History in Campudia

 

HISTORY   Early Beginnings   Cambodia came into being, so the legend goes, through the union of a princess and a foreigner. The foreigner was an Indian Brahman named Kaundinya. The princess was the daughter of a dragon king who ruled over a watery place. One day, as Kaundinya sailed by, the princess paddled out in a boat to greet him. Kaundinya shot an arrow from his magic bow into her boat, causing the princess to fearfully agree to marriage. In need of a dowry, her father drank up the waters of his land and presented them to Kaundinya to rule over. The new kingdom was named Kambuja.   Like many legends, this one is historically opaque, but it does say something about the cultural forces that brought Cambodia into existence; in particular its relationship with its great sub continental neighbor, India. Cambodia's religious, royal and written traditions stemmed from India and began to coalesce as a cultural tradition in their own right from around the 1st century AD.   Very little is known about prehistoric Cambodia. Evidence of cave dwellers has been found in the north-west of Cambodia. Carbon dating on ceramic pots found in the area shows they were made around 4200 BC. But it is difficult to say whether there is a direct relationship between these cave-dwelling pot makers and contemporary Khmers. Examinations of bones dating back to around 1500 BC, however, suggest that the people living in Cambodia at that time resembled Cambodians of today.   Archaeological evidence shows that Cambodians prior to 1000 BC lived in houses on stilts (as they do today), and subsisted on a diet that included large quantities of fish and cultivated rice. Early Chinese records report that the Cambodians were 'ugly' and 'dark' and went about naked; a pinch of salt is always required when reading the culturally chauvinistic reports of imperial China concerning its' barbarian' neighbors.   Indianisation & Funan   The early Indianisation of Cambodia probably occurred via trading settlements that sprang up from the 1st century AD on the coastline of what is now southern Vietnam. Such settlements served as ports of call for boats following the trading route from the Bay of Bengal to the southern provinces of China. The largest of these was known as Funan, close to contemporary Oc-Eo in Kien Giang Province of southern Vietnam.   Funan is a Chinese name, and it may be a transliteration of the ancient Khmer name for mountain: bnam. Although very little is known about Funan, much has been made of its importance as an early South-East Asian centre of power despite there being little evidence to support this.   It is most likely that between the 1st and 8th centuries Cambodia was a collection of small states, each with its own elites that sometimes strategically intermarried and sometimes went to war with one another. Funan was no doubt one of these states, and as a major sea port was undoubtedly pivotal in the transmission of Indian culture into the interior of Cambodia.   What historians do know about Funan they have mostly gleaned from Chinese sources. These report that Funan-period Cambodia (1st to 6th centuries AD) embraced the worship of the Hindu deities Shiva and Vishnu and at the same time Buddhism. The lingam, a phallic totem, appears to have been the focus of ritual and an emblem of kingly might, a feature that was to evolve further in the Angkorian cult of the god king. The people practiced primitive irrigation, which enabled the cultivation of rice, and traded raw commodities such as spices with China and India.   Chenla Period Form the 6th century Funan's importance as a port declined, and Cambodia's population gradually concentrated along the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers (as is the case today). The move may be related to the development of wet-rice agriculture. From the 6th to the 8th centuries Cambodia was probably a collection of competing kingdoms, ruled by autocratic kings who legitimised their absolute rule through hierarchical social concepts borrowed from India.   This period is generally referred to as the Chenla. Again, as is the case with Funan, it is a Chinese term and there is little to support the idea that the Chenla was a unified kingdom that held sway over all Cambodia. Indeed, the Chinese themselves referred to the 'water Chenla' and the 'land Chenla', the former probably located in the Mekong Delta, the latter in the upper reaches of the Mekong River.   Still, the people of Cambodia were known at least to the Chinese, and gradually the region was becoming more cohesive. Before long the fractured kingdoms of Cambodia would merge to become the greatest kingdom of South-East Asia.   Angkorian Period   An inscription at the sacred mountain of Phnom Kulen, to the north of Angkor, reads that in the year 802 Jayavarman II participated in a ritual that proclaimed him a 'universal monarch', or a devaraja (god king). Who was Jayavarman II and what was he doing before this? It is thought he may have resided in the Buddhist Shailendras' court in Java as a young man. One of the first things he did when he returned to Cambodia was to hold a ritual that made it impossible for Java to control the lands of Cambodia. From this point, Jayavarman II brought the lands of Cambodia under his control through alliances, proclaiming him - self king in the process.   Jayavarman II was the first of a long succession of kings who presided over the: rise and fall of the South-East Asian empire that was to leave behind the stunning legacy of Angkor. The first records of the massive irrigation works that supported the population of Angkor begin in the reign of Indravarman I (reigned 877-889). His rule also marks the beginning of Angkorian art, with the building of temples in the Roluos area, notably the Bakong. His son, Yaso varman I (reigned 889-910), moved the royal court to Angkor proper, establishing a temple mountain on Phnom Bakheng.   By the turn of the II the century the kingdom of Angkor was losing control of its territories. Suryavarman I (1002-1049), an usurper, moved into the power vacuum and, like Jayavarman II two centuries before, reunified the kingdom through war and alliances. He annexed the kingdom of Lopburi in Thailand and extended his control of Cambodia. A pattern was beginning to emerge, which can be seen throughout the Angkor period: dislocation and turmoil, followed by reunification and further expansion under a powerful king. The most productive periods architecturally occurred after periods of turmoil, indicating that newly incumbent monarchs felt the need to celebrate and perhaps legitimise their rule with massive building projects.    From around 1066 Angkor was again riven by conflict, becoming the focus of rival bids for power. It was not until 1112, with the accession of Suryavarman II, that the kingdom was again unified. Suryavarman II embarked on another phase of expansion, waging wars in Vietnam and the region of southern Vietnam known as Champa. He also established links with China. But Suryavarman II will mostly be remembered as the king who, in his devotion to the Hindu deity Vishnu, commissioned Angkor Wat.   Suryavarman II had brought Champa to heel and reduced it to vassal status. In 1177, however, the Chams struck back in a naval expedition up the Mekong and into the Tonle Sap (Great Lake). They took the city of Angkor by surprise and put its king to death. A year later a cousin of Suryavarman gathered forces about him and defeated the Chams in another naval battle. The new leader was crowned in 1181 as Jayavarman VII.   