Khmer Rouge horrors 40 years on

Forced relocation: Cambodians walking with their belongings as they leave Phnom Penh in this picture taken in the days after Khmer Rouge forces seized the capital on April 17, 1975.

PHNOM PENH: When black-clad Khmer Rouge soldiers first charged into Phnom Penh, they were welcomed with cheers, remembers Chhung Kong, a teacher in the Cambodian capital during the seventies.

Few foresaw the horrors that lay ahead as Pol Pot’s victorious communist army seized control early on April 17, 1975, signalling the end of a bloody civil war, and ordered the city’s two million people to evacuate.