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Cambodia
Index
Figure 1. Administrative Divisions of Cambodia, 1986
ALTHOUGH THE LAND occupied by Cambodia has been populated for
millennia, the area's history was unrecorded until the Chinese
chronicles of the early Christian era. In the fewer than 2,000
years of its imperfectly documented existence, the Cambodian state
has evolved along the lines of ascension, dominance, and
retrogression inherent in all civilizations.
Historians surmise that by the first century A.D. a small
number of Khmer (or Cambodian) states already existed on the
fringes of the earliest recorded state in the region, the empire of
Funan. Centered in the Mekong Delta of present-day Vietnam, Funan
derived its power from commerce. With its port of Oc Eo on the Gulf
of Thailand, Funan was well-placed to control maritime traffic
between India and China. According to Chinese annals, Funan was a
highly developed and prosperous state with an extensive canal
system for transportation and irrigation, a fleet of naval vessels,
a capital city with brick buildings, and a writing system based on
Sanskrit. The inhabitants, whose adherence to Indian cultural
institutions apparently coexisted with Mahayana Buddhism, were
organized into a highly stratified society.
When the small Khmer states to the northwest of the Mekong
Delta emerged into recorded history, it was to make war upon the
declining empire of Funan. Between A.D. 550-650, these Khmer states
overran their adversary, which fell apart, losing its tributary
states on the Kra Isthmus and along the Gulf of Thailand.
Chaos and economic decline followed the fall of Funan, but the
sequence of events over the next 500 years led to the ascension of
the Cambodian state and its evolution into an increasingly powerful
and dynamic entity. The first unified and distinctly Khmer polity
to emerge after Funan was Chenla. It absorbed the Indianized
cultural legacy of its predecessor and established its capital near
the Tonle Sap (Great Lake), the heartland of Cambodia, then as now.
Under expansionist rulers, its authority was pushed into the
territories of present-day Thailand and Laos. The development of
Chenla was not marked by an unrelieved accretion of power, however.
Divisive forces quickly resulted in a split into Land (or Upper)
Chenla and Water (or Lower) Chenla. Land Chenla demonstrated the
greater vitality, controlled some thirty provincial cities, and
sent emissaries to China under the Tang dynasty. Water Chenla
slipped into vassalage to Java.
The historical ascension of the Khmer polity began during the
early 800s. The initiator of the period was the first empire
builder, Jayavarman II (A.D. 802-50), who carved out a feudal state
generally encompassing modern Cambodia. Jayavarman revived the cult
of Devaraja, an Indianized cultural institution that was intended
to confer, through elaborate rituals and symbols, heavenly
approbation or even divine status upon the ruler. Following the
reign of Jayavarman II, the two Chenlas were reunited peacefully,
and the Khmer polity continued to develop, establishing over time
a priestly hierarchy, an armed force and police, a provincial
administration of subordinate officials, a system of courts, corvée
labor by the peasants, and a capital on the site of Angkor near the
Tonle Sap.
The Khmer state reached its apogee in the Angkorian period--
also called the empire of Angkor--during the period from the
eleventh century to the thirteenth century, when it was ruled by a
succession of able monarchs. The last great monarch of the
Angkorian period was Jayavarman VII (1181-ca. 1218). He reversed
the Cham encroachments that had taken place after the death of
Suryavarman II (1113-50) and carried the war to the enemy,
conquering Champa itself and briefly reducing it to a Khmer vassal
state. At its greatest extent, the Angkorian empire of Jayavarman
VII encompassed not only Champa on the coast of southern Vietnam
but also extended north to the vicinity of Vientiane in present-day
Laos and south to include the small trading city-states of the
Malay Peninsula. Jayavarman continued the public works program of
his predecessors, uniting his realm by elevated military causeways
with resthouses at intervals. He also built hospitals for the aged
and the infirm and sponsored the construction of Angkor Thom and
the Bayon, the last major temples of Angkorian times and splendid
edifices in their own right, but presaging the decadence that
shortly set in
(see The Angkorian Period
, ch. 1).