A devout follower of Mahayana Buddhism, Jayavarman VII built the city of Angkor Thom and many other monuments. Indeed most of the monuments visited by tourists in Angkor today were constructed during Jayavarman VII's reign. He also commissioned a vast array of public works. But as David Chandler points out in his History a/Cambodia, Jayavarman VII is a figure of many contradictions. The bas-reliefs of the Bayon, for example, depict him presiding over battles of terrible ferocity, while statues of the king show him .in a meditative, otherworldly aspect. His program of temple construction and other public works were carried out in great haste, no doubt bringing enormous hardship to the labourers who provided the muscle.   Decline & Fall  Some scholars maintain that decline was hovering in the wings at the time Angkor Wat was built, when the Angkorian empire was at the height of its remarkable productivity. There are indications that the irrigation network was overworked, and massive construction projects such as Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom no doubt put an enormous strain on the royal coffers and on the common people who subsidised them in taxes and hard work. Certainly, after the, reign of Jayavarman VII, temple construction effectively came to a halt, in large part because Jayavarman VII's public works quarried local sandstone into oblivion. Another important aspect of this period was the decline of Cambodian political influence on the peripheries of its empire. The Thai kingdom of Ayuthaya, on the other hand, grew in strength and made repeated incursions into Angkor, sacking the city in 1431. During this period, perhaps drawn by the opportunities for sea trade with China, the Khmer elite began to migrate to the Phnom Penh area.   The next 150 years of Khmer history was dominated by dynastic rivalries and almost continuous warfare with the Thais. Although the Khmers once pushed westward all the way to the Thai capital of Ayuthaya (only to find it occupied by the Burmese), the Thais recovered and dealt a crushing blow to the Khmers by capturing their capital in 1594.   Shortly before the Khmer defeat, the Cambodian king, Satha, requested the assistance of the Spanish and Portuguese, who had recently become active in the region. In 1596 a Spanish expedition arrived in Cambodia to assist Satha only to find that he had been deposed by an usurper, Chung Prei. After a series of disagreements and the sacking of the Chinese quarter of Phnom Penh by the Spanish forces, the Spanish attacked the palace and killed Chung Prei. The Spanish then decided to return to Manila, but while marching through Laos, they changed their minds and returned to Phnom Penh, installing one of Satha's sons on the throne. Resentment of the power wielded by the Spanish grew among court officials until 1599, when the Spanish garrison at Phnom Penh was massacred. Shortly thereafter, Satha's brother ascended the throne with the help of the Thais.   From about 1600 until the arrival of the French in 1863, Cambodia was ruled by a series of weak kings who, because of continual challenges by dissident members of the royal family, were forced to seek the protection - granted, of course, at a price - of either Thailand or Vietnam. In the 17th century, assistance from the Nguyen Lords of southern Vietnam was given on the condition that Vietnamese be allowed to settle in what is now the southern region of Vietnam, at that time part of Cambodia and today still referred to by the Khmers as 'lower Cambodia'. In the west, the Thais established dominion over the provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap; by the late 18th century they had firm control of the Cambodian royal family. Indeed, one king was crowned in Bangkok and placed on the throne at Udong with the help of the Thai army. That Cambodia survived through the 18th century as a distinct entity is due to the preoccupations of its neighbours: while the Thais were expending their energy and resources in fighting the Burmese, the Vietnamese were wholly absorbed by internal strife, including the rivalry between the Trinh Lords and the Nguyen Lords, and the Tay Son Rebellion.   French Rule Cambodia's dual Thai and Vietnamese suzerainty ended in 1864, when French gunboats intimidated King Norodom (reigned 1860-1904) into signing a treaty of protectorate. French control of Cambodia, which developed as an adjunct to French colonial interests in Vietnam, at first involved relatively little direct interference in Cambodia's affairs of state. However, the French presence did prevent Cambodia's expansionist neighbours from annexing any more Khmer territory and helped keep Norodom on the throne despite the ambitions of his rebellious half-brothers.By the 1870s French officials in Cambodia began pressing for greater control over internal affairs. In 1884 Norodom was forced into signing a treaty that turned his country into a virtual colony. This sparked a two year rebellion that constituted the only major anti-French movement in Cambodia until after WWII. This uprising ended when the king was persuaded to call upon the rebel fighters to lay down their weapons in exchange for a return to the pre-treaty arrangement.   During the next two decades senior Cambodian officials, who saw certain advantages in acquiescing to French power, opened the door to direct French control over the day-to-day administration of the country. At the same time the French maintained Norodom's court in a splendour probably unequalled since the Angkorian period, thereby greatly enhancing the symbolic position of the monarchy. The king's increased stature served to legitimise the Cambodian state, thereby pre-empting the growth of any sort of broad-based nationalist movement; a situation in marked contrast to that in Vietnam. Indeed, the only large-scale popular protest of any kind between the 1880s and the 1940s was an essentially peaceful peasant uprising in 1916, which ended when the king agreed to consider their grievances.   King Norodom was succeeded by King Sisowath (reigned 1904-27), who was followed on the throne by King Monivong  (reigned 1927-41). Upon the death of King Monivong, the French governor general of Japanese-occupied Indochina, Admiral Jean Decoux, placed 19-year-old Prince Norodom Sihanouk on the Cambodian throne. The choice was based on the assumption that Sihanouk would prove pliable; this proved to be a major miscalculation.   During WWII, Japanese forces occupied much of Asia, and Cambodia was no exception. However, with many in France collaborating with the occupying forces in mainland Europe, the Japanese were happy to let these French allies control affairs in Cambodia. However, with the fall of Paris in 1944, and coordinated French policy in disarray, the Japanese were forced to take direct control of the territory. After WWII the French returned, making Cambodia an 'autonomous state within the French Union', but retaining de facto control. The years after 1945 were marked by strife among the country's various political groupings, a situation made more unstable by the Franco- Viet Minh War then raging in Vietnam and Laos.   Independence  In January 1953 King Sihanouk, who had been at odds with the dominant Democratic Party, took decisive action, dissolving the parliament, declaring martial law and embarking on what became known as the 'royal crusade': his traveling campaign to drum up international support for his country's independence.   Independence was proclaimed on 9 November 19'53 and recognised by the Geneva Conference of May 1954, which ended French control of Indochina. However, internal political turmoil continued, much of it the result of conflicts between Sihanouk and his domestic opponents. In March 1955 Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father Norodom Suramarit to pursue a career as a politician. His newly established party, Sangkum Reastr Niyum (the People's Socialist Community), won every seat in parliament in the September 1955 elections. Sihanouk dominated Cambodian politics for the next 15 years, serving as prime minister until his father's death in 1960, when no new king was named and he became chief of state.   