Dangrek genocide

1979 Thai-Cambodian border incident

Dongrek genocide

Part of Cambodian genocide
Cambodian–Vietnamese War
Cambodian humanitarian crisis

Dangrek Mountain Range

Location| Cambodia–Thailand border
Date| 8 June 1979
Target| Sino-Khmer refugees in Thailand

Attack type

| Genocide,[citation needed] death march
Deaths| 400–10,000
Perpetrators| Royal Thai Army
Khmer Rouge
Vietnam

The Dangrek genocide, also known as the Preah Vihear pushback, is a border incident which took place along the Dangrek Mountain Range on the Thai-Cambodian border which resulted in the death of many mostly Sino-Khmer refugees who were refused asylum by the Kingdom of Thailand in June 1979.

## Context: fleeing the famine after the fall of the Khmer Rouge

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Main article: Cambodian–Vietnamese War

In early 1979, Vietnamese forces overthrew the Democratic Kampuchea regime in neighboring Cambodia. The Vietnamese soldiers swept through the country and reached the armed camp of the Khmer Rouge in the Dangrek Mountains on the Cambodian–Thai border.[1] Tired of war and starved by famine after three years of rule by the Khmer Rouge, many Cambodians of the northwest wanted to avoid forced conscription or retaliation by seeking asylum in neighboring Thailand.

The Dega people who had been leading the Montagnard resistance against the Hanoi Communist regime also used the opportunity in hope of reaching out to the West, but many were caught by the Khmer Rouge soldiers under Son Sen who forced them to fight back against the Vietnamese as their "common enemy". However, in an attempt to impede them from escaping, mines were planted all around the camps where the Dega people were detained, killing and wounding many of them.[1]

Approximately 140,000 Khmer refugees sought asylum in Thailand between spring and early fall of 1979. The number of refugee-seekers in Thailand reached one percent of its total population.[2]

## Timeline

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### March 1979: closing the Thai border

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In March 1979, fearing an overwhelming flow of refugees, Thailand announced that it was closing and mining it borders. In the no man's land along the border between Thailand and Cambodia, refugee camps started to spring. Thai officials developed a policy of "humane deterrence" in order to reduce of number of Khmer refugees in those camps. These were no longer referred to as refugees but as illegal immigrants. The camps were provided only with the bare necessities. Newcomers were refused the right to interview with international representatives in order to be relocated abroad.[2]

### June 1979: the Dangrek genocide

[edit]

In June 1979, the Royal Thai Army forced some 43,000 to 45,000 Cambodian refugees who had crossed into Thailand back into Cambodia.

Khmer refugees who were scattered across Aranyaprathet district were forced into buses and driven to the Dangrek mountain range more than 300 kilometers away. From there they were forced to walk down the "Dangrek escarpment, a mountainous and thickly forested ridge".[3] Among the refugees were many vulnerable families with children, including Mengly Jandy Quach, a Khmer refugee who described the ordeal in his autobiography.[4] Like him, many of the Khmer refugees were of Chinese ancestry.[5]

It is estimated that thousands of Khmer refugees died in what has been referred to as the Dangrek genocide.[6] most died from dehydration, diarrhoea, and mines which had been placed in the area both by the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese invading army.

### October 1979: from the Geneva Conference to a diplomatic solution

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The news of these tragic events in the Dangrek mountains stirred public opinion and caused international outrage. In order to address the tragedy faced by Indochinese refugees, a meeting was held on 23 July 1979 at United Nations Human Rights Council headquarters at Geneva, convened by the World Council of Churches, under the chairmanship of the Deputy High Commissioner, which was attended by representatives of more than 60 nations.[7] Thai Foreign Minister Uppadis Pachariyangkun was accused of using this humanitarian crisis to obtain a political victory by forcing the Vietnamese to retreat, which the latter refused to discuss.[8]

In October 1979 Prime Minister Kriangsak Chamanan visited the border and was so visibly shaken by the misery he witnessed.[9]

By the end of 1979, the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Food Program developed a massive response on the border which in turn attracted more refugees and led to the creation of a number of refugee camps.[3] Thus, Sa Kaeo Refugee Camp was set up "almost overnight" in October 1979 . Rosalynn Carter visited the camp in November 1979.[10] In November 1979, the largest camp, Khao-I-Dang, was opened. More Khmer refugees came fleeing the K5 Plan run by the Vietnamese occupation army which forced conscription on Khmer men in an attempt to build a "bamboo wall" as a Southeast Asian version of the Iron Curtain to protect Cambodia from Thai invasion.

