CAMBODIA

Chinese dynastic accounts record the existence of a powerful

Hinduized state which they call “Funan” (c.100-550 A.D.) on the gulf
of Thailand astride the trade routes to India.
By 802, according to Khmer records, Jayavarman II, established
what became the Angkor empire, the greatest power in the region
for about 550 years. His temporal power was underscored and
insured by his inauguration of a new cult, that of the “devaraja”,
probably named for Shiva – “King of the Gods”. The Angkor epoch
provided the word which apparently became the name of the country
– a 10th century inscription refers to the Kings of “Kamboja”.
The growing Thai population threw off Angkor rule, and in the
14th century a Thai invading force sacked Angkor. This contributed to
a slow decline that accelerated with the gradual loss of Cambodian
population to enemy control. By the 19th c., the Thai and the
Vietnamese held dual sovereignty over Cambodia and had reduced
its territory approximately to its present size.
Cambodian King Ang Duong requested a French protectorate in
1863 to save the country from dissolution. The French tended to
treat Cambodia merely as a source of food supplies and did not
develop the elaborate colonial presence which they establish in
Vietnam. The French did put down two rebellions, however, a
peasant revolt led by a monk pretender to the throne in 1867 and a
major uprising under a disaffected royal prince in 1885.
France granted Cambodia independence in 1953, following a
campaign by King Norodom Sihanouk, whom the French had put on
the throne in 1941. In 1955, Sihanouk abdicated the throne to enter
politics. As head of state, he sought to keep Cambodia neutral and
from being caught in the escalating war in Vietnam and Laos.
Sihanouk was visiting the Soviet Union in 1970 when he was ousted
in a coup by Marshal Lon Nol.
Sihanouk moved to Peking where he formed an alliance with
the Khmer Rouge, a radical communist guerilla movement fighting
the US-backed Lon Nol government. On April 17, 1975, the Khmer
Rouge led by Pol Pot, captured Phnom Penh and began setting up a
radical agrarian society under which over 1 million people died of
hunger, disease and overwork.
In late 1978, following two years of Khmer Rouge attacks
across Vietnamese border, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and set up a
government in Phnom Penh headed by Heng Samrin and other
Khmer Rouge defectors and pro-Vietnamese communist. Since then,
a coalition, including the ousted Khmer Rouge and two non-
communist resistance groups led by Sihanouk and by Son Sann,
have continued to wage a guerilla war against the Vietnamese
backed regime in Phnom Penh. The coalition government controls no
territory, but it is recognized by the UN and supported by China and
Cambodia’s non-communist ASEAN neighbors.

ECONOMY:

Cambodia, at least on the surface, has made a remarkable

economic recovery since Vietnams army overthrew the Khmer Rouge
11 years ago. In the capital, markets are full of food and consumer
goods and people are busy repairing buildings and houses run down
during years of neglect and war.
Much of the impetus for the current economic revival has been
fuelled by economic reforms which encourage private enterprise and
the right to own private property. The government has abandoned
efforts to collectivize and has granted farmers long-term tenure to
their land.
Cambodian officials are looking to foreign investment and
tourism, with particular emphasis on the Angkor Wat temples, to
boost their economic development. A draft foreign investment law is
currently under consideration by the country’s national assembly.
 Officials say that the new law will allow three forms of
investment: joint ventures, 100% foreign owned ventures and
contract joint ventures in which the government and a foreign
company cooperate to run a factory or a hotel.
Foreign and domestic investors will be encourage to invest
first in tourism, second in light industry such as food processing and
third in producing export-substitution commodities. More foreign
businessmen, particularly from Thailand, Singapore and Japan
visited Cambodia during 1989, but few signed contracts. Officials in
Phnom Penh are also

2
hoping for investment from overseas Cambodians more of whom
recently began visiting Cambodia.
Much of Cambodia’s recent economic revival is superficial and
cannot mask the country’s desperate state of poverty brought on by
two decades of war, Khmer Rouge tyranny, Vietnam’s invasion and
international economic isolation. Cambodia has yet to get back to
the levels of production it enjoyed in the 1960’s before it was
engulfed in war.
Co- P.M. Hunsen staged a coup on July 5, 1997, ousting his
rival, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Polpot, the Khmer Rouge leader
who held power during the late 1970’s was denounced by his former
comrades at a show trial, July 25, and sentenced to spend the rest of
his life under house arrest; he died April 15, 1998. Hun Sen’s party
won parliamentary elections on July 26. Cambodia was formally
admitted to ASEAN on April 30, 1999.
Elections in July 2003 resulted in a stalemate—none of the
parties won the two-thirds majority required to govern alone. Almost
a year later, in June 2004, Ranariddh and Hun Sen agreed in June
2004 to form a coalition, with Hun Sen remaining prime minister. In
August, Cambodia's parliament ratified the country's entry into the
World Trade Organization.

In March 2003 the UN and Cambodia announced that after five

years they had finally agreed on a special tribunal to try senior
Khmer Rouge officials on charges of genocide. Among those who
were expected to stand trial were Kang Kech Iev, alias Duch, who ran
the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, and Ta Mok, alias The Butcher, who
died in 2006 before his trial took place. In April 2005, the UN agreed
to a funding arrangement for the tribunal. Prosecutors made their
first indictment in July 2007, charging Kang Kech Iev with crimes
against humanity.

King Norodom Sihanouk announced in Oct. 2004 that he had

abdicated and selected his son, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, to
succeed him. Prince Sihamoni, a ballet dancer and choreographer,
lived in France and had kept a distance from Cambodian politics.

In Feb. 2005, opposition leader Sam Rainsy was stripped of

parliamentary immunity. He fled to France and was convicted in
December in absentia of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen. He
received a royal pardon in 2006. Hun Sen has used defamation laws
to crack down on political opponents and human rights groups,
having at least seven activists and critics arrested in 2005 and 2006.
Facing criticism from home and abroad, Hun Sen withdrew charges
against four of the activists.

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CAMBODIA (Phnom Penh)

Ethnic Groups: Khmer 90%, small number of Chinese, Burmese and

Vietnamese
Religion: Theravada Buddhism
Language: Khmer
Ideology: Marxist-Leninism (currently democratic )
Type of Govt. Democratic Republic
King: Norodom Sihamoni (2004)
Prime Minister: Hun Sen (1998)
Independence: November 9, 1953
Currency: RIEL