The Khmer Rouge is the name which was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension it was also given to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name had been coined in the 1950s by Norodom Sihanouk as a blanket term for the Cambodian left.
Pol Pot was a Cambodian revolutionary and politician who governed Cambodia as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1979. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Khmer nationalist, he was a leading member of Cambodia's communist movement, the Khmer Rouge, from 1963 until 1997 and served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981. Under his administration, Cambodia was converted into a one-party communist state governed according to Pol Pot's interpretation of Marxism–Leninism.
Phnom Penh, formerly known as Krong Chaktomuk Serimongkul or shortly known as Krong Chaktomuk, is the capital and most populous city in Cambodia. Phnom Penh has been the national capital since French colonization of Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's economic, industrial, and cultural center.
The Kingdom of Cambodia, also known as the First Kingdom of Cambodia and the Sangkum Reastr Niyum regime, referred to Norodom Sihanouk's first administration of Cambodia from 1953 to 1970, an especially significant time in the country's history. Sihanouk continues to be one of the most controversial figures in Southeast Asia's turbulent and often tragic postwar history.
Kang Kek Iew or Kaing Kek Iev, also romanized as Kaing Guek Eav, nom de guerre Comrade Duch or Deuch (មិត្តឌុច); or Hang Pin, is a Cambodian war criminal and former leader in the Khmer Rouge movement, which ruled Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. As the head of the government's internal security branch (Santebal), he oversaw the Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp where thousands were held for interrogation and torture, after which the vast majority of these prisoners were eventually executed.
Sinn Sisamouth was an influential and highly prolific Cambodian singer-songwriter from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Son Sen, alias Comrade Khieu (សមមិត្តខៀវ), was a Cambodian Communist politician and soldier. A member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea/Party of Democratic Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge, from 1974 to 1992, Sen oversaw the Party's security apparatus, including the Santebal secret police and the notorious security prison S-21 at Tuol Sleng.
Rithy Panh is a Cambodian documentary film director and screenwriter.
Long Boret or Long Boreth was a Cambodian politician who served as Prime Minister of the Khmer Republic from December 26, 1973, to April 17, 1975. Highly regarded for his honesty, he tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a peace settlement with the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian Civil War. He was later arrested by the Khmer Rouge and executed. He is one of two Prime Ministers to die in office, the other being Chan Sy.
Cinema in Cambodia began in the 1950s, and many films were being screened in theaters throughout the country by the 1960s, which are regarded as the "golden age". After a near-disappearance during the Khmer Rouge regime, competition from video and television has meant that the Cambodian film industry is a small one.
The Phnom Penh Post is a daily English-language newspaper published in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Founded in 1992 by publisher Michael Hayes and Kathleen O'Keefe, it is Cambodia's oldest English-language newspaper. The paper was initially published fortnightly as a full-color tabloid; in 2008 it increased frequency to daily publication and redesigned the format as a Berliner. The Phnom Penh Post is also available in Khmer language. It previously published a weekend magazine, 7Days, in its Friday edition. Since July 2014, it has published a weekly edition on Saturdays called Post Weekend. Post Weekend was folded into the paper as a Friday supplement in 2017 and was discontinued in 2018.
Son Ngoc Thanh was a Cambodian nationalist and republican politician, with a long history as a rebel and a government minister.
Soth Polin is a famous Khmer writer. His maternal great-grandfather was the poet Nou Kan. He grew up speaking both French and Khmer. Throughout his youth, he immersed himself in the classical literature of Cambodia and, at the same time, the literature and the philosophy of the West.
The Royal University of Phnom Penh is a national university of Cambodia, located in the capital Phnom Penh. Established in 1960, it is the country's largest university. It hosts around 20,000 students in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. It offers degrees in fields such as sciences, humanities and social sciences, engineering as well as vocational courses in fields such as information technology, electronics, psychology and tourism. RUPP provides Cambodia's foremost degree-level language programs through the Institute of Foreign Languages. RUPP has full membership in the ASEAN University Network (AUN).
Education in Cambodia is controlled by the state through the Ministry of Education in a national level and by the Department of Education at the provincial level. The Constitution of Cambodia establishes that the state shall protect and upgrade citizen's rights to quality education at all levels, guaranteeing that all citizens have equal opportunity to earn a living. The state shall adopt an education program "according to the principle of modern pedagogy including technology and foreign languages," as well as the state controls public and private schools and classrooms at all levels. The Cambodian education system includes pre-school, primary, general secondary, higher education and non-formal education. The education system includes the development of sport, information technology education, research development and technical education. School enrollment has increased during the 2000s in Cambodia. USAID data shows that in 2011 primary enrollment reached 96% of the child population, lower secondary school 34% and upper secondary 21%.
Buddhism is the official religion of Cambodia. Approximately 98% of Cambodia's population follows Theravada Buddhism, with Islam, Christianity, and tribal animism making up the bulk of the small remainder. The wat and Sangha (monkhood), together with essential Buddhist doctrines such as reincarnation and the accumulation of merit, are at the centre of religious life, but interact with indigenous beliefs such as the central role of ancestors and spirits.
The Khmer Writers Association was established in 1954 or 1956, and re-established in 1993 as a non-governmental organization. Previously located at 465 Bd. Preah Monawang, it is currently located at Oknha Suor Srun, Wat Botum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Keng Vannsak was a Cambodian scholar, philosopher and Khmer linguist. He invented the Khmer typewriter keyboard in 1952. He had lived in exile in Paris, France, from 1970 until his death in 2008. He died at the age of eighty-three at the hospital of Montmorency in the outskirts of Paris after suffering from a chronic illness.
Chuth Khay / ខ្ជិត ខ្យៃ is a Cambodian writer and translator. He was born in 1940 in Koh Somrong, Cambodia, an island on the Mekong about one hundred kilometers north of the capital. The youngest son, he was the only one in a family of ten children to attend a Western school. He pursued primary and secondary studies in Kampong Cham. While working as a teacher of French, he attended classes at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, and in 1968, received his law degree. Opposed to the monarchy, he became a legal advisor to the Ministry of Defense after Sihanouk's removal from power in 1970. From 1973 to 1974, he served as interim dean of the law school. In 1973, he published two successful collections of short stories: Ghouls, Ghosts, and Other Infernal Creatures and Widow of Five Husbands. He also wrote for Soth Polin's newspaper, Nokor Thom (នគរធំ), and published his books and translations with its publishing house. Forced into the countryside by the Khmer Rouge, he miraculously escaped death by pretending to be mute. Granted refuge in France in 1980 and French citizenship, he took the name Chuth Chance, for receiving a second chance in life. He worked for several years as a taxi driver, and is now retired and lives near Paris.
Yoeun Mek was a Cambodian musician who joined the Cambodian Master Performers Program in 1999, an organization founded by his friend Arn Chorn-Pond to preserve Cambodian music, arts and rituals and keep traditional instruments from going extinct. The program, in its quest to preserve Khmer music, sought out Cambodia's "nearly extinct instruments and the people who can make and play them." 80-90% of the musicians of the country were "purged" by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. Out of the people who could play the traditional instruments to a high level, the Cambodian Master Performers Program estimated that only 100 to 200 musicians had survived the executions, which targeted almost everyone with an education, those who understood a foreign language, and many artists.