People's Republic of Kampuchea

The People's Republic of Kampuchea (សាធារណរដ្ឋប្រជាមានិតកម្ពុជា) was Cambodia's government from 1979 to 1989, after Vietnamese forces drove out the Khmer Rouge. It governed with the backing of a Vietnamese army that stayed about ten years, while a coalition of resistance groups held Cambodia's seat at the United Nations. In April 1989 it was renamed the State of Cambodia, which governed until the elected government of 1993 replaced it.

The December 2 Memorial Monument in Kratie Province, 2015

History details
Start	1979
End	1989
Present-day countries	Cambodia

On this page

1. Founding
2. Invasion or liberation
3. Recovery
4. Resistance and war
5. State of Cambodia
6. References

On this page

1. Founding
2. Invasion or liberation
3. Recovery
4. Resistance and war
5. State of Cambodia
6. References

Founding

Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December 1978, alongside a far smaller group of former Khmer Rouge soldiers, among them Heng Samrin and Hun Sen. The Vietnamese army entered Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979. The new government was formed within days. Voice of Democracy dates it to the day after the capital fell; Cambodge Mag gives January 11, 1979. Most of its members were communists who had left Pol Pot's movement during 1977 and 1978.

Heng Samrin was the first head of state. Pen Sovan was prime minister and general secretary of the ruling Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party; he was removed from his posts less than two years later and held in Hanoi for a decade. Hun Sen rose gradually to lead the government.

Invasion or liberation

How to describe 1979 is contested. The Cambodian People's Party, which grew out of the government of 1979, marks January 7 as the country's liberation from the Khmer Rouge, the holiday now called Victory over Genocide Day. Other parties rejected that reading in the early 1990s, and the government stopped marking the date in 1993 before taking it up again by 1996. Critics, writing in Asia Times among other places, call the events an invasion followed by a Vietnamese occupation.

Recovery

Under the new government private property, schools, Buddhist practice, towns and markets returned in part. In late 1979 thousands of people fled to Thailand to escape fighting and famine. At least 500,000 people crossed the border in the years after the invasion, and perhaps 200,000 of them settled abroad; many passed through camps such as Khao I Dang.

Resistance and war

Three groups fought the government from bases near the Thai border: followers of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front under Son Sann. In 1982 they formed a coalition government-in-exile, which kept Cambodia's seat at the United Nations. The border camps held more than 300,000 people by the end of the 1980s. From 1985 to 1987 the government laid minefields in the west, among them K5, a belt of fences and mines more than 100 kilometers long along the Thai border.

State of Cambodia

In December 1987 Sihanouk and Hun Sen met in France for talks. On April 5, 1989, Vietnam announced that all its troops would leave by September 30; on April 29 the People's Republic became the State of Cambodia, and the last Vietnamese units left on September 26. The government legalized private property and encouraged Buddhism.

The Paris Agreements, signed on October 23, 1991, set up a United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia to oversee the country until elections. More than 300,000 refugees came home in 1992 and 1993. The elections of May 1993 were followed by a new constitution, and the Royal Government of Cambodia succeeded the State of Cambodia.

References 5