forced to leave their homes in the city and deported to forced-labor camps. Borders were closed and people weren’t allowed to escape.

The most critical stage of genocide is extermination. In Cambodia the mass purges began soon after the Khmer Rouge came to power after much of the populace had been dispersed into the countryside, which became the ‘killing fields.’ To the perpetrators of genocide, the killing is considered ‘extermination’ rather than murder, because the killers do not believe their victims to be human. Families were rounded up and wiped out in order to eradicate entire bloodlines. Children were not spared in this form of genocide. In many cases, children were the specific targets.

The relative anonymity of those responsible for the genocide in Cambodia greatly assisted with the final stage of the genocide, which is denial. State denial always follows genocide. It is among the surest indicators that genocide has occurred, according to Stanton. The perpetrators deny that they committed any crimes and often blame the victims for what happened.

As we’ve seen both in Turkey and Cambodia, states accused of genocide try to block international investigations of the crimes. Rarely are those responsible for genocide brought to justice, and they usually continue to govern until driven from power and forced into exile where they remain with impunity. Unless there is a political will to capture them or a tribunal is established to try them, the perpetrators remain free. Pol Pot was forced into exile when the Vietnamese invaded in 1978, but unfortunately he died before any criminal charges could be brought against him.

The most tragic aspect of the Cambodian genocide is the sheer pointlessness of the endeavor. Absolutely nothing was accomplished by the KR other than complete and total destruction of Cambodian society and the death of millions of people. Thankfully, there is a renewed global emphasis on bringing those responsible for crimes against humanity to justice with the establishment of international bodies such as the ICC and the Cambodian Tribunal convened in 2003. The recent life sentence given to Kaing Guek Eav for his part in the Cambodian genocide is an encouraging development.