Stage 1: Classification
- Near the beginning of the genocide, people were classified as either "Base people" (those under the Khmer Rouge's control before April 17, 1975) and new people (mostly those who lived in the city).
- Later on after the Cambodians were working, people had opportunities to become full rights people (base people), candidates (almost full rights people), and depositees.
Stage 2: Symbolization
- The blue and white checkered scarf was used to label people from the Eastern zone.
Image source: http://www.genocidewatch.org/cambodiaproject.html
Stage 3: Discrimination
- Cambodians were identified as Cham, Vietnamese, educated, etc.
Stage 4: Dehumanization
- People were split up from their families and assigned numbers in place of their names.
- Some Cambodians were forced to 'admit' they were actually animals, not people.
Stage 5: Organisation
- Pol Pot organised the Khmer Peoples' Revolutionary Part (KPRP)
image source:http://www.pbs.org/pov/enemies/photo_gallery_timeline.php#.VIAFofSUfMU
Stage 6: Polarization
- Before the actual genocide, many people wearing the blue and white checkered scarves were murdered.
- Cambodians living in the Eastern zone were vilified. One official described them as "Khmer bodies, Vietnamese heads," insinuating that they were the enemy, working with the Vietnamese (Cambodia had many border skirmishes with Vietnam).
Stage 7: Preparation
- Prisons were built.
- Weapons and guns were stocked up for the Khmer Rouge to use.
Stage 8: Persecution
- Eastern zone people were forced to wear the blue and white checkered scarf, and all those who didn't live in the Eastern zone were not allowed to wear that colored scarf.
- Cambodians were brought to the prisons and labour fields.
- Victim were tortured to get names and classes of other soon-to-be victims.
Stage 9: Extermination
- People classified as depositees were taken to the killing fields, forced to dig their own graves, and were killed by being hit in the head and spinal cord or being shot.
- Many victims died from torture.
Stage 10: Denial
- Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and anti-Vietnamese forces, like the United States, denied the genocide at the time. The reason why the United States denied the genocide was because the Vietnamese thought that there was a genocide.