Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
To the millennium
Thirteen years of war should have come to an end with the Paris conference, at which a
number of agreements were reached. The central idea was to establish an interim
coalition government for Cambodia, the
Supreme National Council
, pending United
Nations-supervised elections. But the Khmer Rouge had other ideas and, still
supported by Thailand, continued to create insurgency around the country, unsettling
an already shaky peace.
UNTAC
The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia,
UNTAC
, was created to
stabilize the country and supervise the promised elections, though its forces didn't
arrive in Cambodia until March 1992, and even then they were deployed slowly,
allowing the Khmer Rouge to expand the area under its control. Refusing to lay
down arms or be monitored, the Khmer Rouge continued with disruptive attacks,
mining roads and railways, intimidating villagers and murdering ethnic Vietnamese;
they also refused to stand in the elections. The return of refugees proceeded relatively
peacefully, at least.
Costing $2 billion, the UNTAC mission (numbering 22,000 military and civilian
staff) was, at the time, the most expensive operation ever launched by the UN, though
it's debatable just how successful it really was. The international forces (from around a
dozen countries, including Indonesia, India, Ghana, Uruguay, Pakistan and
Bangladesh) were ill prepared for their role as peacekeepers - many were only trained
for combat. Often criticized for insensitivity, many of the UNTAC forces -
unaccustomed to the high salaries they were being paid - led high-rolling lifestyles,
paying well over the odds for even basic services. At the time, business boomed, only to
collapse when UNTAC withdrew; a fledgling tourist industry started up (albeit limited
by the guerrilla tactics of the Khmer Rouge); and prostitution mushroomed - UNTAC
did not test staff for HIV and, rightly or wrongly, is widely blamed for the AIDS
epidemic now affecting Cambodia. Today, Cambodians' feelings about UNTAC
remain ambivalent. Some say that it failed to restore peace - and created more
problems than it solved. Others suggest that without UNTAC the country might well
have fallen again into Khmer Rouge hands.
The return of constitutional monarchy
The elections of July 1993 saw a turnout of nearly ninety percent, despite being marred
by intimidation and political killings. However, even though the
FUNCINPEC
party
- headed by Sihanouk's son
Prince Ranariddh
- emerged with a majority, the interim
government, now led by former Khmer Rouge battalion commander
Hun Sen
, refused
to cede the authority they had held since 1979. In the event, a government was formed
which had two prime ministers, Prince Ranariddh and Hun Sen. A
constitutional
monarchy
was reinstated, and Prince Sihanouk persuaded to resume the throne he had
abdicated in 1955, although without being given any direct say in government.
Political infighting soon led to the government being dominated by the
Cambodian
People's Party
(
CPP
) of Hun Sen, which had retained control of police, defence and
provincial governments, and Prince Ranariddh became little more than a figurehead.
The tensions between the two prime ministers grew until mid-1997, when fighting
Early 1980s
1978
Pol Pot takes refuge in Thailand, while enjoying the
support of the US and Chinese governments suspicious of
Communist Vietnam's intentions
Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia, driving out
the Khmer Rouge. Former Khmer Rouge cadre
Hun Sen assumes leadership under Vietnamese
patronage
