In 1975 after the US abandoned southeast asia to it's fate, the khmer rouge moved into the capital of cambodia, phnom penh. They rounded up the city's urban, middles class population, and marched them into the country side. The formerly bustling city became a ghost town, like in sci fi movies. The people were told it was necessary to "avoid american bombing".

What took place next, from wiki:

Quote:
Money was abolished, books were burned, teachers, merchants, and almost the entire intellectual elite of the country were murdered, to make the agricultural communism, as Pol Pot envisioned it, a reality. The planned relocation to the countryside resulted in the complete halt of almost all economic activity: even schools and hospitals were closed, as well as banks, and industrial and service companies.

During their four years in power, the Khmer Rouge overworked and starved the population, at the same time executing selected groups who had the potential to undermine the new state (including intellectuals or even those that had stereotypical signs of learning, such as glasses) and killing many others for even breaching minor rules.

Cambodians were expected to produce three tons of rice per hectare; before the Khmer Rouge era, the average was only one ton per hectare. The Khmer Rouge forced people to work for 12 hours non-stop, without adequate rest or food. They did not believe in western medicine but instead favoured traditional peasant medicine; many died as a result.

Family relationships not sanctioned by the state were also banned, and family members could be put to death for communicating with each other. In any case, family members were often relocated to different parts of the country with all postal and telephone services abolished.

The total lack of agricultural knowledge by the former city dwellers made famine inevitable. Rural dwellers were often unsympathetic or too frightened to assist them. Such acts as picking wild fruit or berries was seen as "private enterprise" for which the death penalty applied.

The Khmer language has a complex system of usages to define speakers' rank and social status. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, these usages were abolished. People were encouraged to call each other "friend" or "comrade" (Khmer: មិត្ត; mitt), and to avoid traditional signs of deference such as bowing or folding the hands in salutation, known as samphea.

Language was also transformed in other ways. The Khmer Rouge invented new terms. People were told to "forge" (lot dam) a new revolutionary character, that they were the "instruments" (Khmer: ឧបករណ៍; opokar) of the ruling body known as "Angkar" (Khmer: អង្គការ; pronounced ahngkah; meaning "The Organization"), and that nostalgia for pre-revolutionary times (choeu stek arom, or "memory sickness") could result in execution. Also, rural terms like Mae (Khmer: ម៉ែ; mother) replaced urban terms like Mak (Khmer: ម៉ាក់; mother).
I read elsewhere that execution, for such offenses as stealing a mouthful of food, was accomplished typically by hitting the person on head with some blunt object - it was desired not to waste a bullet.

Cambodia, renamed "Democratic kampuchea ", was invaded (invading a "sovereign state" - obvious Bush types) by Vietnam in 1979, which deposed the socialist regime.

Estimates of the death toll under the khmer rouge range from 1 to 5 million.