Jayavarman VII's wars and public works exacted a heavy toll on
the finances and the human labor force of the Angkorian empire. The
drain of resources coincided with the gradual intrusion of
Theravada Buddhism, with its egalitarian focus, at the expense of
the Indianized cults that stressed a hierarchical, stratified
society
(see Buddhism
, ch. 2). Whether it was this development or
the inability of the Khmer monarchs to command the fealty of their
subjects that led to a societal breakdown remains open to
conjecture. Also coupled with these internal developments was the
accelerated southward migration of the Thai, who, dislodged from
their state in southwestern China by the Mongols in the mid-1200s,
flooded into the Menam Chao Phraya Valley. Subject to internal and
external pressures, the Khmer state became unable to defend itself
at the very time its enemies were growing stronger. Thai attacks
were stepped up around 1350, and they continued until Angkor itself
was captured and sacked in 1430-31. The fall of Angkor ended the
dominant period of the Khmer state. Thereafter, its borders shrank,
and it controlled little more than the area around the Tonle Sap,
the alluvial plain to the southeast, and some territory west of the
Mekong River. To the east, the collapse of the kingdom of Champa in
1471 opened the Khmer lands of the Mekong Delta to the steady
Vietnamese expansion southward.
The long waning of the Cambodian empire after the fall of
Angkor is not well documented. The transfer of the capital from the
Angkorian region around the Tonle Sap to the vicinity of Phnom Penh
may have heralded the shift of emphasis from an agricultural to a
trading society. Even with this change, the Khmer state retained
some of its vitality into the seventeenth century, alternately
trading and warring with its neighbors. By the eighteenth century,
however, it had become a backwater buffer state, existing solely on
the sufferance of its increasingly powerful neighbors, Thailand and
Vietnam. The imposition of the French protectorate upon Cambodia
prevented its neighbors from swallowing it completely.
Cambodia's status declined further under the French, however,
when the last vestiges of its sovereignty were lost, especially
after 1884, when Paris imposed another unequal treaty that went
beyond the original protectorate of 1863. The newer pact limited
the authority of the king, abolished slavery, stationed colonial
officials in the countryside, and codified land ownership. Reaction
to the 1884 treaty produced the only sustained rebellion during
colonial times. Unrest persisted until 1886 and was put down with
troops from Vietnam
(see The French Protectorate
, ch. 1).
Thereafter, the French consolidated their grasp on the country, and
Cambodia became merely a heavily taxed, efficient rice-producing
colony, the inhabitants of which were known for their passivity.
As the Southeast Asian colonies of the European powers stood on
the brink of World War II in 1940 and 1941, the utter powerlessness
of Cambodia was illustrated by the fact that it was compelled to
surrender its provinces of Siemreab and Batdambang (Battambang),
which included some of the country's most fertile agricultural
area, to Thailand, as a result of the brief Franco-Siamese War. In
addition, some months later it was the French, not the Cambodians,
who selected the candidate who would sit on the throne in Phnom
Penh. Their choice was the young Prince Norodom Sihanouk, because
French officials considered him more manipulable than the heir
apparent. (Sihanouk was then a shy youth, well-disposed toward his
role as figurehead monarch, and totally inexperienced in governing.
His formidable international reputation lay far in the future.)
In March 1945, the Japanese swept aside the Vichy French
administration in Cambodia (as elsewhere in Indochina), and they
induced the young king to proclaim independence. The event offered
little occasion for euphoria, however. The Japanese remained in
control, and then, after the Japanese surrender, the French
returned to reimpose their authority, granting the Cambodians, as
consolation prizes in early 1946, the right to have a constitution
and the right to form political parties.
In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, the struggle for
independence in Cambodia took place on several levels. Two
political parties were formed under princes of the royal house. The
Liberal Party, the more conservative of the two, advocated an
evolutionary approach to independence. The Democratic Party, the
more radical one, favored the rapid attainment of independence and
the formation of whatever political alliances might be necessary.
Underground, Cambodian guerrillas took to the jungles to fight the
returning French. The Khmer Issarak
(see Appendix B), as
these guerrillas were called, encompassed disaffected Cambodians from
across the entire political spectrum. Meanwhile, the French managed
to secure the return of Cambodia's two provinces lost to Thailand
in 1941. In 1949, under increasing military pressure from the Viet
Minh
(see Appendix B) in neighboring
Vietnam, the French granted Cambodia qualified self-government in
certain areas and an autonomous zone in Batdambang and Siemreab.
