Khmers rouges

Khmer Rouge
ខ្មែរក្រហម
The flag of Democratic Kampuchea. The design was used by Khmer guerrillas since the 1950s with the building design varying.
Active	1951–1999
Ideology	Agrarian socialism Khmer nationalism
Leader	Pol Pot
Headquarters	Phnom Penh

The Khmer Rouge (/kəˈmɛər ˈruːʒ/, French: [kmɛʁ ʁuʒ], "Red Khmers"; Khmer: ខ្មែរក្រហម Khmer Kror-Horm) was the name given to Cambodian (Khmer) communists (rouge, French for red) and later the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia who infamously carried out the Cambodian genocide.

The Khmer Rouge's army was slowly built up in the jungles of Eastern Cambodia during the late 1960s and was supported by the North Vietnamese army, the Viet Cong, and the Pathet Lao, with strong supports from the People's Republic of China; the latter had a huge influence on the Party later. The Khmer Rouge emerged victorious in the Cambodian Civil War when, in 1975, they captured the Cambodian capital, and overthrew the corrupt military dictatorship of the Khmer Republic. Following their victory, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, and Khieu Samphan installed a government called the Democratic Kampuchea and immediately set about forcibly depopulating the country's cities, murdering hundreds of thousands of their perceived political opponents and carrying out the Cambodian genocide in which 1.5 to 3 million people (around 25% of Cambodia's population) died.