Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and by far the most powerful of the three. The crimes of the Khmer Rouge were swept
aside to ensure a compromise that suited the realpolitik of the day.
For much of the 1980s Cambodia remained closed to the Western world, save for the
presence of some humanitarian aid groups. Government policy was effectively under the
control of the Vietnamese, so Cambodia found itself very much in the Eastern-bloc camp.
The economy was in tatters for most of this period, as Cambodia, like Vietnam, suffered
from the effects of a US-sponsored embargo.
India wasn't the only power to have a major cultural impact on Cambodia. The island of Java
was also influential, colonising part of 'water Chenla' in the 8th century.
In 1984 the Vietnamese overran all the major rebel camps inside Cambodia, forcing the
Khmer Rouge and its allies to retreat into Thailand. From this time the Khmer Rouge and
its allies engaged in guerrilla warfare aimed at demoralising its opponents. Tactics used by
the Khmer Rouge included shelling government-controlled garrison towns, planting thou-
sands of mines in rural areas, attacking road transport, blowing up bridges, kidnapping
village chiefs and targeting civilians. The Khmer Rouge also forced thousands of men,
women and children living in the refugee camps it controlled to work as porters, ferrying
ammunition and other supplies into Cambodia across heavily mined sections of the bor-
der.
The Vietnamese, for their part, laid the world's longest minefield, known as K-5 and
stretching from the Gulf of Thailand to the Lao border, in an attempt to seal out the guer-
rillas. They also sent Cambodians into the forests to cut down trees on remote sections of
road to prevent ambushes. Thousands died of disease and from injuries sustained from
landmines. The Khmer Rouge was no longer in power, but for many the 1980s were al-
most as tough as the 1970s - it was one long struggle to survive.
