Crimes against humanity under Communist regimes
Encyclopedia
Crimes against humanity have occurred under various communist regimes. Actions such as forced deportation
Population transfer
Population transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...

, terror
Red Terror
The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918...

, ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....

, and the deliberate starvation of people such as during the Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...

 and the Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...

 have been described as crimes against humanity. In the 2008 Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism
Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism
The Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism , which was signed on 3 June 2008, was a declaration signed by prominent European politicians, former political prisoners and historians, including past signatories of Charter 77 such as Václav Havel, which called for condemnation of and...

 it was stated that crimes committed under communism were often crimes against humanity, according to the definition developed in the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

, and that the crimes committed under communism and National Socialism were comparable. Very few people have been tried for these crimes, although Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have passed laws that have led to the prosecution of several perpetrators for crimes against the Baltic peoples. They were tried for crimes committed during the Occupation of the Baltic states in 1940 and 1941, and during the reoccupation after the war. There were also trials for attacks by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....

 (NKVD) on the Forest Brethren
Forest Brothers
The Forest Brothers were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II...

.

Cambodia

There is a scholarly consensus that the Genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...

 carried out by the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...

 under Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....

 in what became known as the killing fields
The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War ....

 was a crime against humanity. Legal scholars Antoine Garapon, David Boyle and sociologist Micheal Mann
Michael Mann (sociologist)
Michael Mann is a British-born professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles and Visiting Research Professor at Queen's University Belfast. Mann holds dual British and US citizenships. He received his B.A. in Modern History from the University of Oxford in 1963 and his...

 and professor of Political Science Jacques Semelin
Jacques Sémelin
Jacques Sémelin is a French historian, psychologist and political scientist. He is a director of research in the CNRS, affiliated to the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris...

 believe the actions of the Communist Party of Kampuchea
Communist Party of Kampuchea
The Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as Khmer Communist Party , was a communist party in Cambodia. Its followers were generally known as Khmer Rouge .-Foundation of the party; first divisions:...

 are best described as a crime against humanity rather than genocide. In 1997 the co prime ministers of Cambodia sought help from the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 in seeking justice for the crimes perpetrated by the communists during the years 1975 to 1979. During the month of June that same year Pol Pot was taken prisoner during an internal struggle within the Khmer Rouge and was offered to the international community. However there were no countries willing to seek his extradition. The policies enacted by the Khmer Rouge led to the deaths of one quarter of the population in just four years.

Romania

In a speech before Parliament, President of Romania Traian Băsescu
Traian Basescu
Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...

 stated that "the criminal and illegitimate former Communist regime committed massive human rights violations and crimes against humanity, killing and persecuting as many as two million people between 1945 and 1989" The speech was based on the 660 page report of a Presidential Commission headed by Vladimir Tismaneanu
Vladimir Tismaneanu
Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romanian and American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park...

, a professor at the University of Maryland
University of Maryland
When the term "University of Maryland" is used without any qualification, it generally refers to the University of Maryland, College Park.University of Maryland may refer to the following:...

. The report also said that “the regime exterminated people by assassination and deportation of hundreds of thousands of people,” and highlighted the Piteşti Experiment. Gheorghe Boldur-Lăţescu has also said the Piteşti Experiment
Pitesti prison
The Pitești prison was a penal facility in Pitești, Romania, best remembered for the brainwashing experiment carried out by Communist authorities in 1949-1952...

 was a crime against humanity, and Dennis Deletant has described it as

North Korea

Three victims of the Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...

 system in North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

 with the aid of the Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of abductees and North Korean Refugees have attempted to bring Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...

 to justice. In december 2010 they filed charges at The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

. The gulag system has led to an estimated death toll of between 380,000 and over one million which would qualify as either genocide or a crime against humanity. The NGO group Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Christian Solidarity Worldwide is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all. Its current president is Jonathan Aitken, having taken over from Baroness Cox in 2006...

has stated the gulag system appears to be designed specifically to kill a large number of the populous who are labelled as enemies or who have a differing political belief.

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