Cambodia; key
historical events
Page last
modified 22/2/2021 2-2021
See also South-East
Asia for other countries
For events of World War Two in
Pacific, S E Asia, see China-Japan-Korea
Useful Web
resources on Cambodia
New Statesman (2014) article on Cambodia and the
Khmer Rouge,
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2014/04/how-thatcher-gave-pol-pot-hand
The Economist (2021) bombings and Cambodian
agriculture,
11/2017, The Cambodian �Supreme Court banned the Cambodia National
Rescue Party, the country's principal opposition party. In 2/2018 Cambodia
introduced a lese-majeste law, making
it a criminal offence to defame or insult the King.
9/2016, Prosecutions were started
against many political opponents to Hun Sen, ahead of elections due in 2018.
The main opposition Party, the Cambodian
National Rescue Party, was boycotting Parliamentary procedures. In 2017
Cambodia banned anypone convicted of an offence from running for political
office, effectivey debarring many Opposiiton leaders.
3/2015 Two more Khmer Rouge
leaders, Im
Cheam and Meas Muth, were charged with crimes against
humanity.
9/2013, Protests in Phnom Penh
over contested election results in which Hun Sen had claimed victory. The Cambodian
Parliament approved a new five-year term for Hun Sen, who celebrated 30 years in power in 1/2015, but this was boycotted
by the Opposition �There were riots in
1/2014 in Pnohm Penh against the disputed election result.
6/2013, Cambodia made it illegal
to deny that atrocities were committed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
3/2013, Former Khmer Rouge
foreign minister Ieng Sary died while awaiting trial for genocide, leaving
only Nuon
Chea and Khieu Samphan among prominent Khmer Rouge
figures still alive and under arrest by the UN-backed tribunal. In 8/2014 these
two Khmer Rouge
members were finally senten ced and jailed. An appeal by them in 11/2016
against conviction failed.
10/2012, Former King, Norodom
Sihanouk, died of a heart attack, aged 89. Thousands came to pay
their respects at his cremation in 2/2013.
4/2012, Environmental
activist Chut
Wutty was killed in a confrontation with police whilst travelling in
a threatened forest region in south-west Cambodia. However in 5/2012 the
Cambodian Government suspended land grants to private companies, to curb
illegal logging.
3/2012,
Allegations that Cambodia was obstructing the trials of some former Khmer Rouge
members.
22/11/2010, 347 people died in a stampede at the Khmer Water
Festival, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
2009,
Former Khmer
Rouge leader Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch,
went on trial on charges of presiding over the murder and torture of thousands
of people as head of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison camp. In 2010 he was found guilty of
crimes against humanity and given a 35-year prison sentence. In 2/2012 Duch lost an appeal against
conviction at a UN-backed tribunal and his sentence was increased to life.
10/2008,
Border dispute netween Cambodia and Thailand; two Cambodian soldiers and a Thai
soldier died in an exchange of fire
7/2007,
UN-backed tribunals finaly began questioning surviving Khmer Rouge suspects about
allegations of genocide. In
September 2007, Khmer Rouge member Nuon Chea, �Brother Number Two�, was arrested
and charged with crimes against humanity.
7/2006, Ta Mok,
one of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, died aged 80, untried by any
Court.
4/2005 A tribunal
to try Khmer
Rouge leaders finally received funding from the UN after years of
debate.
2004, After
nearly a year of political deadlock, Prime Minister Hun Sen was re-elected after the
Cambodian People�s Party made a deal
with the royalist Funcinpec party. Cambodia
joined the World Trade Organisation. King Sihanouk abdicated and was replaced by his son Sihamoni.
12/2001, A
bridge was opened across the Mekong River, impriving links between east and
west Cambodia.
2001, Cambodia
passed a genocide law seting up a tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge
leaders for atrocities. These reform efforts brought in some US$ 560 million
of international aid. In June 2001, US-based Cambodian Freedom
Fighter members were convicted of a 2000 attack in Phnom Penh. The group roup
pledged to continue its campaign to overthrow Hun Sen.
1999, Cambodia was
admitted to ASEAN.
7/1998,
Cambodian elections were won by Hun Sen's Cambodian
People�s Party (CPP), but voting was tainted by allegations of harassment.
