Cambodia
Timeline
1863 – Under the rule King Norodo, Cambodia
becomes a protectorate of France. French colonial
rule lasts for 90 years.
1941 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk (after being
chosen by France) becomes king. Cambodia is
occupied by Japan during World War II.
1945 - The Japanese occupation ends.
1946 - France re-imposes its protectorate. A new
constitution permits Cambodians to form political
parties. Communist guerrillas begin an armed
campaign against the French.
Independence
1953 - Cambodia wins its independence
from France. Under King Sihanouk, it
becomes the Kingdom of Cambodia.
1955 - Sihanouk abdicates to pursue a
political career. His father becomes king
and Sihanouk becomes prime minister.
1965 - Sihanouk breaks off relations with
the US and allows North Vietnamese
guerrillas to set up bases in Cambodia in
pursuance of their campaign against the
US-backed government in South Vietnam.
1969 - The US begins a 14 month bombing
campaign against North Vietnamese forces
on Cambodian soil.
Domestic Cambodian politics polarized.
Opposition grew within the middle class
and among leftists including Pariseducated leaders such as Son Sen, Ieng
Sary, and Saloth Sar (later known as Pol
Pot), who led an insurgency under the
clandestine Communist Party of
Kampuchea (CPK)
1970 - Sihanouk is deposed in a coup
while abroad. The prime minister,
General Lon Nol, assumes power. He
proclaims the Khmer Republic and
sends the army to fight the North
Vietnamese in Cambodia.
The United States moved to provide
material assistance to the new
government's armed forces.
April 1970, US President Nixon
announced to the American public
that US and South Vietnamese
ground forces had entered Cambodia
in a campaign aimed at destroying
NVA base areas in Cambodia.
In 1972, a constitution was adopted, a
parliament elected, and Lon Nol
became president.
Cambodia Year Zero
1975 -On New Year's Day, Communist troops
launched an offensive which, in 117 days of the
hardest fighting of the war, collapsed the Khmer
Republic. There where simultaneous attacks
around the perimeter of Phnom Penh while other
units overran fire bases controlling the vital lower
Mekong suply route.
A US-funded airlift of ammunition and rice ended
when Congress refused additional aid for
Cambodia. Phnom Penh and other cities were
subjected to daily rocket attacks causing
thousands of civilian casualties.
The Lon Nol government in Phnom Penh
surrendered on April 17, 5 days after the US
mission evacuated Cambodia.
All urban citizens are evacuated to
the countryside to become agricultural
workers. Money becomes worthless
and religion is banned. The Khmer
Rouge coin the phrase "Year Zero".
Hundreds of thousands of the
educated middle-classes are tortured
and executed in special centers.
Others starve, or die from disease or
exhaustion. The total death toll during
the next three years is estimated to
be at least 1.7 million.
1976 - The country is re-named
Democratic Kampuchea. Sihanouk
resigns, Khieu Samphan becomes
head of state, Pol Pot is prime
minister.
1977 - Fighting breaks out with
Vietnam.
1978 - Vietnamese forces invade in a
lightning assault.
1979 January - The Vietnamese take
Phnom Penh. Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge
forces flee to the border region with
Thailand. The People's Republic of
Kampuchea is established. Many elements
of life before the Khmer Rouge take-over
are re-established.
1981 - The pro-Vietnamese Kampuchean
People's Revolutionary Party wins the
elections to the National Assembly. The
international community refuses to
recognize the new government.
The government-in-exile, which includes
the Khmer Rouge and Sihanouk, retains its
seat at the United Nations.
1985 - Hun Sen becomes prime
minister. Since guerrillas are still very
strong, hundreds of thousands
become refugees.
1989 - Vietnamese troops withdraw.
Hun Sen tries to attract foreign
investment by abandoning socialism.
The country is re-named the State of
Cambodia. Buddhism is reestablished as the state religion.
An uneasy peace
1991 - A peace agreement is signed
in Paris. A UN transitional authority
shares power temporarily with
representatives of the various factions
in Cambodia. Sihanouk becomes
head of state.
1993 - The monarchy is restored,
Sihanouk becomes king again. The
country is re-named the Kingdom of
Cambodia. The government-in-exile
loses its seat at the UN.
1994 - Thousands of Khmer Rouge
guerrillas surrender in government
amnesty.
