The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia

The Deaths Tolls in Cambodia, 1975-79, and East Timor, 1975-80

Author: Ben Kiernan

Abstract:

In this research note Ben Kiernan, director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University (www.yale.edu/gsp), scrutinizes estimates of the number of people killed in the two most recent cases of genocidal mass murder in Southeast Asia: Cambodia and East Timor. He concludes that the two cases were proportionately comparable, though many more people died in Cambodia. Each tragedy took the lives of over one-fifth of the population.

Regions: Southeast Asia