The Khmer Rouge started off as a Maoist, guerilla group in the Cambodian jungles. Run by a despot named Pol Pot, they overthrew the Cambodian government in 1975 starting a four year reign of terror. In an effort to transform Cambodia into an agrarian society, Pol Pot emptied the cities forcing people into the country where hundreds of thousands were either starved to death, slaughtered or simply worked to death. Phnom Penh, the capital city with a current population of over 1.2 million, was turned into a ghost town in the late 70s. The regime’s motto was “To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss” and certainly they lived by it. There were mass executions of former government loyalists, intellectuals (this included people wearing glasses which indicated they could read) and non Cambodians such as Vietnamese and Chinese. Religious groups were also targeted particularly Christians and Muslims. Though, the Khmer Rouge were finally ousted by the Vietnamese in 1979, it’s estimated the Khmer killed 1.7 million Cambodians — nearly 20% of …