In 1975-1979, the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot seized power and established the Democratic Kampuchea regime characterized as an "indentured agrarian state". Pol Pot sought to dominate and control the world's rice market.  The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and forced everyone into the rice fields to work.  He also eliminated all those whom he saw as a potential threat to his personal power, including all intellectuals, professionals (including doctors) and those who could read or who wore eyeglasses.  Schools were closed, money was banned, and any form of trading was made illegal. An estimated 2 million people died under this regime.

According to the Year 2000 Human Development Report, Cambodia ranks 137 out of 174 countries on the Human Development Index.  Annual average per capita income is estimated at no more than $290, with close to 40 per cent of the entire population living below the poverty line.  Rural households, as in other parts of Asia, comprise 90 per cent of the country's poor.

The AIDS pandemic continue to rise in Cambodia, perhaps with the highest infection rate in Southeast Asia, orphaning many children daily.

The Khmer Rouge Years and the Killing Fields