Persecution Around the World

What is Genocide?
The word 'genocide' was coined in 1944 to name a particularly shocking and horrific crime of violence which it was then believed could never happen again. That it has been put into practice so many times in one century is even more shocking. Genocide can start small as persecution in schools and communities and grow into something unbelievable.

Cambodia is a small country in South East Asia. It is less than half the size of California and is under the rule of a monarch, Prince Sihanouk. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge took power of the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge was a communist guerrilla group led by Pol Pot. During this time nearly 2 million Cambodians (25%) died by torture, execution, or starvation. They forced everyone to work twelve to forteen hours a day. The Khmer Rouge would take kids from their parents and force them to work. They would kill people for not working hard enough, if they were educated, if they came from different ethnic groups, or if they just did not like them. If people showed emotion when family members were taken to be killed, they were also killed. The cambodians fled to border camps in Thai, when the Vietnamese invaded and liberated the Cambodians from the Khmer Rouge. Even now Cambodia has not fully healed from this tragedy. At the end of the was about millions of landmines remained in the ground and about 850 were killed. It is predicted hat the country will not be clear of these devices until 2020.


Crisis in the Congo
The Democratic Republic of Congo (found in Central Africa) is one of the largest ongoing crises of humanitarian, not only is there a lot of violence but also disease and malnutrition causing 1,200 deaths a day. Africa is continuing what they call “Africa’s first World War” ever since 2003 when the former belligerents came together to form a transitional government. The rampant corruption and state weakness allows the national army and armed groups to abuses civilians. One of the largest peacekeeping corporations MONUC helped the country overcome major political and logistic problems. Less violence and beatings continue to happen. But the country still faces many problems such as substantial challenges like creation and recreation of the new institution of their army. Instead of the men abusing the civilians they would rather protect the civilians. As of right now DRC Crisis groups have been focusing on fixing these problems and creating peace. In the years last post-election the Crisis groups examined closely the critical issues such as army integration, police reform, economic government, and transitional justice.