Although he feared the Vietnamese communists, during the early 1960s Sihanouk considered South Vietnam and Thailand, both allies of the USA (which he mistrusted), the greatest threats to Cambodia's security and even survival. He was particularly shaken by the overthrow and subsequent murder of President Ngo Diem of South Vietnam in an American-backed coup in 1963. Diem had been a staunch ally of Washington, so what hope was there for an unreliable Sihanouk? In an attempt to fend off these many dangers, he declared Cambodia neutral in international affairs. In May 1965 Sihanouk, convinced that the   USA had been plotting against him and his family, broke diplomatic relations with Washington and tilted towards North Vietnam, the Viet Cong and China. In addition, he accepted that the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong would use Cambodian territory in their battle against South Vietnam and the US.   These moves and his socialist economic policies alienated right-leaning elements in Cambodian society, including the officer corps of the army and the urban elite. At the same time, left-wing ambodians, many of them educated abroad, deeply resented his internal policies, which did not allow for political dissent. Compounding Sihanouk's problems was the fact that all classes were fed up with the pervasive corruption in government ranks. Although most peasants the vast majority of the population - revered Sihanouk as a semidivine figure, a ruralbased rebellion broke out in 1967, leading him to conclude that the greatest threat to his regime came from the left. Bowing to pressure from the army, he implemented a policy of harsh repression against left wingers.   In 1969 the USA began a secret program of bombing suspected communist base camps in Cambodia. For the next four years, until bombing was halted by the US Congress in August 1973, huge areas of the eastern half of the country were carpet bombed by US B-52s, killing uncounted thousands of civilians and turning hundreds of thousands more into refugees.   Lon Nol Regime By 1969 the conflict between the army and leftist rebels had become more serious and Sihanouk's political position had greatly deteriorated. In March 1970, while Sihanouk was on a trip to France, General Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Matak, Sihanouk's cousin, deposed him as chief of state, apparently with US consent. Pogroms against ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia soon broke out, prompting many to flee. Sihanouk took up residence in Beijing, where he set up a government-in-exile nominally in control of an indigenous Cambodian revolutionary movement that Sihanouk had nicknamed the Khmer Rouge (French for Red Khmer). This was a definitive moment in contemporary Cambodian history as the Khmer Rouge exploited its partnership with Sihanouk to draw new recruits into the small organisation. Many former Khmer Rouge fighters argue that they 'went to the hills', a euphemism for joining the Khmer Rouge, to fight for their king.   On 30 April 1970 US and South Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia in an effort to rout some 40,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops who were using Cambodian bases in their war to overthrow the South Vietnamese government. As a result of the invasion, the Vietnamese communists withdrew deeper into Cambodia, thus posing an even greater threat to the Lon Nol government. At the same time, the new government was becoming very unpopular as a result of unprecedented greed and corruption in its ranks. Savage fighting quickly engulfed the entire country, bringing misery to millions of Cambodians many fled rural areas for the relative safety of Phnom Penh and provincial capitals. Between 1970 and 1975 several hundred thousand people died in the fighting.   During the next few years the Khmer Rouge came to playa dominant role in trying to overthrow the Lon Nol regime. It was strengthened by the support of the Vietnamese, although the Khmer Rouge   King Sihanouk Norodom Sihanouk has been a constant presence in the topsy-turvy world of Cambodian itics. A colourful man of many enthusiasms and shifting political positions, his amatory plous tended to dominate his early reputation. Later he became the prince stage-managed the close of French colonialism, autocratically led an independent Cambodia was imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge and, from privileged exile, finally returned triumphant as king. Whatever else he may be, he is certainly a survivor.   Sihanouk was born in 1922, the only son of Prince Norodom Suramarit, grandson of Norodom (1860-1904), and Princess Sisowath Kossamak, daughter of King Sisowath Monivong (1927-41). He was not an obvious contender for the throne. The French saw young prince as a pliant monarch. He was crowned in 1941, at just 19 years old, wit] education incomplete. And in the four years before the Japanese arrived and presented Cambodia briefly with the gift of liberation, he was all the French had hoped he would be.   With the French colonial masters removed, however, Sihanouk promptly abolished French laws: the first was the compulsory Romanization of the Khmer alphabet; the see was the enforcement of the Gregorian calendar over the traditional lunar one. This must be said, his only act of defiance in five onths of de facto independence, but it marks the cautious beginning of Sihanouk's involvement in politics.   Sihanouk acquiesced quietly to the return of French rule in August 1945. But by 1 he had embarked on his self-styled 'royal crusade' for independence. He began it by missing an elected government and appointing himself prime minister, announcing within three years Cambodia would be independent. He embarked on a lobbying and I licity campaign in France and the USA, a brief defiant exile in Thailand, and sponsor civil militia that attracted some 100,000 volunteers. The French backed out of Cambodia in late 1953.   A year after achieving independence, Sihanouk made one of his characteristically predictable decisions: he would abdicate. Thwarted in his attempts to revise the cons tion and provide the throne with farreaching political powers, he was probably afraid of being marginalised to the pomp of royal ceremony. The 'royal crusader' became 'citizen Sihanouk'. He vowed never again to return to the throne. Meanwhile his father became I It was a masterstroke that offered Sihanouk both royal authority and supreme political power.   Elections were held in 1955. They were marred by intimidatory violence and voting fraud Sihanouk's Sangkum Reastr Niyum (People's Socialist Community party) won 83% 01 vote. By this time he was in full political swing and had discovered a passion for rhetoric one occasion, in 1957, he summoned his political opposition to a palace debate before a I audience and demolished them in three hours of impassioned oratory. His opponents I beaten by the palace guards as they slunk away.   By the mid-1960s Sihanouk had been supreme commander of Cambodia for a decade. After innumerable love affairs, he had finally settled on Monique Izzi, the daughter Franco-Italian father and a Cambodian mother, as his consort. As war raged in Vietnam leftist discontent with right-wing politics blossomed at home, Sihanouk launched his IT career. Between 1966 and 1969 he directed, produced and starred in nine movies.   