Forced Labor
In Democratic Kampuchea, everyone who was in cooperatives, was allocated to work, not excluding young children. Young children were ordered to perform light tasks and anyone over the age of 14 was considered as adults. Adults were given the most difficult jobs such as digging canals or reservoirs, building dikes, cutting logs, clearing land for cultivation and plating and harvesting rice.
Only a few thousands of men and women were trusted by the party and sent to work in factories in Phnom Penh. Everyone involved in labor worked more than 12 hours a day, 7 days a week without resting or getting enough food. Sometimes they had to work from noon to midnight if the moon was still bright (otherwise, fires would be set to illuminate the rice fields).
If people working seemed to have doubt about the assignment given to them, their cooperative chiefs called them enemies of the revolution and they were sent to be re-educated. Repeated or serious mistakes made by workers could lead to punishment or execution.
Khamboly, Dy. A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979) . [Phnom Penh, Cambodia]: Documentation Center of Cambodia, 2007 . Print. Chapter 7. Page 37
Source analysis
Source 7
In Democratic Kampuchea, everyone who was in cooperatives, was allocated to work, not excluding young children. Young children were ordered to perform light tasks and anyone over the age of 14 was considered as adults. Adults were given the most difficult jobs such as digging canals or reservoirs, building dikes, cutting logs, clearing land for cultivation and plating and harvesting rice.
Only a few thousands of men and women were trusted by the party and sent to work in factories in Phnom Penh. Everyone involved in labor worked more than 12 hours a day, 7 days a week without resting or getting enough food. Sometimes they had to work from noon to midnight if the moon was still bright (otherwise, fires would be set to illuminate the rice fields).
If people working seemed to have doubt about the assignment given to them, their cooperative chiefs called them enemies of the revolution and they were sent to be re-educated. Repeated or serious mistakes made by workers could lead to punishment or execution.
Khamboly, Dy. A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979) . [Phnom Penh, Cambodia]: Documentation Center of Cambodia, 2007 . Print. Chapter 7. Page 37
Source analysis
Source 7
Khamboly, Dy. A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979) . [Phnom Penh, Cambodia]: Documentation Center of Cambodia, 2007 . Print. Chapter 7. Page 37
In the picture, people are celebrating after completing an irrigation project. Who took this picture and when it was taken, is unknown, but Documentation Center of Cambodia Achieves saved and kept this source. This source shows how many people were put into work on irrigation project. We can see very young people from the picture, which explains how forceful that the Khmer Rouge's regime ordered any people, even young ones to work for them. There are also many females in the source, which makes clear that both women and men were forced to work regardless their age and sex.It reflect the working situation that people had to work in during Khmer Rouge. However, Just like source 6, it's not easy to find the purpose of this picture. The document seems to support the true situation of people who had to work so harshly under the orders from above. It's not clear about how this source was used and who was the intended audience. Picture type source has limitation like this, which we have to guess what the author is trying to say. It's also hard to tell more on the surface.
How does it violate human right?
Human Right Article 23.
Human Right Article 23.
- (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
- (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
- (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
- (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.