SUMMARY

Forces of Norodom Ranariddh was an armed group active in the Cambodian conflict over government. In 1991, the so-called “Paris Agreement” – intended to end Cambodia’s decades-long intrastate conflict - was signed between the Government of Cambodia and the tree rebel groups FUNCIPEC, KPNLF, and KR (Khmer Rouge). While KR reneged on the agreement, the two other rebel factions entered into a power sharing arrangement with the government – which had been controlled by the Cambodian Peoples’ Party (CPP) since 1979 - and subsequently participated in the 1993 elections. FUNCIPEC, led by Prince Norodom Ranariddh, secured the most votes in the election, followed by Hun Sen’s CPP that became the second largest party. FUNCIPEC and CPP then proceeded to create a coalition government, with Prince Ranariddh as First Prime Minister, and Hun Sen as Second Prime Minister. Despite this, political tensions remained high in Cambodia, and in 1997, there was a rapid deterioration in the FUNCIPEC-CPP relations. A particularly prominent point of contention was efforts by both parties to attract support from KR factions – moves that would bolster their relative power positions - that had begun defecting from Pol Pot’s organization. The tensions between CPP and FUNCIPEC even led to open, armed confrontations between the two parties. The situation exploded as Hun Sen and CPP forces loyal to him staged an armed coup in the capital in early July 1997; it was in this context that Forces of Norodom Ranariddh emerged. The group’s primary goal was to reinstall Prince Ranariddh as First Prime Minister, and it claimed that Hun Sen did not have a legitimate claim on government power.

During the coup on 5-6 July, UCDP considered the forces loyal to Prince Ranariddh – the son of King Norodom Sihanouk - as the Government of Cambodia, since they constituted the forces defending the political status quo. The “Forces of Norodom Ranariddh” thus emerged in UCDP data on 7 July 1997, as troops controlled by Hun Sen took full control over the capital Phnom Penh and became the new Government of Cambodia. As Prince Ranariddh’s forces were purged from the capital, UCDP considered them as a non-state actor fighting against the new Hun Sen-led Government of Cambodia. The core of the forces loyal to prince Ranariddh was comprised of fighters from FUNCIPEC, which had been allowed to remain mobilized after the 1991 Paris Agreement. However, the group was also comprised of royalists, and some KR fighters – mainly from the KR stronghold Anlong Veng - that had severed their ties to KR top leader Pol Pot. It was estimated that Prince Ranariddh’s faction numbered about 10 000, but it was not clear how many of these were actual armed fighters. While Prince Ranariddh was the political front figure of the group, the top military commander was FUNCIPEC General Nhiek Bun Chhay. The main stronghold of Prince Ranariddh’s forces was the northern town O’Smach, located in the Oddar Meanchey province.

In November 1998, negotiations between Prince Ranariddh’s faction and the Cambodian government put an end to the fighting. Prince Ranariddh also agreed to rejoin the Government of Cambodia; after this, the Forces of Norodom Ranariddh ceased to exist as an independent actor in the UCDP data.