The conventional wisdom was that Sihanouk is Cambodia – his leadership was unassailable. But as the cinema took more and of his time, Cambodia was being drawn inexorably into the Vietnam War. Government troops battled with a leftist insurgency in the countryside; the economy was in tatters; and Sihanouk came to be regarded as a liability. His involvement in the film industry and his announcements that Cambodia was 'an oasis of peace' suggested a man who had not only abdicated from the throne but also from reality.   In early 1970 with forces gathering against him, Sihanouk briefly flirted with the idea of reclaiming the throne. Instead, he departed for France. On 18 March the National Assembly voted to remove Sihanouk from office. Not long after, Cambodia was declared a republic and Sihanouk was sentenced to death in absentia.   Sihanouk went into exile in Beijing and threw in his lot with the communists. It was a practical step. The communists aimed to topple the Lon Nol government, and this suited Sihanouk. In 1973 he and his consort, Monique, joined Pol Pot and other communist leaders on a trip to Khmer Rouge-controlled Siem Reap. Photographs and film record the royal couple sightseeing in the black peasant garb preferred by the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, Sihanouk issued a statement in Beijing heralding the event as a great victory against imperialism.   In a deserted Phnom Penh, Sihanouk was confined to the Royal Palace as a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge. He remained there until early 1979 when, on the eve of the Vietnamese invasion, he was flown to Beijing. The Khmer Rouge killed many of Sihanouk's children, grandchildren and relatives, but curiously they spared the patriarch's life.   It was to be a decade before Sihanouk finally returned to Cambodia. Meanwhile, against all odds, he was back at centre stage again, calling the shots, forming alliances with the Khmer Rouge, breaking them off. He clearly hadn't learned much from his first disastrous association with the Khmer Rouge. After the May 1993 elections, Sihanouk suddenly announced that he was forming a coalition government with himself starring as president, prime minister and military leader. He failed.   Sihanouk has never quite given up wanting to be everything for Cambodia: international statesman, general, president, film director, man of the people. On 24 September 1993, after 38 years in politics, he settled once again for the role of king.    King Sihanouk remains a popular monarch in the countryside, but many urban Cambodians have less time for him, feeling he has allowed himself to be consistently outwitted by first the Khmer Rouge and later Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP). It is hard for him to detach himself from the political arena in Cambodia as his son Prince Norodom Ranariddh leads the National United Front for an Independent, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia (FUNCINPEC), the country's second largest party. More is the pity, as his final years as the King of Cambodia could have been better used as an apolitical role model. However, he did use his clout to broker the latest coalition between the CPP and FUNCINPEC, which broke the deadlock that followed the 1998 elections.   The most important question regarding King Sihanouk and one that has yet to be answered is: who will succeed him? It has yet to be decided by a committee that has yet to be formed, and should the King pass away in the meantime, it could once again plunge the country into chaos as the politicians argue over who succeeds to the throne. One thing is certain: if the monarchy continues to exist in Cambodia, the new monarch, whoever it may be, will never match the presence of Sihanouk - the last in a long line of Angkor's god kings. Leadership would vehemently deny this from 1975 onwards. The Vietnamese had much more combat experience than their Khmer Rouge counterparts; and it was the North Vietnamese that routed Lon Nol's forces in 1973 after the Khmer Rouge very nearly had been overrun in Siem Reap Province. So decisive was the Vietnamese victory that it almost allowed the Khmer Rouge to take Phnom Penh in 1973, two years before it eventually marched into the capital. The leadership of the Khmer Rouge, including Paris-educated Pol Pot (formerly Saloth Sar) and Khieu Samphan, had fled -into the countryside in the 1960s to escape the summary justice then being meted out to suspected leftists by Sihanouk's security forces.   Despite massive US military and economic aid, Lon Nol never succeeded in gaining the initiative against the Khmer Rouge, which pursued a strategy of attrition. Large parts of the countryside fell to the rebels and many provincial capitals were cut off from Phnom Penh. On 17 April 1975 - two weeks before the fall of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) - Phnom Penh surrendered to the Khmer Rouge.   Khmer Rouge Regime Upon taking Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge implemented one of the most radical and brutal estructurings of a society ever attempted; its goal was to transform Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative. Within two weeks of coming to power the entire population of the capital and provincial towns, including everyone in the hospitals, was forced to march out to the countryside and placed in mobile work teams to do slave labor preparing the fields, digging irrigation canals - for 12 to 15 hours a day. Disobedience of any sort often brought immediate execution. The advent of Khmer Rouge rule was proclaimed 'Year Zero'. Currency was abolished and postal services were halted. Except for one fortnightly flight to Beijing (China was providing aid and advisers to the Khmer Rouge), the country was cut off from the outside world.    It is still not known how many Cambodians died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge over the next four years. The Vietnamese claimed three million deaths, while foreign experts long considered the number closer to one million. Yale University researchers undertaking ongoing investigations concluded in early 1996 that the figure is at least two million, and may even end up being higher. Sihanouk returned to Phnom Penh in September 1975 as titular chief of state but resigned three months later. He remained in Phnom Penh, imprisoned in his palace and kept alive only at the insistence of the Chinese, who considered him useful. During the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in December 1978, Sihanouk was flown to Beijing to prevent him falling into the hands of the new government.    Vietnamese Intervention From 1976 to 1978, the xenophobic government in Phnom Penh instigated a series of border clashes with Vietnam, whose southern region - once part of the Khmer empire - it claimed. Khmer Rouge incursions into Vietnamese border provinces left hundreds of Vietnamese civilians dead. On 25 December 1978 Vietnam launched a full scale invasion of Cambodia, toppling the Pol Pot government two weeks later (on 7 January 1979). As Vietnamese tanks neared Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge fled west ward with as many civilians as it could seize, taking refuge in the jungles and mountains on both sides of the border with Thailand. The Vietnamese installed a new government led by two former Khmer Rouge officers, Hun Sen, who had defected to Vietnam in 1977, and Heng Samrin, who had done the same in 1978. The official version of events is that the Heng Samrin government came to power in a revolutionary uprising against the Pol Pot regime. The Khmer Rouge's patrons, the Chinese communists, launched a massive reprisal raid across Vietnam's northernmost border in early 1979 in an attempt to buy their allies time. It failed, and after 17 days the Chinese withdrew, their fingers badly burnt by their Vietnamese enemies.   