Fall of Phnom Penh

17 April, not 18 April

Museum, tribunal and scholarly sources place both the capture of Phnom Penh and the start of its forced evacuation on 17 April 1975, a day earlier than the date filed against this entry.

Khmer Republic defences collapsed that morning and Communist Party of Kampuchea forces entered the centre of the city from several directions. By the afternoon, Khmer Rouge soldiers with bullhorns and weapons were ordering approximately two million residents out.

The bombing story

Residents were told the evacuation was temporary and necessary because the United States was about to bomb the city. One survivor testified that soldiers gave her family 15 minutes to pack and said they would be gone for three days.

The claim was a pretext for a pre-existing plan to control the population and convert Cambodia into a rural worker-peasant society. Witnesses testified that refusal could bring immediate execution.

Emptied at gunpoint

Homes, schools and hospitals were cleared; patients were pushed into the exodus carrying intravenous drips, families were separated, and thousands died on the congested roads out of the capital. No food, water, medicine or accommodation was organised for the columns.

Foreign nationals were confined in the French embassy compound while Cambodians were driven along the major roads toward different rural zones, where former officials and soldiers were screened out and many were executed.

By the morning of 19 April, the northern part of Phnom Penh was nearly devoid of people.