It's dawn on January the 18th, 1968.

A small village of Bay Damran lies a few miles south of Cambodia's third largest city,

Batambang.

In the early morning heat, a band of Khmer Rouge rebels snake silently among the banks

of the tranquil Sangu River.

The smell of mint growing in the nearby fields carries on the breeze.

They're led by a man called Kong Sopaw, a former schoolteacher turned revolutionary.

He in turn is acting on the orders of Salat Sa, the man who will become known as Pol Pot,

the enigmatic head of the Khmer Rouge.

Sa has decided the time has come to launch an armed uprising against the government of

Notre Dame Sienu, Cambodia's former king who gave up his crown to enter the political

fray.

Sa has identified the Batambang region as the ideal place to start his offensive.

The previous April, there were revolts here.

The local peasants grew angry at Sienu's heavy-handed rule, especially when they were forced

to sell their crops to the government at reduced prices.

But uprising did not last long once Sienu sent in his troops, ring leaders were wretched,

villages burned down while the air force rained down bombs from the sky.

But this military intervention has been something of an own goal.

Several thousand locals have since fled into the forests, many of them right into the

arms of Sa and his movement.

The Khmer Rouge had been unprepared for those revolts, unable to capitalise on the opportunity

...