The social and economic dislocation that accompanied the Vietnamese invasion along with the destruction of rice stocks and uncarpetedss fields by both sides (to prevent their use by the enemy) - resulted in a vastly reduced rice harvest in early 1979. The chaotic situation led to very little rice being planted in the summer of 1979. By the middle of that year the country was suffering from a widespread famine. As hundreds of thousands of Cambodians fled to Thailand, a massive international famine relief effort, sponsored by the United Nations (UN), was launched.   In June 1982 Sihanouk agreed, under pressure from China, to head a military and political front opposed to the Phnom Penh government and the 170,000 Vietnamese troops defending it. The Sihanouk-led resistance coalition brought together - on paper, at least - FUNCINPEC (the French acronym for the National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia), which comprised a royalist group loyal to Sihanouk; the Khmer People's National Liberation Front, a noncommunist grouping formed by former prime minister and banker Son Sann; and the Khmer Rouge, officially known as the Party of Democratic Kampuchea and by far the largest and most powerful of the three.   For much of the 1980s Cambodia remained closed to the western world, save for the presence of same aid groups. Government policy was effectively under the control of the Vietnamese so Cambodia found itself very much in the eastern bloc camp. Students were made to learn Russian and a number of Cambodians found them- selves studying in cities like Moscow, Prague and Warsaw. Chinese Khmers found life hard under the Vietnamese occupation as they were often singled out for illtreatment, and for a time at least the Viet-namese had a plan to repatriate them to China. The economy was in tatters for much of this period as Cambodia, like Vietnam, suffered from the effects of a US sponsored embargo.   However, with the advent of Mikhail Gorbachev in the former USSR and the Vietnamese embrace of their own form of perestroika, known as doi moi, Cambodia became something of a laboratory for their economic experiments.   In 1985 the Vietnamese overran all the major rebel camps inside Cambodia, forcing the Khmer Rouge and its allies to retreat into Thailand. From that time the Khmer Rouge - and, to a much more limited extent, the other two factions - engaged in guerrilla warfare aimed at demoralizing its opponents. Tactics used by the Khmer Rouge included shelling government controlled garrison towns, planting thousands of mines along roads and in rice fields, attacking road transport, blowing up bridges, kidnapping village chiefs and killing local administrators and school teachers. 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 border.   Throughout the 1980s Thailand actively supported the Khmer Rouge and the other resistance factions, seeing them as a counterweight to Vietnamese power in the region. In fact, in 1979 Thailand demanded that, as a condition for allowing international food aid for Cambodia to pass through its territory, food had to be supplied to the Khmer Rouge forces encamped in the Thai border region as well. Along with weaponry supplied by China (and delivered by the Thai army), this international assistance was essential in enabling the Khmer Rouge to rebuild its military strength.   At the same time Malaysia and Singapore supplied weapons to the two smaller factions of the coalition. During the mid-1980s the British government dispatched the Special Air Service (SAS) to a Malaysian jungle camp to train guerrilla fighters in land mine laying techniques. Although officially assisting the smaller factions, it is certain the Khmer Rouge benefited from this experience and enhanced its mine-laying capabilities. It then used these new-found skills to intimidate and terrorize the Cambodian people. As part of its campaign to harass and isolate Hanoi (capital of Vietnam), the USA gave more than USSI5 million a year in aid to the noncommunist factions of the Khmer Rougedominated coalition and helped it to retain its seat at the UN assembly in New York. By the late 1980s the military wing of FUNCINPEC, the Arrnee Nationale Sihanoukiste, had 12,000 troops; Son Sann's faction, plagued by internal divisions, could field some 8000 soldiers; and the Khmer Rouge's National Army of Democratic Kampuchea was believed to have 40,000 troops. The army of the Phnom Penh government, the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces, had 50,000 regular soldiers and another 100,000 men and women serving in local militia forces.   UNTAC at the Helm In September 1989 Vietnam, suffering from economic woes and eager to end its international isolation, announced that it had withdrawn all of its troops from Cambodia; however, evidence suggests that Vietnamese soldiers wearing Cambodian uniforms remained in the country well into 1990. With most of the Vietnamese gone, the opposition coalition, still dominated by the Khmer Rouge, launched a series of offensives, bringing the number of refugees inside the country to over 150,000 by the autumn of 1990. In the first eight months of 1990 over 2000 Cambodians lost their lives in the fighting between the Khmer Rouge dominated coalition and government forces.   Diplomatic efforts to end the civil war began to bear fruit in September 1990, when a plan agreed upon in Paris by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the USA, the former USSR, China, France and Britain) was accepted by both the Phnom Penh government and the three factions of the resistance coalition.   According to the plan, the Supreme National Council (SNC), a coalition of all factions. was to be formed under the presidency of Sihanouk. Meanwhile the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was to supervise the administration of the country and to create an atmosphere in which free elections could take place.   UNTAC was successful in achieving SNC agreement to most international human rights covenants; a large number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were established in Cambodia; and most importantly, on 25 May 1993, elections were held with a 89.6% turnout. The results were far from decisive, however, with FUNCINPEC, led by Prince Norodom Remarried, taking 58 seats in the National Assembly, the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which represented the previous communist government, taking 51 seats, and the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party (BLDP) taking 10 seats. As a result, Cambodia ended up with two prime ministers: Norodom Remarried as first prime minister, . and Hun Sen as second prime minister. Control of the various ministries was also spread among the three contending parties.   Within months of the elections taking place, local diplomats and reporters were complaining that the diffusion of central authority had led to a situation where real power lay in the hands of provincial leaders, whose loyalties lay with the CPP and communist-style power structures.   UNTAC was quick to pack up and go home, patting itself on the back for a job well. done. Even today, it is heralded as one of the UN's success stories. The reality is that it was an ill-conceived and poorly executed peace because so many of the powers involved in brokering the deal had their own agendas to advance. It was a travesty that the Khmer Rouge was allowed to playa part in the process after the barbarities it had inflicted on its people. It must have seemed like a cruel joke to the many Cambodians   who had lost countless family members under its rule, and very rapidly it became far more than a cruel joke, as the UN's half botched disarmament program took weapons away from rural militias who for so long pro- vided the backbone of the government's provincial defence network against the Khmer Rouge. This left communities throughout the country unprotected, while the Khmer Rouge used the veil of legitimacy conferred upon it by the peace process to reestablish a guerrilla network throughout the country. It is not an exaggeration to say that by 1994, when it was finally outlawed by the government, the Khmer Rouge was probably a greater threat to the stability of Cambodia than at any time since 1979.   