A Logic of Forced Labor during Mass Atrocity: Evidence from Cambodia

• In Event: Human Rights Violations in Armed Conflict

Abstract

This paper compares strategies of direct and indirect violence in the perpetration of mass atrocity. It asks: why would a regime use strategies of indirect violence - causing deaths through man-made famine, droughts, or epidemics - during periods of mass atrocity? I argue that economic interests make strategies of indirect violence appropriate. In this paper, I use a case study of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) to explain the variation in famine deaths and direct execution. Despite the uniform eliminationist ideology that underpinned the regime, there was wide variation in the ways that population groups were targeted. I find that indirect violence was more likely in areas where the state had higher crop yields, which created an incentive not to execute undesirable populations groups because they became a necessary labor force. Through this case study, I demonstrate that the logic by which a regime governs during periods of mass atrocity can be used as a strategy of violence against civilians. Further, this paper argues that indirect violence - man-made famine, droughts, or epidemics - can be used strategically alongside more traditionally studied forms of direct violence.

Author

• Rachel P Jacobs, Dickinson College