Sihanouk continued the political struggle above ground,
embarking upon a campaign for independence. Using a combination of
private and public initiatives and grandiose gestures, he exacted
grudging concessions from a French government increasingly hard-
pressed in Indochina by its war against the Viet Minh. In November
1953, Sihanouk announced dramatically that independence had been
gained, and he returned triumphantly from Paris to Phnom Penh.
Sihanouk quickly emerged as a leader of stature in his newly
independent country. In an effort to gain a freer hand in the
politics of his nation, a role he was not permitted to play as the
ruler in a constitutional monarchy, he abdicated the throne in 1955
and formed a political movement, the People's Socialist Community
(Sangkum Riastre Niyum, or Sangkum). With control of the Sangkum,
Sihanouk succeeded in having himself named both chief of state and
head of government. For nearly sixteen years, from 1954 to 1970, he
dominated Cambodian politics and ruled at the head of a highly
authoritarian and centralized government.
In the countryside, Sihanouk kept the support of the people
through his charismatic personality, his highly visible personal
forays among the rural peasantry, and his adherence to the
traditional symbols and institutions of the Khmer monarchy, such as
public audiences and participation in time-honored ceremonies.
Among the politicized urban elite, Sihanouk maintained power and
kept his opponents off-balance through a range of manipulative
stratagems, pitting them against one another when he could and co-
opting them with government positions when he could not.
In spite of Sihanouk's efforts, the situation in Cambodia began
to go awry in the mid- to late 1960s. Internally, the country had
been savaged by economic reverses. The budget was chronically in
deficit; United States aid had been terminated; and state socialism
had stifled development
(see
Sihanouk's Peacetime Economy 1953-70, ch. 3). Prices for Cambodia's export commodities--rice and rubber--
were declining. Numerous members of the youthful, educated elite
were underemployed and dissatisfied. Among the politicized middle
class, the military leadership, the intellectuals, and the
students, opposition was developing to Sihanouk's authoritarianism.
In the countryside, heavy taxation had ignited the shortlived
Samlot Rebellion in Batdambang Province. Although suppressed
ruthlessly, it refused to die out, and smoldered on in remote
corners of Cambodia. Disaffected elements still were at large, and
some of the country remained insecure. The radical wing of the
Kampuchean (or Khmer) Communist Party, (KCP--see
Appendix B), led
by Saloth Sar (later to be known as Pol Pot), had gone underground
and had taken up arms, unleashing its own insurgency against the
Sihanouk regime. In the northeast, minority ethnic groups were
alienated from the government in Phnom Penh because of its corvée
labor, forced resettlement, and assimilationist policies
(see
Cambodia under Sihanouk, 1954-70, ch. 1).
Internationally, the picture was not much better. Sihanouk
tried to maintain a nonaligned course in the country's foreign
policy. During its first decade of independence, Cambodia had
received aid from East and from West, and it was respected
internationally. In the mid- to late 1960s, however, this
neutrality was fast eroding, and Cambodia was about to be engulfed
by the war in neighboring Vietnam. The country rapidly was becoming
a logistical rear area and a safe haven for North Vietnamese and
Viet Cong
(see Appendix B) forces fighting
the Saigon government.
Cambodia was exposed to cross-border forays and airstrikes from
South Vietnam to neutralize these enemy installations. The
Cambodian port of Kampong Saom also was becoming the terminus for
Chinese weapons and supplies that were then trucked, sometimes in
Cambodian army vehicles, overland to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
supply depots.
Sihanouk sought to adjust to the prevailing trends in
Indochina. He sought to distance Cambodia from South Vietnam and
accepted accommodation with North Vietnam and with the National
Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NFLSVN--see
Appendix B),
the political arm of the Viet Cong. He broke relations with
Washington, looked for support to Beijing--which was then
distracted by its Cultural Revolution, and then resumed ties with
Washington.
Events in Cambodia were moving out of control, however. When
Sihanouk went abroad for a lengthy sojourn in January 1970 to
solicit Soviet and Chinese assistance in curbing the presence of
North Vietnamese sanctuaries on Cambodian territory, domestic
opposition to his regime became more outspoken and soon acquired a
momentum of its own. The entire Cambodian National Assembly, led by
a rightist cabinet under Premier Lon Nol, voted on March 22 to bar
the return of Sihanouk to the country. Cambodia's first post-
independence era thus ended, and the country soon was plunged into
a period of war, chaos, and human suffering perhaps unparalleled in
its history.