If that wasn't bad enough, the UN presence also kick-started Cambodia's AIDS epidemic, with well-paid overseas soldiers boosting the prostitution industry. Cambodia's AIDS problem is now among the worst in Asia, and all this was done with taxpayers' money in the name of progress.   Machiavellian Times   As early as 1995 there were two major political incidents that boded ill for democratic politics. The first of these was the ouster of Sam Rainsy, a Paris-educated accountant, from FUNCINPEC. Rainsy lost his position as finance minister in mid-1994, a job he had excelled at, largely, it was surmised, because of his outspoken criticisms concerning corruption and government policy. In May 1995 his party membership was rescinded and one month later he was sacked from the National Assembly. He formed the Khmer Nation Party (now called the Sam Rainsy Party) and found himself the country's leading dissident in no time at all. Even his former FUNCINPEC allies turned against him; Prince Ranariddh was famously heard to remark in early 1995 that foremost among the prospects for Rainsy's wife was widowhood.   The other political headliner of 1995 was the arrest and exile of Prince Norodom Sirivudh, secretary general of FUNCINPEC, former foreign minister and half-brother of King Sihanouk. He had allegedly plotted to kill Hun Sen. Prince Sirivudh has been described as a good-humored man, always quick with an off-the-cuff joke, but the only one laughing at his so-called quip about assassinating Hun Sen was Hun Sen, who found himself with the perfect excuse to clear another political adversary from his path.   Dealing with the Khmer Rouge When the Vietnamese toppled the Pol Pot government in 1979, the Khmer Rouge disappeared into the jungle. The regime boycotted the 1993 elections and later rejected peace talks aimed at creating a cease fire. Although it was a signatory to the Paris peace accords, the alliance collapsed over the role the CPP should play in the political process: to the Khmer Rouge it was anathema to deal with anyone so close to the Vietnamese.   Defections of some 2000 troops from the Khmer Rouge army in the months following the elections offered some hope that the long running insurrection would fizzle out. Government-sponsored amnesty programs, however, initially turned out to be ill conceived the policy of recon scripting Khmer Rouge troops and returning them to fight their former comrades with poor pay and conditions provided little incentive to desert.   The problem was not just the poorly equipped and frequently unpaid Cambodian army. Evidence pointed to military cooperation with the Khmer Rouge. Leaked Khmer Rouge documents in mid-1994 revealed that large quantities of arms were sold to it by the Cambodian military, and that such arms sales were continuing even as those conducting the sales were attacking Khmer Rouge positions.   In 1994 the Khmer Rouge resorted to a new tactic of targeting tourists, with horrendous results for a number of foreigners in Cambodia. During 1994 three people were taken from a taxi on the road to Sihanoukville and subsequently shot. A few months later another three foreigners were seized from a train bound for Sihanoukville and in the ransom drama that followed they were executed, probably some time in September, as the army closed in.   The government changed its course during the middle of the I 990s, opting for more carrot and less stick in a bid to end the war. The defection program was stepped up a gear and slowly but surely isolated Khmer Rouge units began coming over to the government side in return for amnesties and an army uniform. Another important development was that the Thai government, a long time supporter of the rebels, finally began to clamp down on Khmer Rouge border movements, an act that theoretically severed the Khmer Rouge lines of revenue: gems and timber transported into Thailand for sale.   Khmer Rouge. Pailin, rich in gems and timber, had long been the economic springboard from which the Khmer Roug could launch counter-offensives against the government. The severing of this income coupled with the fact that government forces now had only one front on which t concentrate their resources, suggested that, the days of civil war were numbered.   By 1997 cracks were appearing in the paper-thin coalition and the fledgling democracy once again found itself under siege. On 31 March 1997 a grenade was thrown into a group of Sam Rainsy supporters demonstrating peacefully outside the National Assembly. Many were killed and Sam Rainsy narrowly escaped injury He fled into self-imposed exile, blaming Hun Sen and the CPP for the attack. However, it was the Khmer Rouge that again grabbed the headlines. As the politicians in Phnom Penh vied to draw the remaining Khmer Rouge out of their northern bases, Pol Pot ordered the execution of Son Sen, former defence minister during the Khmer Rouge regime, and many of his family members. This provoked a putsch within the Khmer Rouge leadership, as the onelegged hardline general Ta Mok seized control of the movement and put Pol Pot on 'trial'. This was widely seen as a cosmetic exercise carried out in an attempt to shift the collective responsibility of the mass killings onto the shoulders of one man. Rumours flew about Phnom Penh that Pol Pot would soon be brought there to face inter national justice, but it was never to happen July saw the focus shift back to Phnom Penh as the brittle government coalition fell apart amid scenes of heavy fighting.   The Coup The events of July 1997, as they are eu phemistically referred to in Cambodia, were preceded by a lengthy courting period in which both FUNCINPEC and the CPP at tempted to win the trust of the remaining Khmer Rouge hardliners in northern Cambodia. First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh was close to forging a deal with the jungle lighters and was keen to get it sewn up before Cambodia's accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as nothing would provide a better entry fanfare than the ending of Cambodia's long civil war. In his haste, he didn't pay enough attention to detail and was out-flanked and subsequently outgunned by Second Prime Minister Hun Sen. On 5 July 1997 lighting again erupted on the streets of Phnom Penh as troops loyal to the CPP clashed with those loyal to FUNCINPEC.   The heaviest exchanges were around Pochentong airport and key government buildings, but before long the dust had settled and the CPP once again effectively controlled Cambodia. Hun Sen accused Prince Ranariddh of illegally attempting to ship arms into Cambodia via the port of Sihanoukville and of colluding with the Khmer Rouge. They were pretty spurious charges and they led many in the international community to roundly condemn Hun Sen's actions. The strongman had finally flexed his muscles and there was to be no doubt as to which party commanded the support of the military.   The international reaction was swift and decisive. ASEAN suspended Cambodia's imminent membership of the regional or generation, the Cambodian seat at the UN was declared vacant and the donor community put a freeze on all new aid money. This was to have a serious impact on the Cambodian economy over the next two years.   