The Khmer Rouge regime , led by Pol Pot , wanted to return the nation of Cambodia to an idyllic notion of the past by implementing a radical form of agrarian socialism while simultaneously shunning outside aid and influence . In order to build and protect their utopian goals , the regime perceived enmity in anyone tied to the previous Cambodian governments , ethnic and religious minorities , intellectuals , and members of certain professions . Artists posed a threat due to their own influence on culture , incompatibility with an agrarian lifestyle , or exhibiting foreign influence . Between 1975 and 1979 , about 2 million people ( 25 % of the country 's population ) were killed during the ensuing Cambodian genocide . Several of the artists on '' Cambodian Rocks '' are thought to have been among those killed , and information about them destroyed along with much of their creative output
Cambodian genocide
Cambodian genocide
Cambodian Rocks