This book contains photographs and essays on the lives of 51 men and women, who joined the Khmer Rouge during the 1960s and 1970s. They were what the Khmer Rouge called “base people”: those from the peasant class who generally were treated less harshly than the “new people” (city dwellers and those associated with the former Lon Nol regime). The people profiled here served the Khmer Rouge as farmers, soldiers, security personnel, or cadres (those with some degree of command responsibility). Although most Cambodians view the former Khmer Rouge as cruel and sometimes evil, this book shows that they and their families faced the same struggles and hardships as their victims, and points to our common humanity.
Funding provided by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).