The Lon Nol government that succeeded the fall of Sihanouk
quickly abolished the monarchy and proclaimed itself the Khmer
Republic
(see Appendix B).
It initially enjoyed wide support among
the urban population, but it soon proved itself unequal to the
tasks of governing and defending the country and capturing the
allegiance of the Cambodian masses. The new government in Phnom
Penh began by fanning anti-Vietnamese sentiment among the Khmer
population, as a result of which countless numbers of civilian
Vietnamese migrants in Cambodia were massacred. The government then
turned against the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong by calling
publicly for their ouster from Cambodia and by initiating
ineffectual military operations against them. Shortly thereafter,
an offensive military thrust of the United States and South Vietnam
into Cambodia dislodged North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units from
their border sanctuaries; instead of driving them away from
Cambodian territory, however, it pushed them deeper into the
country, where they soon swept before them the ill-trained, ill-
armed, and totally inexperienced Cambodian republican forces.
At the same time, two concurrent developments conspired to
erode further the shaky position of the Khmer Republic. The first
was that Sihanouk established a government-in-exile in Beijing,
where he had fled following his ouster. There, he raised the
standard of revolt against the republican regime in Phnom Penh, and
he united in a common front with the armed Khmer communist rebels.
Both sides saw the advantages to such an alliance of convenience.
The Cambodian communists, dubbed the Khmer Rouge
(see Appendix B) by Sihanouk,
had ignited a small-scale insurgency in early 1968, but they had
not been able to move beyond their redoubts in remote corners of Cambodia
or to gain mass support in their first two years. Their alliance with
Sihanouk, in a broad resistance front
called the National United Front of Kampuchea (Front Uni National
du Kampuchéa--FUNK--see
Appendix B), transformed their forlorn
rebellion, which was aided by Washington, into a war of national
liberation against a puppet regime in Phnom Penh. At the same time,
Sihanouk's name attracted to the FUNK cause Cambodians of every
political persuasion, including many people without communist
antecedents.
The second development, one with equally serious consequences
for the Khmer Republic, was that the North Vietnamese quickly
undertook the training of the Khmer Rouge guerrillas to transform
them into a conventional fighting force. While this training
program was underway, North Vietnamese units temporarily assumed
the burden of keeping the Khmer republican forces at bay, an effort
that did not tax them unduly. By 1973 the Khmer Rouge were
conducting most combat operations against the Phnom Penh government
by themselves.
The ill-fated Khmer Republic was unable to defend itself. By
1971 it was on the defensive, and it was losing ground steadily.
Fleeing the fighting in the countryside, peasant refugees crowded
into the government's shrinking strongholds around Phnom Penh and
the provincial centers. Lon Nol's inept and corrupt regime went
from one military defeat to another. By early 1975, the situation
of the Khmer Republic was so precarious that Phnom Penh itself was
invaded, and government control was limited to the provincial
centers and to a patch of territory in western Cambodia around the
Tonle Sap. In the following months, the Khmer Rouge steadily
tightened the noose around the capital until all escape routes were
cut off, and resistance collapsed. The fall of Phnom Penh in April
1975 marked the end of the Khmer Republic
(see The Fall of Phnom Penh
, ch. 1).
For the Cambodian people, the entry of the Khmer Rouge into the
capital began the grimmest period in Cambodia's long history. The
Khmer Rouge rulers of Democratic Kampuchea, as the regime that
supplanted the Khmer Republic was called, envisioned a totally
self-sufficient Cambodia. This self-sufficiency was to be achieved
by accelerated agricultural production, which in turn would provide
the wherewithal to develop the other sectors of the economy.
Self-sufficiency, however, was pursued with such single-minded
ruthlessness that between 1 million and 3 million persons died
because of purges, beatings, malnourishment, and overwork. To head
off opposition to economic and social restructuring, the new regime
hunted down and executed virtually anyone who had served the former
government. The regime emptied the cities of inhabitants and forced
the entire population into rudimentary, badly organized collectives
in the countryside; untold numbers died, worked to death under
slave labor conditions or executed for minor infractions of camp
discipline. At the same time, the regime nurtured an acute paranoia
that brooked no potential opposition but that prompted it to
eradicate the educated middle class of Cambodia. When this
eradication was accomplished, it turned on its own cadres at every
echelon, torturing and executing thousands
(see Revolutionary Terror
, ch. 1). The regime's ruthless extermination of opponents,
however, could not ensure its security; ultimately its own paranoia
brought it down.