Following the coup, the remnants of FUNCINPEC forces on the Thai border around 0 Smach formed an alliance with the last of the Khmer Rouge under Ta Mok 's control. The lighting may have ended, but the deaths did not: several prominent FUNCINPEC politicians and military leaders were murdered in extra-judicial executions, and even today no-one has been brought to justice for these crimes. Many of FUNCINPEC's leading politicians fled abroad, while the leading generals camped out in the jungle near the Thai border, leading a resistance struggle, together with the Khmer Rouge, against forces loyal to the CPP. Hun Sen quickly appointed Ung Huot, a FUNCINPEC parliamentarian, as first prime minister, although real power now lay firmly in the misleadingly named second prime minister's hands.   As 1998 began the CPP announced an allout offensive against its enemies in the north. By April it was closing in on the Khmer strongholds of Anlong Veng and Preah Vihear, and amid this heavy lighting Pol Pot managed to evade justice - he died in the Khmer Rouge's captivity on April 15. He was cremated soon after without an official autopsy, breeding rumours and gossip in Phnom Penh for a few weeks. The fall of Anlong Veng in April was followed by the fall in May of Preah Vihear; and the big three, Ta Mok, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, were forced to flee into the jungle near the Thai border with their remaining troops. It was around this time that the strategically important Hill 200 fell to government forces and here they found the so-called 'KR papers', all the notes from high level meetings that had taken place over the preceding year. In them were details of how the organisation planned to betray Prince Norodom Ran- ariddh, after using an alliance with FUNCINPEC to secure a foothold in Cambodian politics once more. The plan was ambitious, if not absurd, but more importantly highlighted the risk Ranariddh took in dealing with the devil. Hun Sen was to ably exploit these papers to defend his coup.   Election Time Again  Much of 1998 was dominated by election fever. It was to be the country's second election and many observers were pessimistic about the chances for democracy after the tumultuous events of 1997. At the start of 1998 FUNCINPEC leader, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, had still not returned to the country as he faced a variety of charges amounting to treason. FUNCINPEC's provincial network was also in tatters as many of its representatives had either left the country, been murdered or switched allegiances in a bid for political survival. However, Sam Rainsy was back: he returned to Cambodia at the end of 1997 after many months of self-imposed exile.   Ranariddh was tried in absentia during March and found guilty on charges of both arms smuggling and collusion with the Khmer Rouge. He subsequently received a pardon on 21 March from King Sihanouk at Hun Sen's request, and returned to Cambodia at the end of the month. The run-up to the election was remarkably quiet by Cambodian standards. The opposition formed an alliance to contest the elections called the National United Front (NUF), which brought together FUNCINPEC and the Sam Rainsy Party, plus a couple of smaller parties. They were never exactly united, but the alliance gave the parties a stronger voice against the government. The Khmer Rouge was roundly ignored and fortunately its threats to destabilise the election were reduced to a single deadly attack near the polling station in Anlong Veng,   The election took place on 26 July amid opposition charges of voter intimidation. Numerous election observers had flown into Cambodia some months earlier to ensure the process was free and fair, and they hastily declared the ballot a success. The opposition cried foul and the subsequent standoff again plunged Cambodia into a crisis of confidence. The results gave the CPP 64 seats, FUNCINPEC 43 seats and the Sam Rainsy Party 15 seats. The CPP was now the dominant force in Cambodian politics, but lacked the two-thirds majority required to govern alone. As the opposition escalated its campaign for democracy in August, mass demonstrations began in the capital, which soon descended into rioting, fighting and repression. The country looked set for yet another period of instability.   King Sihanouk added his voice to the post-electoral debate, offering to act as a mediator in the formation of a coalition. He was able to bring the squabbling leaders to a table at his residence in Siem Reap and, eventually, after much posturing on all sides, a coalition was announced on 23 November. It was business as usual, with a much weakened FUNCINPEC agreeing to govern with a now dominant CPP. Part of the coalition deal ensured amnesties for those FUNCINPEC supporters still facing charges, including exiled princes Sirivudh and Chakrapong, and General Neak Bun Chhay.   The formation of a new coalition government allowed the politicians to once more concentrate on bringing an end to the civil war. In December 1998 almost all the remaining Khmer Rouge guerrillas turned themselves over to government forces in return for amnesty and the Khmer Rouge effectively ceased to exist as a military organization. However, the big three continued to remain at large with an increasingly small number of soldiers, numbering perhaps only several hundred.   On 25 December Hun Sen received the Christmas present he had been waiting for: telephoning from Pail in, Khieu Samphan requested that he and Nuon Chea be permitted to defect to the government side. Hun Sen had long been an advocate of a trial for these remaining leaders, but he appeared to do an about turn and treated them to a lavish VIP reception, talking of the need for reconciliation. At a press conference in Phnom Penh, Nuon Chea, former Brother No 2 in the Khmer Rouge hierarchy, made a pathetic apology to the Cambodian people for their suffering, and so lame was it that even long Sary (foreign minister during the Khmer Rouge's rule) later rebuked him. The international community began to pile on the pressure for the establishment of some sort of war crimes tribunal to try the remaining Khmer Rouge leadership, while Hun Sen fired off contradictory salvos about who should be tried and for what.   Many Cambodians would no doubt like to see the Khmer Rouge leadership put on trial over the mass killings, but this will possibly never take place as the Chinese may move to block any such proceedings. The Chinese were staunch allies of the Democratic Kampuchea regime between 1975 and 1979 and many Khmer Rouge policies had their origins in Beijing. There is also the delicate issue of national reconciliation to consider, as Cambodia is now at peace for the first time in more then 30 years. A trial of senior leaders could send a message to former Khmer Rouge fighters around the country when will they come for us - and lead to a resumption of unrest. The Cambodian people deserve justice after so much suffering, but II could be argued that the nation would be better served by a truth commission that cleanses the nation's soul without seeking revenge. For senior leaders, all blame resides with a dead Pol Pot, but if lower ranking cadres are encouraged to come forward the full truth may emerge. There's is an awful lot of pent up anger in Cambodia and knowing the truth could be more cathartic to the average Cambodian than seeing pathetic old men on trial.   