Cambodia is a country in Southeast Asia less than half the size of California. It gained independence from France in 1953. During the Vietnam War, the prime minister adopted neutrality, but he was forced out in a coup by his own general Lon Nol. Lon Nol was overthrown by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in 1975. In 1975, there was a genocide in Cambodia, led by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, which shook the country of 7.1 million people, leading to more than a million deaths. The term "genocide" was established by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jewish lawyer who fled Germany in 1941. Lemkin combined the term "genos", meaning race or tribe, and "cide", meaning to kill, to create the word genocide. “Genocide” was included in the charter that indicted war criminals by the Allied powers. In 1946, genocide became punishable under international law. Under the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic entity , racial or religious. group, including: (a) killing members of the group, (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, (c) deliberately subjecting the group to conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part . part, (d) impose measures intended to prevent births within the group, (e) forcibly transfer children from the group to another group. However, some have raised questions about the meaning of the term genocide. Some questions include “the nature of the targeted group” and the number of people killed. In April 1975, Pol Pot, with the help of the Khmer Rouge, a communist group, took over Cambodia and renamed it Democratic. of paper......withoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/cambodian-genocideDeath of Pol Pot: The questions. (1998, April 18). Retrieved March 18, 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/18/world/death-pol-pot-questions-khmer-rouge-rush-cremate-pol-pot-s-body-without - autopsy.htmlEtcheson, C. (June 10, 2008). “The number” – Quantifying crimes against humanity in Cambodia. Retrieved March 18, 2014 from http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/toll.htm Fagan, A. (2010). The Atlas of Human Rights. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Gemza, S. (nd). Cambodia: Genocide. Retrieved from http://www.cybercambodia.com/dachs/stories/soy.htmlGenocide In Cambodia. (nd). Retrieved from https://www.hmh.org/ed_Genocide_Cambodia.shtml Goldhagen, DJ (2009). Worse than war. New York, NY: Perseus Books. What is genocide? (nd). Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/what-is-genocide