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Cambodian refugees

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Soldiers stand beside road in Cambodia as people on motorbikes
Cambodian refugees

SUBJECTS:  History

YEARS:  9–10


How do people become refugees?

From the late 1960s, the small Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia was dragged into a war that was not of its making.

Many thousands of its people suffered terribly when their country was caught up in the Vietnam War.

Watch as ABC reporter Andrew Swanton covers the flight of refugees into the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, in 1975.


Things to think about

  1. 1.In 1969, US president Richard Nixon extended the Vietnam War into neutral Cambodia, ordering US and South Vietnamese troops to invade Cambodian territory used by the Vietnamese communists as bases. In 1970, Nixon backed a military coup by General Lon Nol, who overthrew Cambodia's revered ruler, Prince Sihanouk. As US bombs rained down on the countryside, many Cambodians came to support the Khmer Rouge, who fought against Lon Nol's regime.
  2. 2.By 1975, the fanatical Khmer Rouge controlled almost all of Cambodia. Why were people fleeing before them into the capital, Phnom Penh? According to the reporter, how many refugees were entering Phnom Penh each day and why did Lon Nol's forces consider them to be a security problem?
  3. 3.Look again at the scenes in which the refugees from the Cambodian countryside are situated beside the Cambodiana Hotel. Describe what these scenes reveal about the plight of the refugees. How do you think these people would have survived after fleeing the villages that provided their food? With Phnom Penh under siege by the Khmer Rouge, what fears and hopes might these refugees have had for the future?
  4. 4.Use the internet and other resources to find out what happened in Cambodia after April 1975, when Phnom Penh fell and the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. Use this information to write an explanation of how people were treated under the Khmer Rouge regime and how and why many refugees fled, including those who came to Australia.



Date of broadcast: 29 Aug 1975


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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