Cambodia Today   Both politically and economically, Cambodia is in a shaky position as donor countries tire of the rampant corruption and bad govemment that blights the country. Politically, the country is plagued by the divisions of its past. Politicians were either with the Vietnamese or agaist them members of the CPP or FUNCINPEC - and this can have considerable effect on career chances in any walk of life in Cambodia. Many observe! are pessimistic about the future of democracy in Cambodia as the CPP continues to lighten its grip on power. FUNCINPEC’s provincial hierarchy was decimated in the aftermath of July 1997's fighting, and the -part)' remains divided over the strategy pursued by its leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh in the months that followed .Although a popular party due to the royal connection, it lacks the muscle to seriously challenge the CPP, and Ranariddh has allowed himself to be somewhat sidelined as President of the National Assembly. Sam Rainsy remains the perceived voice ofdemocracy in Cambodia, but lacks the rural support and following among the military so crucial for success. He also lost s. credibility in the run up to the election relying heavily on anti- Vietnamese rhetoric in his campaign speeches.   The press continues to enjoy the sort of freedom of speech that is unthinkable in many of the neighbouring ASEAN countries, but the intimidation and murder of opposition journalists is sadly not uncommon, and state television is now firmly under the control of the CPP - dishing out a daily diet of  propaganda about Hun Sen's achievements between karaoke videos and soap operas.   The CPP is in effective control of Carnbodia today, but the party is not as united as it might at first appear. Politics in Cambodia has always been somewhat feudal, with allegiances only as permanent as the money or weaponry that buys them. Hun Sen is no one-man-show and owes some of his success to figures in the business world and the military: he is only guaranteed to stay in power as long as he cooperates with their agendas. However, he does command the respect of the most important elements of the military and this should help satisfy his political ambitions for several years to come. Hun Sen, the master chess player from Takhmau, has a political guile and cunning unrivalled in Cambodia. He has slowly but surely divided and conquered the opposition, isolating opponents before destroying them: first Rainsy, then Sirivudh and finally Ranariddh. The events of the first parliament read like a script, and there are now few politicians left to challenge him, as they have learned that to do so is folly indeed. He is often perceived as the bad guy of Cambodian politics and, while it is true that his democratic credentials are far from impressive, it is hardly the case that Ranariddh, often hailed as the good guy overseas, is without his flaws.   Love him or hate him, Hun Sen is at least a force for stability in Cambodia and a wily politician who has shown himself consistently able to outflank the opposition. He has proved himself a survivor, personally as well as politically, for he lost an eye during his youth. With the opposition down if not out, a shortage of clean and able politicians in Cambodia and a poorly educated electorate, it appears, for the time at least, that 'in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king'.   Blood Brother No 1 Pol Pot, Brother No 1 in the Khmer Rouge regime, is a name that sends shivers down the spines of most Cambodians and foreigners alike. It was Pol Pot who was most associated with the bloody madness of the regime he led between 1975 and 1979; and his policies heaped misery, suffering and death on millions of Cambodians. Even after his overthrow in 1979 he cast a long shadow over the Cambodian people: for many of them just knowing he was still alive was traumatic and unjust. He died on 15 April 199B. Pol Pot was born Saloth Sar in a small village near Kompong Thom in 1925. He had a relatively privileged upbringing and his education included, ironically, some time in a wat. As a young man he won a scholarship to study in Paris and spent several years there with leng Sary, who would later become foreign minister. It is here that he is believed to have developed his radical Marxist thought, later to transform into the politics of extreme Maoist agrarianism. Back in Cambodia, Saloth Sar became a school teacher, entering politics in the late 1950s. Very little is known about his early political career.   During the 19605 Sihanouk switched from friend to foe of the left and back again, but in 1963 his repressive policies sent Saloth Sar and comrades fleeing to the jungles of Ratanakiri. It was from this time that he began to call him himself Pol Pot, although it was not for a number of years that anyone would make the connection between the one-time teacher and the leader of Democratic Kampuchea. Once the Khmer Rouge was allied with Sihanouk, following his overthrow by Lon Nol in 1970 and subsequent exile in Beijing, its support soared and the faces of the leadership became familiar. However, Pol Pot remained a shadowy figure in the hierarchy leaving the public duties to Khieu Sam ph an and leng Sary.   When the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, few people could have anticipated the hell that was to come. Pol Pot, with the help of others, was the architect of one of the most radical and brutal revolutions in the history of mankind. Proclaimed as Year Zero, Cambodia was on a self-destructive course to sever all ties with the past.   Pol Pot was not to emerge as the public face of the revolution until the end of 1976, after returning from a trip to his mentors in Beijing. During his leadership he spent much of his time living in Phnom Penh, moving from residence to residence, paranoid about his security. He granted almost no interviews to foreign media and was seen only on propaganda movies produced by government television or on the occasional broadcast by Yugoslav journalists. Curiously enough, however, those who did meet Pol Pot during this period described him as a genial and charismatic man. Such was his aura and reputation that by the last year of the regime, a cult of personality was developing around him and busts of him were produced.   He was fervently anti-Vietnamese, a sentiment fuelled by the pivotal role the Vietnamese played in arming and advising the Khmer Rouge during its jungle years. It was the Vietnamese that called the shots in the early days of the guerrilla war, something that rankled a fiercely patriotic Pol Pot. He was never to forget that the Vietnamese considered the Cambodian revolution of secondary importance to their own. Ironically, it was indeed the Vietnamese that turned out to be his greatest enemy, invading Cambodia on 25 December 1978 and over throwing the Khmer Rouge government on 7 January 1979. Pol Pot and his supporters were sent fleeing to the jungle near the Thai border, from where they spent the next decade launching attacks on government positions in Cambodia.   Pol Pot spent much of the 1980s living in an armed compound in Thailand, and with the connivance of both China and the west was able to rebuild his shattered forces and once again threaten the stability of Cambodia. It is thought he stepped down as nominal head of the Khmer Rouge in 1985, but no doubt continued to call the shots from behind the scenes as he had done in the earliest days of the revolution. Throughout the 1980s and 90s his enigma increased as the international media speculated as to the real fate of Pol Pot. His demise was reported so often that when he finally passed away on 15 April 1998 many Cambodians refused to believe it until they had seen his body on television or in newspapers. Even then many were skeptical.   Pol Pot is a name known throughout the world, yet little is known about the man himself. Even the author of his biography Brother Number One, Cambodia expert David Chandler, could not find more than 200 pages to write about the man. He granted an interview to journalist Nate Thayer in 1997, but this was far from revealing as he disclaimed all responsibility for the excesses of his regime. It would be equally misleading to put together a portrait of the man from Khme