Marshall Islands 20th Anniversary of The Killing Fields in Kampuchea

MARSHALL ISLANDS on 15 November 1999 issued a First Day Cover stamp recalling the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime's "killing fields" of Cambodia. This 20th anniversary stamp originated from Majuro, Marshall Islands. The Cambodian journalist Dith Pran coined the term "killing fields" after his escape from the Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pot.

From 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge Communist political party in a reign of violence, fear, and brutality over Cambodia. It was an attempt in social engineering to create a classless agrarian society, which  resulted in the deaths of 25% of the population from starvation, overwork, and executions.

The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Cham, Cambodian Christians, and Buddhist monks were the demographic targets of persecution.

 

It is estimated the the total deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including death from disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million. The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek is one of the places, just outside of Phnom Penh, where a mass grave for an estimated 20,000 people is located.

In 1979, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime, ending the genocide.

Source: Wikipedia