However, after elections changed the government in Thailand, the open border policy was overturned and the Thai border was closed again by new Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda in January 1980, citing fear that the Khmer Rouge would infiltrate Thailand that way.[11] In fact, out of all the refugee camps, five of them, including Site 8, were dominated by the Khmer Rouge.[12] The Thai government created a new word, evacuees, in order to signify that the refugees would only be welcomed temporarily and that they had to be relocated elsewhere as soon as possible.[13]

## Aftermath

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Sunrise on the Dangrek mountains.

### Nurturing the Anti-Siamese sentiment of the Khmer

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Because tens of thousands of Khmers had been forced by famine to find refuge in Thailand, the violent response by the Thai authorities left a mark on the modern conscience.[14] More specifically, the inhumane treatment of Khmer refugees has fuelled anti-Siamese sentiment in Cambodia. The anti-Thai riots of 2003 in Cambodia were filled with the memory of the violence inflicted on the refugees in Dangrek mountains.[6] The Dangrek events fuelled not only anti-Siamese sentiment but also anti-Vietnamese as the Khmer Rouge used the atrocities in Dongrek as a platform for lobbying against the Vietnamese occupation.[15]

### Thai-Cambodian border dispute

[edit]

Main article: Cambodian–Thai border dispute

The Dangrek incident was one moment in a series of violent events along the Thai-Cambodian border. Without going back to the battle of Siemreap and the fall of Angkor in 1432, it appears that the long-running border dispute between Cambodian and Thailand fuelled the deportation of thousands of refugees to Dangrek.[original research?] While the Thai authorities claimed that it was the safest point to drop the Khmer refugees at, it may well have been symbolic retaliation after the International Court of Justice's 1964 decision which awarded the control of the Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia.[5] According to the 1904 treaty which followed the 1893 Franco-Siamese crisis, the border in this area of the Dangrek mountain range followed the watershed.[16]

### Demining along the border

[edit]

Main article: Land mines in Cambodia

In the aftermath of war, it has taken decades to take out the landmines left behind by the Khmer Rouge, Thai and Vietnamese soldiers in the Dangrek mountain range, and more generally across Cambodia.