Regionally, the Khmer Rouge paranoia manifested itself in the
exacerbation of tensions with Vietnam. During the war against the
United States and its allies, commonalities of enemy and of
ideology had enabled the Vietnamese and the Cambodians to bridge
their mutual distrust. After April 1975, however, with the
xenophobic Pol Pot factions of the KCP in control in Phnom Penh,
the traditional Cambodian antipathy for the Vietnamese reemerged.
The source of the friction was the recurrent cross-border forays by
combatants from both sides into the Mekong Delta and the Parrot's
Beak area. The Khmer Rouge regime viewed itself as threatened, its
territory violated by Vietnam. Hanoi in turn felt compelled to
deploy substantial military assets along the border, as fighting
continued to erupt on both sides of the frontier. By mid-1978
Hanoi's patience was rapidly running out, as it became obliged to
commit division-sized units to pacification missions along the
Cambodian border.
Sometime in the fall of 1978, the leadership in Hanoi decided
to mount a multi-division punitive expedition into Cambodia. To
lend a veneer of political legitimacy to this military undertaking,
Hanoi sponsored the establishment of an anti-Pol Pot movement
called the Kampuchean (or Khmer) National United Front for National
Salvation (KNUFNS--see
Appendix B), made up of fugitive Cambodians
who had fled the Khmer Rouge. Accompanied by token KNUFNS units,
the Vietnamese launched their military campaign into Cambodia in
late December 1978
(see
Vietnamese Invasion of Cambodia, ch. 5).
The Khmer Rouge proved surprisingly vulnerable to the onslaught,
and Phnom Penh fell to Hanoi's forces in early January 1979. The
Khmer Rouge, defeated militarily for the time being, but not
destroyed, ignited a persistent insurgency in the remote regions of
Cambodia. The country then embarked upon a decade-long period of
fitful rehabilitation, made more precarious by the lack of
resources, the enduring guerilla war, and the military occupation
by Vietnam.
It was evident that the institutions of the new Cambodian
regime, which called itself the People's Republic of Kampuchea
(PRK--see
Appendix B), were virtually identical to those of
Vietnam. In the PRK, only a single, pro-Vietnamese political party
was permitted. This party, the Kampuchean (or Khmer) People's
Revolutionary Party (KPRP--see
Appendix B), was headed by a
political bureau with a secretariat and a general secretary in
charge. It also had a central committee with a control commission
to handle day-by-day affairs
(see
The Kampuchean, or Khmer, People's Revolutionary Party, ch. 4). The party was backed by a
mass movement--the successor to KNUFNS, the Kampuchean (or Khmer)
United Front for National Construction and Defense (KUFNCD--see
Appendix B) and by a number of front organizations such as labor,
women's, and youth groups. As in Vietnam, party and government were
intertwined: the same individuals held concurrent leadership
positions in both sectors. The Council of State was the highest
government body; it reserved to itself the major decision-making
authority. A Council of Ministers exercised cabinet functions and
was responsible to a National Assembly elected from KPRP members.
The National Assembly heard reports from ministers and from the
rest of national leadership, but appeared to exercise little
legislative authority
(see Government Structure
, ch. 4).
Cambodian rehabilitation and development were hampered by the
civil war that plagued the country after the ouster of the Khmer
Rouge. When the Vietnamese drove Pol Pot from power in their
December 1978 invasion, they failed to administer the coup de grace
to their adversaries, who regrouped their forces and initiated a
guerrilla war against Hanoi's occupation forces. Despite their
odious reputation and their abominable human rights record, the
Khmer Rouge were able to attract guerrilla recruits to their ranks.
The Khmer Rouge applied the same coercive measures in the remote
areas of Cambodia under their control as those they had used when
they ruled all of Cambodia, and they cast themselves as the sole
nationalistic force opposing the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia.
In terms of the number of combatants they could muster, the Khmer
Rouge, throughout the decade-long civil war, continued to be the
largest single guerrilla force in the field.
