Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge government of Democratic Kampuchea targeted Cambodia's Cham Muslim minority for the destruction of its distinct religious and ethnic identity, closing and demolishing mosques, burning copies of the Quran, and banning the Cham language, traditional dress and personal names. In September 1975, Cham villagers at Koh Phal and Svay Khleang in Kampong Cham province rose up against these policies with machetes and swords; the Khmer Rouge crushed both revolts and killed nearly the entire population of both villages, later renaming Koh Phal Koh Pheh, Island of Ashes. Academic demographic studies converge on roughly a third of the pre-war Cham population killed by the time the regime fell in January 1979. In November 2018, Cambodia's United Nations backed tribunal found that genocide had been committed against the Cham.
Facts
Status
Official Recognition Recognition BasisThe Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia's Trial Chamber convicted Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's deputy secretary, of genocide against the Cham, and separately against the Vietnamese minority, on 16 November 2018, based on his superior responsibility for the killings. Nuon Chea died on 4 August 2019 while his appeal against that verdict was still pending, and the tribunal issued a Decision to Terminate Proceedings against him on 13 August 2019: his conviction never became final, and the genocide against the Cham finding was never tested by the Supreme Court Chamber on appeal. His co-defendant Khieu Samphan was convicted at the same trial of genocide against the Vietnamese minority only, not against the Cham; the Supreme Court Chamber affirmed Khieu Samphan's own conviction on 22 September 2022, closing Case 002/02, but that appeal did not review a Cham genocide finding, because Khieu Samphan had never been convicted on that count. The genocide against the Cham finding therefore stands as a 2018 trial verdict that was never reviewed on appeal, not as a finding upheld or reaffirmed by the tribunal's highest chamber. 1 Consequences
Death TollBen Kiernan's demographic analysis of the Cambodian genocide, the same 1975 Cham population and mortality dataset published in his 2003 Critical Asian Studies article "The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia" and in his book The Pol Pot Regime, puts the 1975 Cham population at 250,000 and Cham deaths at approximately 90,000, a 36 percent death rate, roughly double the 15 to 20 percent rate Kiernan estimates for the Khmer population as a whole. Death TollFarina So, who directs the Documentation Center of Cambodia's Cham Oral History project, independently estimates the same 36 percent death rate against a higher pre-war population estimate of 300,000, yielding approximately 108,000 deaths; the figure here is calculated from her stated percentage rather than a number she gives directly. The two estimates converge closely on proportion, 36 percent in both, while differing on the assumed pre-war population. The Event
When It Happened1975 to 1979 (the Democratic Kampuchea period) 1 Victim GroupThe Cham Muslim minority of Cambodia, the country's largest religious minority, targeted for the destruction of their distinct ethnic, linguistic and Islamic religious identity 2 Perpetrator RegimeDemocratic Kampuchea (1975 to 1979) under the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge government led by Pol Pot as prime minister 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Case 002/02 case record (eccc.gov.kh)Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
Conducted By
Source Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Case 002/02 case record (eccc.gov.kh)Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
Persecuted Group
Source Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Case 002/02 case record (eccc.gov.kh)Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
Sources
1. Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Case 002/02 case record (eccc.gov.kh)
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, 2022ECCC Case 002/02 case recordQuote, ECCC Case 002/02 case record
Genocide of the Vietnamese and Cham groups
2. Ben Kiernan, "The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79" (Yale University Press)
3. The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News), "Did the Khmer Rouge Commit Genocide?"
The New Humanitarian, The New Humanitarian, 2015https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/report/101989/did-khmer-rouge-commit-genocideQuote, https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/report/101989/did-khmer-rouge-commit-genocide
Farina So, who heads the Centre of Gender and Ethnic Studies at the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), a research group, reckons 36 percent of the estimated pre-war Cham population of 300,000 died under the regime
David Hutt, "Revealing Cambodia's Secret Khmer Rouge Resistance," Southeast Asia Globe (2016)
David Hutt, Southeast Asia Globe, 2016Southeast Asia Globe article, 2016Quote, Southeast Asia Globe article, 2016
Following the Khmer Rouge's vehement attempts to eradicate Islamic practices, two large rebellions broke out in the villages of Koh Phal and Svay Khleang, both in Kampong Cham province.
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