SUMMARY
Cambodia’s political history has been characterized by repeated regime changes. Following independence in 1953, Norodom Sihanouk was appointed the ruling monarch of Cambodia. Sihanouk later made himself Prime Minister, ceding the throne to his father, and then Head of State in perpetuity; he maintained a firm grip on government power by manipulating the various right- and left-wing factions in the country. It was during Sihanouk’s rule that the Khmer Rouge (KR) launched their insurgency in 1967. In March 1970, Sihanouk was overthrown in a military coup led by his Prime Minister, Lon Nol, who was also a general and former Chief of Staff of the Cambodian Army. Lon Nol’s regime abolished the monarchy and established Cambodia as the “Khmer Republic”; Lon Nol was appointed President on 10 March 1972.
The “National United Front of Kampuchea” (FUNK), a coalition between forces loyal to Prince Sihanouk and the KR overthrew Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic in April 1975. The Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea (Gouvernement royal d'union nationale du Kampuché, GRUNK) under Sihanouk’s leadership nominally held government power in Cambodia until April 1976; however, all real power rested with the Communist Khmer Rouge (KR), led by Pol Pot (Saloth Sar). Following Prince Sihanouk’s resignation and Pol Pot’s appointment as Prime Minister in April 1976, the KR proclaimed Cambodia as the “Democratic Kampuchea”. During the totalitarian Communist regime of the KR and Pol Pot, the Government of Cambodia (Kampuchea) perpetrated one of the most notorious genocides in modern history, which resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 3 million people. Following a full-scale invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam (North Vietnam), Pol Pot’s KR regime was ousted in January 1979. Government power was seized by the Vietnamese-supported KNUFNS, a Communist rebel group established in 1978.
The KNUFNS (which was renamed Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party, KPRP, in 1979) established a Communist one party-state called the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), which was sustained with the help of troops from Vietnam (North Vietnam) that remained in the country between 1979 and 1989. The KPRP-regime was led by the Revolutionary Council, headed by Heng Samrin 1979-1992, and Chea Sim 1992-1993; during this period Pen Sovan (1981), Chan Sy (1981-1984), and Hun Sen (1985-1993) served as prime minister. In 1989, the KPRP officially disbanded the PRK, renaming the country the State of Cambodia; however, KPRP retained its hold on power.
In 1991, the KPRP changed its name to the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). In the same year, the CPP-led Government of Cambodia (Kampuchea) agreed to create the “Supreme National Council” (SNC), a power-sharing arrangement that included the rebel organizations FUNCIPEC, KPNLF, and KR (which withdrew from the agreement in 1992); Prince Sihanouk formally chaired the SNC. On 23 October 1991, the government and the three aforementioned rebel groups signed the Paris Peace Accords, which led to the establishment of United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). UNTAC’s primary purpose was to administer Cambodia until elections could be held; this election was achieved on 23-28 May 1993.
Following the 1993 elections, FUNCIPEC became the largest political party by capturing 45.5 percent of the votes, with the CPP coming in second with 38.2 percent. FUNCIPEC, CPP, and two smaller parties (including KPNLF’s successor party Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party, BLDP) agreed on a power-sharing arrangement in the form of a coalition government. Prince Norodom Ranariddh (Sihanouk’s son) of FUNCIPEC was appointed as “first” Prime Minister, and Hun Sen of CPP was made “second” Prime Minister. In September 1993, the Cambodian monarchy was restored, and Prince Sihanouk was returned to the throne. However, most power came to rest with the CPP’s Hun Sen, as he controlled a majority of Cambodia’s armed forces.
The relationship between the Prime Ministers Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh grew increasingly contentious, and in July 1997, tensions erupted into fierce infighting. On 5-6 July, forces loyal to Hun Sen staged an apparent military coup in Phnom Penh. UCDP considered Prince Ranariddh and his supporters as the Government of Cambodia, since they constituted the forces defending the political status quo. As the coup was successful, Hun Sen’s forces took complete control over Phnom Penh and consequently became the Government of Cambodia from 7 July. The forces that remained loyal to Prince Ranariddh emerged as a separate non-state actor in the UCDP data from this date. Fighting between Hun Sen’s government forces and Ranariddh loyalist continued intermittently until November 1998, when Prince Ranariddh agreed to rejoin the Cambodian government, albeit with greatly reduced influence. Since 1998, CPP has maintained its hold on government power in Cambodia by effectively undercutting the democratic process and by intimidating the opposition; as of 2017, Hun Sen remained Prime Minister.
Pol Pot’s KR-regime received considerable support from China, from which it drew ideological inspiration. The KR-regime also received shipments of weapons from China, including heavy mines, long-range artillery and anti-tank rockets; US sources also claimed that 99 percent of the Pol Pot regime’s war material was supplied by China. As mentioned above, Vietnam (North Vietnam) was highly supportive of the KNUFNS/KPRP-regime, and deployed troops to Cambodia from 1979 to 1989. The Soviet Union also supported the KNUFNS/KPRP-regime, for example by blocking a UN resolution that called for the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia; however, most of the direct support was directed towards Vietnam (North Vietnam), and not the Government of Cambodia (Kampuchea).