For many Cambodians, however, the option of joining either the
Khmer Rouge or the Vietnamese-installed regime was a Hobson's
choice. Consequently, soon after Hanoi's invasion, two additional
insurgent movements arose among the Khmer refugees who had fled
both Hanoi's and Pol Pot's forces. One of these movements coalesced
around the elderly nationalistic figure of Son Sann, a cabinet
minister under Sihanouk. Son Sann's movement took the name Khmer
People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF--see
Appendix B), and its
armed wing was called the Khmer People's National Liberation Armed
Forces (KPNLAF--see
Appendix B). In the meantime, a third insurgent
force rallied under Sihanouk and his son Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
Sihanouk's political movement was called for the National United
Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative
Cambodia (Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Indépendent, Neutre,
Pacifique, et Coopératif--FUNCINPEC--see
Appendix B), and his armed
wing, the Sihanouk National Army (Armée Nationale Sihanoukiste--
ANS--see Appendix B).
The three insurgent forces maintained their own separate
structures; they initiated their own guerrilla campaigns against
the PRK regime in Phnom Penh and its Vietnamese mentors. After
several years of sustained pressure from the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to form a unified front against the
Vietnamese occupiers, the Khmer insurgent movements came together
in an uneasy union, the Coalition Government of Democratic
Kampuchea (CGDK--see
Appendix B), in mid-1982. Sihanouk was chosen
president of the CGDK; during the succeeding years, he launched an
unending series of attempts to bring reconciliation to his divided
country and to achieve some power-sharing arrangement agreeable to
all four warring Khmer factions. Although the methods for achieving
peace in Cambodia remained in dispute, there was agreement that the
Vietnamese occupation forces must depart and that the Khmer Rouge
must never again reimpose its brutal rule over Cambodia.
Cambodia's civil war had an international dimension as well.
Arrayed on one side were the PRK, its Vietnamese allies who did
much of the fighting, and, by proxy, the Soviet Union. Arrayed on
the other side were the CGDK, its ASEAN supporters, and China.
Vietnam was involved because it had placed the PRK in power and
because it feared being caught between a hostile China and a pro-
Chinese Khmer Rouge regime. The Soviet Union was involved because
of its treaty relationship with Hanoi and because it provided much
of the military hardware used by the PRK and by the Vietnamese.
ASEAN was involved because it feared a heavily armed, expansionist
Vietnamese state, which might not stop at conquest of the
Indochinese Peninsula. China was involved and became the chief
supporter of the Khmer Rouge faction in the CGDK because it saw the
PRK and Vietnam as two more links in the chain of Soviet client
states being forged around it.
As the 1980s closed, there were hopeful signs that the
situation in Cambodia might not be as intractable as it had seemed
in previous years. For example, the international environment had
changed considerably. Soviet withdrawals from Afghanistan and
Mongolia, as well as the renewed dialogue between Moscow and
Beijing, culminating in a Sino-Soviet summit in May 1989, allowed
to some extent Beijing's fears of encirclement by client states of
Moscow. China itself stepped back from its support of the Khmer
Rouge regime of Democratic Kampuchea s the sole legitimate
government of Cambodia, and seemingly accepted the Vietnamese-
installed Phnom Penh regime as a partner in any postwar government.
The United States continued to oppose the return of the Khmer Rouge
to a position of dominance in a future government, but appeared to
acquiesce in a power-sharing arrangement between the Phnom Penh
regime and the non-communist resistance. Vietnam stepped up the
pace of its troop withdrawal from Cambodia, ending its decade of
occupation in September 1989--a year ahead of time.
Among the four competing Khmer factions who remained at an
impasse over power--sharing in a post-occupation Cambodia, informal
meetings in Jakarta in February and May 1989 produced a useful
dialogue, but little agreement on matters of substance. The PRK, in
an effort to attract the support of Prince Sihanouk and the non-
communist resistance and to isolate the Khmer Rouge, amended the
Constitution and changed the name of the country, the flag, and the
national anthem in April 1989. The amended Constitution, however,
upheld the dominant position of the incumbent Kampuchean, or Khmer,
People's Revolutionary Party, and made no provision for the
establishment of a multi-party system in the newly named State of
Cambodia. As a result of these cosmetic gestures, plus a series of
meetings between Prince Sihanouk and Prime Minister Hun Sen, as
well as conciliatory utterances by Khmer Rouge leaders, the
differences among all sides seem to have narrowed, and the hopes
for a successful resolution of the Cambodian situation seemed to
have progressed sufficiently for the French government to convene
the Paris International Conference on Cambodia from July 30 to
August 30, 1989.