## References

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1. ^ a b Kiernan, Ben (2017). Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present. Oxford University Press. p. 460\. ISBN 978-0-19-516076-5.
2. ^ a b Kim, Audrey U. (2003). Not Just Victims: Conversations with Cambodian Community Leaders in the United States. University of Illinois Press. p. 25\. ISBN 978-0-252-07101-0.
3. ^ a b Physicians for Human Rights (1991). Land Mines in Cambodia: The Coward's War, September 1991. Human Rights Watch. p. 25\. ISBN 978-1-56432-001-8.
4. ^ Quach, Mengly J. (2018). ភ្នំដងរែក: ទីពុំអាចភ្លេច [Dangrek mountains: unforgettable] (in Khmer). Mengly J. Quach University Press. ISBN 978-9924-508-11-3.
5. ^ a b Kamm, Henry (1979-06-12). "Thais Deport 30,000 Cambodians While Others Continue to Arrive". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
6. ^ a b Hinton, Alexander (2006). "Khmerness and the Thai 'Other': Violence, Discourse and Symbolism in the 2003 Anti-Thai Riots in Cambodia". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 37 (3): 445–468\. doi:10.1017/S0022463406000737. ISSN 0022-4634. JSTOR 20071786. S2CID 162779371.
7. ^ Stein, Barry (1979). "The Geneva Conferences and the Indochinese Refugee Crisis". The International Migration Review. 13 (4): 716–723\. doi:10.2307/2545184. ISSN 0197-9183. JSTOR 2545184.
8. ^ Chapman, William (1979-07-19). "Geneva Conference on Refugees Faces Divisions". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
9. ^ Chan, Sucheng (2004-05-05). Survivors: Cambodian refugees in the United States. University of Illinois Press. p. 48\. ISBN 978-0-252-07179-9.
10. ^ Kamm, Henry (1979-11-10). "Mrs. Carter Visits Thai Camp: 'It's Like Nothing I've Seen'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
11. ^ Robinson, Courtland (2000). "Refugee warriors at the Thai-Cambodian border". Refugee Survey Quarterly. 19 (1): 23–37\. doi:10.1093/rsq/19.1.23. ISSN 1020-4067. JSTOR 45053197.
12. ^ Widener, Jeff (1993-01-22). "Last Khmer Rouge Refugee Camp Closes". AP NEWS. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
13. ^ Kim, Audrey U. (2003). Not Just Victims: Conversations with Cambodian Community Leaders in the United States. University of Illinois Press. p. 27\. ISBN 978-0-252-07101-0.
14. ^ Shawcross, William (1985). The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust and Modern Conscience. Fontana. pp. 90–92\. ISBN 978-0-00-636972-1.
15. ^ Cambodia Office of the Prime Minister (1985). Evidence of Atrocities Committed by the Occupation Forces of the Social Republic of Vietname Against the Civilian Population of Dangrek in Western Kampuchea on 24 January 1985. Office of the Prime Minister, Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea.
16. ^ Jenne, Nicole (2017). "The Thai–Cambodian Border Dispute: An Agency-centred Perspective on the Management of Interstate Conflict". Contemporary Southeast Asia. 39 (2): 315–347\. doi:10.1355/cs39-2c. ISSN 0129-797X. JSTOR 44683772. S2CID 148823216.

## Bibliography

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* Van, Ly; Ly, Van Aggadipo (2010). O! Maha Mount Dangrek: Poetry of Cambodian Refugee Experiences. Cambodian Expressions. ISBN 978-1-4507-0519-6.

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Cambodian genocide

Ideologies|

* Ultranationalism
* Ethnonationalism
* New People
* Year Zero
* Khmer nationalism
* Totalitarianism
* Chinese-style socialism
* Marxism-Leninism (elements)

Crimes|

* Killing caves of Phnom Sampeau
* Killing Fields
* Ba Chúc massacre
* Thổ Chu Island massacre
* S-21
* Eastern Zone massacres
* Choeung Ek
* Dangrek genocide

Perpetrators|

* "Angkar"
* Pol Pot
* Nuon Chea
* Ieng Sary
* Khieu Samphan
* Son Sen
* Ta Mok
* Khmer Rouge
* Communist Party of Kampuchea
* Liberation Army of Kampuchea
* Santebal
* Kang Kek Iew
* Mam Nai
* Tang Sin Hean

Victims|

* Bun Chanmol
* Chau Seng
* Chou Chet
* Hu Nim
* John Dawson Dewhirst
* Joseph Chhmar Salas
* Keo Meas
* Kerry Hamill
* Koy Thuon
* Ly Theam Teng
* Michael S. Deeds
* Ney Sarann
* Non Suon
* Phouk Chhay
* Tauch Phoeun
* Trinh Hoanh
* Paul Tep Im Sotha
* So Phim
* Tiv Ol
* Vorn Vet

Survivors|

* Bou Meng
* Chum Mey
* Dith Pran
* Haing S. Ngor
* Kim Sathavy
* Mengly Jandy Quach
* Prum Manh
* Vann Nath

Investigations|

* People's Revolutionary Tribunal
* Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
* Documentation Center of Cambodia
* Bophana Center

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