A coalition was again formed between the CPP
and Funcinpec. Hun Sen became Prime Minister, with
Ranariddh
as president of the National Assembly.
15/4/1998, Pol Pot died,
aged 70, unarrested, in his remote refuge
headquarters..
1998, Prince
Ranariddh was tried in absentia and found
guilty of arms smuggling, but was then pardoned by the King.
1997, Hun Sen mounted a coup against the prime minister, Prince Ranariddh,
replacing him with Ung Huot. The coup was condemned internationally.
The Khmer Rouge put Pol Pot on trial and sentenced him to
life imprisonment.
1996, Deputy leader of Khmer Rouge, Ieng Sary, was granted an amnesty by Sihanouk and formed a new Party.
Peace accord in Cambodia
21/9/1993,
Cambodian elections were won by the Royalist Party,
Funcinpec, with Hun Sen�s Cambodian People�s Party (CPP) coming second. The monarchy was
restored with Sihanouk
as King. Funcipec and the CPP formed a
coalition, with Prince Norodom Ranariddh as Prime
Minister and Hun Sen as Deputy Prime Minister. The
country was renamed as the Kingdom of Cambodia. The former Khmer Rouge government in exile lost its seat at the UN. During 1994, the Khmer Rouge disarmed and thousands of its guerrillas surrendered under a government
amnesty.
1/2/1993. The Cambodian government began an offensive
against Khmer
Rouge rebels in western and north-central Cambodia.
14/11/1991, Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to Cambodia
after 13 years exile.
23/10/1991. A peace accord between the warring factions in Kampuchea
(Cambodia) was signed in Paris after being brokered by the UN.
Under a UN-backed tranitional arramngement, the various warring factions in the
country shared power, with Sihanouk as Head of State.
18/7/1990, The US and Vietnam began talks over the future of Cambodia.
2/5/1989, Kampuchea announced it would return �to being called Cambodia.
Vietnamese-backed
government of Cambodia
5/4/1989, Vietnam announced it would withdraw its troops from
Cambodia by September 1989. Hun
Sen attempted to attract foreign
investment by abandoning socialism. The country was re-named the State of
Cambodia. Buddhism was re-established as the State religion.
2/9/1985, In Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge leader Pol
Pot retired. Hun Sen became Prime Minister.
Cambodia saw renewed guerrilla warfare, and many of its people beceme refugees.
1981, The pro-Vietnamese
Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party won elections. However the
international community refused to recognise the new government; the
government-in-exile, which included the Khmer Rouge and Sihanouk as Head of State,
retained the Cambodian seat at the United Nations.
19/9/1979, Pol Pot, ex-dictator of Cambodia, was sentenced
to death in his absence by the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian Government. The
people�s Republic of Kampuchea was established, and urban life restored.
8/1/1979, In Cambodia, the Vietnamese took Phnom Penh;
the Khmer Rouge
regime fell. The remnants of the Khmer Rouge fled to the remote Thai border
region.
Pol
Pot regime
7/1/1979. Rebel Cambodia forces, along with Vietnamese
forces captured Phnom Penh, capital of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia). Pol
Pot and his Khmer Rouge retreated to Thailand.
1/10/1978 �Vietnam attacked Cambodia, supported by Communists
opposed to Pol Pot.
31/12/1977, Cambodia broke off diplomatic relations with Vietnam, and suspended air services between them. Fighting
between the two countries had erupted in the Parrot�s Beak area, where Cambodia
juts out into (South) Vietnam. The Chinese-backed Cambodian regime accused Vietnam of
not being sufficiently �revolutionary�. Troubles began when many Cambodians
moved across the border into the Mekong Delta area, after Saigon fell and
before North Vietnam had fully established control of the area.
21/7/1977, Cambodia and Thailand
fought in a border war.
1976, Khieu Samphan became� Head of State.
4/4/1976, Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigned as leader of
Cambodia and was placed under house arrest.
17/4/1975. In Cambodia,
the capital Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge.
The civil war there ended. Pol Pot �proclaimed the �Democratic Republic of
Kampuchea�, and became its Prime Minister, from 1975 to 1979. Lon
Nol was overthrown.
All
urban inhabitants were forcibly moved to rural areas to become farm workers.