The optimism on the eve of the conference--attended by nineteen
countries including the United States, as well as the UN Secretary
General and the four rival Cambodian factions, proved to be ill-
founded. The forum expired amid the intransigence of the Khmer
factions on five basic issues: verification of the Vietnamese troop
withdrawal; establishment of provisions for a ceasefire in the
fighting; determination of the status of Vietnamese residents in
Cambodia; official characterization of the Khmer Rouge period as a
genocide; and the establishment of a power-sharing arrangement
among the four factions. The latter issue proved to be the major
stumbling block. The non-communist resistance headed by Prince
Sihanouk lobbied for the inclusion of the Khmer Rouge on the
grounds that they already exercised a decisive presence in
Cambodian affairs and that their exclusion from a future government
would lead inevitably to a civil war between them and the coalition
that opposed them. The Phnom Penh regime countered that to include
the Khmer Rouge in a postwar government would lead to a repetition
of the cruelty and repression they wrought during the Democratic
Kampuchea period. Thus, the impasse continued, and the failure of
the Paris conference brought negotiations to an end for the time
being. The State of Cambodia, in a preliminary fashion, however,
cast about for a renewal of the dialogue by reconvening informal
talks in Jakarta.
In the meantime, pessimistic forecasts of a civil war in
Cambodia following the Paris conference, the Vietnamese troop
withdrawal, and the end of the dry season, seemed to be borne out.
On the western frontier with Thailand, Khmer resistance forces took
to the field with renewed aggressiveness, capturing in succession
a number of border towns. The single-minded purposefulness of the
Khmer Rouge in the rebel offensive came as no surprise. What
astonished foreign observers, however, was the unexpected
combativeness of the Khmer People's National Liberation Armed
Forces, which in previous years had been reduced to ineffectuality
by the bickering of its leaders. As this book goes to press, the
Thai-Cambodian border remains in turmoil, with the Phnom Penh
regime in a defensive posture--increasingly hard-pressed to contain
rebel actions and confronting increased speculation from foreign
observers as to whether it can hold its own or indeed survive
without outside help.
December 28, 1989
Russell R. Ross
Andrea Matles Savada
Data as of December 1987
- Cambodia-Illicit Trade with Thailand and with Singapore
- Cambodia-THE KAMPUCHEAN (OR KHMER) UNITED FRONT FOR NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION AND DEFENSE
- Cambodia-Politics under the Khmer Rouge
- Cambodia-Chapter 1 - Historical Setting
- Cambodia-Airports
- Cambodia-First Plan, 1986-90
- Cambodia-Vietnamese Aid
- Cambodia-The Economy
- Cambodia-Local People's Revolutionary Committees
- Cambodia-Austronesian
- Cambodia-The March 1970 Coup d'Etat
- Cambodia-The Constitution
- Cambodia-Fisheries
- Cambodia-Water Transportation Railroads
- Cambodia-The Khmer People's National Liberation Front
- Cambodia-The Economy under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79
- Cambodia-Handicrafts
- Cambodia-SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION
- Cambodia-Establishing Democratic Kampuchea
- Cambodia-Taxes
- Cambodia-Intraparty Conflict
- Cambodia-ECONOMIC SETTING
- Cambodia-CAMBODIA UNDER SIHANOUK, 1954-70
- Cambodia-INDUSTRY
- Cambodia-Other Religions
- Cambodia-Khmer People's National Liberation Armed Forces
- Cambodia-The Fall of Phnom Penh
- Cambodia-Petroleum
- Cambodia-HEALTH AND WELFARE
- Cambodia-East Germany
- Cambodia-The Successor State of Chenla
- Cambodia-People's Security Service LAW ENFORCEMENT AND COUNTERSUBVERSION
- Cambodia-Conditions of Service
