The Khymer Rouge was never part of the Cambodian government. They were a group of disenfranchised guerillas who decided the only way to get rid of the most corrupt government in history was to kill anyone who worked for the government and their families to. That would include the dog catcher and his family to. It actually seems to have worked. In 1999 the U.N. put out a list of the most and least corrupt nation's in the World. Cambodia was rated the least corrupt country in the World that year.