All civil rights were curtailed, money ceased to be used, religion was banned,
and the wealthier middle class were tortured and executed in �re-education
centres�. Many died of disease and starvation; over the next 3 years the death
toll from this programme was to be at least 1.7 million.
17/3/1973, A Cambodian Air Force office stole a plane and
bombed the Presidential Palace, in an attempt to assassinate President
Lon Nol. He missed his target, although he killed 20 others.
10/3/1972, General Lon Nol assumed
complete control of the Cambodian government.
20/4/1971, Cambodian Prime Minister Lon Nol
resigned, but remained in power until the next elections.
1970, Prime Minister Lon
Nol deposed Sihanouk in coup; he proclaimed the Khmer
Republic and began fighting the North Vietnamese in Cambodia. Sihanouk, in
exile in China, forms a guerrilla movement against Lon Nol. Over
next few years the Cambodian army lost territory to the North Vietnamese and Communist
Khmer Rouge guerrillas
30/4/1970. US troops sent to Cambodia to attack Communist bases.
They withdrew from Cambodia on 29/6/1970.
19/4/1970, Pathet Lao forces advanced close to Phnom Penh.
18/3/1969, The US began heavily bombing Cambodia, the aim
being to cut the Ho Chi Minh trail and thereby disrupt supplies to the
Communist Vietcong. The operation was not publicised to the West, because
that would have revealed Sihanouk�s complicity in the bombing of his
own country. Sihanouk
was now pro-US because he perceived Pol Pot to be allied to Hanoi. In fact the bombing destabilised Cambodia
so that within a year Sihanouk was deposed
by his own ministers. The new Cambodian leader, Lon Nol, insisted that all Vietnamese troops leave Cambodian soil to the
delight of the US. However Lon Nol was weak and his rule facilitated the advance of Pol Pot�s forces into rural
areas, forcing Lon Nol�s troops back into the cities.
1965, Sihanouk broke off relations
with the US and permitted North Vietnamese guerrillas to set up bases in
Cambodia, from where they could harass the US backed government in South
Vietnam.
4/6/1964, The United Nations Security Council passed
Resolution 189, condemning military incursions into Cambodia.
1960, Sihanouk's father died. Sihanouk
became Head of State.
1955, King Sihanouk abdicated to
pursue a political career as Prime Minister, taking the title �Prince�. His
father became King.
20/7/1954. Cambodian independence from France was confirmed.
At a peace conference in Geneva, both France and Vietnam agreed to withdraw their
troops from Cambodia.
9/11/1953. Cambodia
became independent under King Sihanouk.
8/5/1952, Hun Sen, Prime Minister of
Cambodia, was born (some sources state 4/4/1951).
1946, France re-imposed its protectorate.
A new constitution allowed Cambodians to form political parties. Communist
guerrillas began a guerrila campaign against the French.
11/3/1945. Cambodia declared its independence.
1941, Prince Norodom Sihanouk became
king. Cambodia was occupied by Japan during World War II.
31/10/1922, Norodom
Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, was born.
11/8/1863, A French Protectorate,
which was to last 90 years, was established in Cambodia, after continued
attacks by Thai and Vietnamese forces.
1860, The ruins of Angkor Wat were rediscovered by
French botanist Henri
Mohout, whose extended exploration of Siam, Cambodia and Laos were
funded by the Royal Geographical Society. The French developed a narrative of
�abandoned temples only rediscovered with European effrots�, thereby justifying
a French colonial presence in the region.
1432, End of the Khmer Empire,
as Thai troops from the Ayuttha Kingdom
overran the country and looted the capital.
1181, Jayavarman VII became King of
Cambodia; ruled until his death in 1220. He rallied the Khmer and expelled the Cham. He then built Angkor Thom (=
Great City).
1177, The Cham, a people from present day Vietnam, sacked the Khmer
capital, Angkor Wat. The invaders remained for 4 years.
1160, Yasovarman II succeeded his
uncle Dharanihdravarman
as ruler of the Khmer
Empire.
1152, Death of Suryavarman II,
King of the Khmer
Empire from 1112.
1150, The great Temple of Angkor
Wat was completed (begun 1113, by King Survayarman II).
900, The city of Yasodharapura
was completed. It was begun by King Yasovarman I in 889, and stood where
Angkor Wat (= Temple City) is now located.
802, The Khmer people were united under King
Jayavarman II,
who ruled until 850.