1996 - Deputy leader of Khmer Rouge
Ieng Sary forms a new party and is
granted amnesty by Sihanouk.
Coup
1997 - Hun Sen stages a coup
against the prime minister, Prince
Ranariddh, and replaces him with
Ung Huot. The coup attracts
international condemnation.
The Khmer Rouge puts Pol Pot on
trial and sentence him to life
imprisonment.
1998 - Pol Pot dies. Elections in July are
won by Hun Sen's CPP. Hun Sen becomes
prime minister, Ranariddh is president of
the National Assembly.
2001 - Senate approves a law to create a
tribunal to bring genocide charges against
Khmer Rouge leaders.
2001 June - International donors,
encouraged by Cambodia's reform efforts,
pledge $560 million in aid at a donor
conference in Tokyo.
Saloth Sar-Pol Pot
Early '60s, he secretly formed the Khmer
Workers' Party to resist Cambodia's ruler,
Prince Norodom Sihanouk.
He disappeared into the jungle in 1963,
where he adapted the name Pol Pot
He participated in the antifrench resistance
under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh.
He became the leather of Khmer rouge and
began the masacre by considering
everyone an enemy of the state.
He installed torture bases in old
schools. The most famous one is Tuol
Slang in Phnom Penh. Today is a
museum.
He also created extermination camps.
During the masacre there was a silent
from the international community.
No IO’s where allowed to enter the
country.
During 1975-1979 Cambodia became
the #1 producer of rice, while people
where forced to work and die in the
fields.
Cambodia today…
Full name: Kingdom of Cambodia
Population: 13.7 million (via UN, 2006)
Capital and largest city: Phnom Penh
Major language: Khmer
Major religion: Buddhism
Life expectancy: 52 years (men), 60 years
(women) (UN)
Main exports: Clothing, timber, rubber
GNI per capita: US $380 (World Bank,
2006)
The executive branch comprises
the king, who is head of state
an appointed prime minister
seven deputy prime ministers
15 senior ministers
28 ministers
135 secretaries of state
146 undersecretaries of state.
The bicameral legislature consists of a
123-member elected National Assembly
and a 61-member Senate.
The judiciary includes a Supreme Court
and lower courts. Administrative
subdivisions are 20 provinces and 4
municipalities.
King Norodom
Head of state: King
Norodom Sihamoni.
King Sihamoni was
sworn in as monarch
on 29 October 2004.
Born in 1953, he
studied in
Czechoslovakia. He
left Cambodia for
France after the fall of
the Khmer Rouge in
1979.
Hun Sen
Prime minister: Hun Sen
Hun Sen, one of the world's longestserving prime ministers, has been in power
in various coalitions since 1985.
He was re-elected by parliament in July
2004 after nearly a year of political
stalemate.
His Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won
general elections in 2003, but without
enough seats for it to rule alone .
For a time he was a member of the Khmer
Rouge.
He has denied accusations that he was
once a top official within the movement,
saying he was only an ordinary soldier.
In the late 1970s he joined anti-Khmer
Rouge forces based in Vietnam
When Vietnam installed a new government
in Cambodia in 1979, he returned as
minister of foreign affairs, becoming prime
minister in 1985 at the age of 33.
He refused to cede power in 1993, when
the Funcinpec party headed by Prince
Norodom Ranariddh won the election, but
acquiesced to a coalition government with
the prince as first prime minister and Hun
Sen himself as second prime minister.
A group of US Senators proposed a bill
that would grant Cambodia a further
$21.5m in aid if Hun Sen was not reelected in 2003.
In 2002, the CPP made sweeping
gains in the country's first ever multiparty local elections
In the 2003 general elections, he
again gained a majority, but it took 11
months of political struggling before
he formed a coalition with the runnerup, Funcinpec. The government was
finally ratified in July 2004.
Prime Minister Hun Sen and his allies
control several broadcasters.
Although press freedom is not
guaranteed, Hun Sen has declared
his support for press freedom, publicly
praising the benefits to society of an
unfettered media.
Cambodia is one of
the poorest countries
in the world and it
relies heavily on aid.
Subsistence farming
employs 70% of the
workforce, with the
Mekong River
providing fertile,
irrigated fields for rice
production. Exports of
clothing provide most
of Cambodia's foreign
exchange.