Home » Images » 0004 Pictures From History » CPA0001547

Cambodia: Sihanouk poses in Khmer Rouge black pyjamas and chequered krama in front of Angkor Wat. Khmer Rouge propaganda pamphlet (1973).

Between 1970 and 1975 Norodom Sihanouk was nominally head of the Khmer Rouge-dominated Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea (acronym from the French GRUNK), the opposition to Lon Nol's pro-American Khmer Republic. In 1973 he travelled from Beijing to the Khmer Rouge 'liberated zone' of Cambodia for propaganda purposes.

The Khmer Rouge, or Communist Party of Kampuchea, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan. It is remembered primarily for its brutality and policy of social engineering which resulted in millions of deaths. Its attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, even in the supply of medicine, led to the deaths of thousands from treatable diseases (such as malaria). Brutal and arbitrary executions and torture carried out by its cadres against perceived subversive elements, or during purges of its own ranks between 1976 and 1978, are considered to have constituted a genocide. Several former Khmer Rouge cadres are currently on trial for war crimes in Phnom Penh.