Khmer Rouge

 
Pronunciation: /ruːʒ/
  • a communist guerrilla organization which opposed the Cambodian government in the 1960s and waged a civil war from 1970, taking power in 1975.

Under Pol Pot the Khmer Rouge undertook a forced reconstruction of Cambodian society, involving mass deportations from the towns to the countryside and mass executions. More than two million died before the regime was overthrown by the Vietnamese in 1979. Khmer Rouge forces have continued a programme of guerrilla warfare from bases in Thailand

Origin:

from Khmer + French rouge 'red'