Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The UN's disarmament program took weapons away from the rural militias who for so
long provided the backbone of the government's provincial defence network against the
Khmer Rouge and this left communities throughout the country vulnerable to attack.
Meanwhile the Khmer Rouge used the veil of legitimacy conferred upon it by the peace
process to re-establish a guerrilla network throughout Cambodia. By 1994, when it was fi-
nally outlawed by the government, the Khmer Rouge was arguably a greater threat to the
stability of Cambodia than at any time since 1979.
Untac's main goals had been to 'restore and maintain peace' and 'promote national re-
conciliation', and in the short term it achieved neither. It did oversee free and fair elec-
tions, but these were later annulled by the actions of Cambodia's politicians. Little was
done during the UN period to try to dismantle the communist apparatus of state set up by
the CPP, a well-oiled machine that continues to ensure that former communists control the
civil service, judiciary, army and police today.
The commercial metropolis that is now Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam was, in 1600, a
small Cambodian village called Prey Nokor.