- Cambodia-Livestock
- Cambodia-PREFACE
- Cambodia-THE ANGKORIAN PERIOD
- Cambodia-GEOGRAPHY
- Cambodia-Natural Resources
- Cambodia-THE MEDIA
- Cambodia-The Second Indochina War, 1954-75
- Cambodia-Democratic Kampuchea
- Cambodia-Composition and Deployment
- Cambodia-FOREIGN AFFAIRS
- Cambodia-CAMBODIA
- Cambodia-Origins of the Coalition
- Cambodia-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
- Cambodia-The French Protectorate
- Cambodia-ECONOMY
- Cambodia-Distribution Dynamics
- Cambodia-Revolutionary Terror
- Cambodia-Soviet Aid
- Cambodia-Sihanouk's Peacetime Economy, 1953-70
- Cambodia-Public Health
- Cambodia-Foreign Economic and Technical Assistance
- Cambodia-The Geneva Conference
- Cambodia-Protection under the Law
- Cambodia-ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- Cambodia-Coalition Government Resistance Forces
- Cambodia-Origins of Buddhism on the Indian Subcontinent
- Cambodia-The Japanese Occupation, 1941-45
- Cambodia-Social Stratification and Social Mobility
- Cambodia-Other Groups
- Cambodia-DOMESTIC COMMERCE
- Cambodia-Public School System
- Cambodia -COUNTRY PROFILE
- Cambodia-The Time of Greatness, A.D - 802-1431
- Cambodia-From "Proximity Talks" to a "Cocktail Party"
- Cambodia-Early Indianized Kingdom of Funan
- Cambodia-The Purge
- Cambodia-PREHISTORY AND EARLY KINGDOMS
- Cambodia-National United Front for an Independent, Peaceful, Neutral, and Cooperative Cambodia
- Cambodia-Soviet Union
- Cambodia-The KPRP Second Congress
- Cambodia-The First Indochina War, 1945-54
- Cambodia-The Council of Ministers
- Cambodia-INTO THE MAELSTROM: INSURRECTION AND WAR, 1967-75
- Cambodia-Vietnam
- Cambodia-Welfare Programs
- Cambodia-The Council of State
- Cambodia-Collectivization and Solidarity Groups
- Cambodia-Early Khmer Rouge Atrocities
- Cambodia-Hydroelectric Power
- Cambodia-Period of Decline, 1431-1863
- Cambodia-Private Education
- Cambodia-Poland
- Cambodia-The Chinese
- Cambodia-Composition of Trade
- Cambodia-THE KAMPUCHEAN, (OR KHMER) PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY PARTY
- Cambodia-MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS IN POSTWAR CAMBODIA
- Cambodia-THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KAMPUCHEA
- Cambodia-The Colonial Economy
- Cambodia-The Khmer
- Cambodia-FOREIGN TRADE AND AID
- Cambodia-Drainage
- Cambodia-AGRICULTURE
- Cambodia-Other Food and Commercial Crops
- Cambodia-Migration and Refugees
- Cambodia-Major Manufacturing Industries
- Cambodia-DEMOCRATIC KAMPUCHEA, 1975-78
- Cambodia-Domestic Developments
- Cambodia-Cambodian Adaptations
- Cambodia-Role of Buddhism in Cambodian Life
- Cambodia-The Coalition's Strategy
- Cambodia-Regional Divisions
- Cambodia-Chapter 2 - The Society and Its Environment
- Cambodia-Foreign Troops and Advisers
- Cambodia-Austroasiatic-Mon-Khmer LANGUAGES
- Cambodia-Vietnamese Invasion of Cambodia
- Cambodia-New Economic Policy and System
- Cambodia-THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD, 1887-1953
- Cambodia-Housing
- Cambodia-The Vietnamese
- Cambodia-Roads and Highways
- Cambodia-The Widening War
- Cambodia-Ports
- Cambodia-Chapter 4 - Government and Politics
- Cambodia-The French Protectorate, 1863-1954
- Cambodia-National Army of Democratic Kampuchea
- Cambodia-Coalition Structure
- Cambodia-Major Trading Partners
- Cambodia-Penal System
- Cambodia-Dress
- Cambodia-TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
- Cambodia-Chinese Religion
- Cambodia-NATIONAL SECURITY
- Cambodia-Buddhism RELIGION
- Cambodia
- Cambodia-The Emergence of Nationalism
- Cambodia-Armée Nationale Sihanoukiste
- Cambodia-ECONOMIC ROLE OF THE KAMPUCHEAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY PARTY
- Cambodia-The Search for Peace
- Cambodia-Other Ethnic Groups
- Cambodia-The Wartime Economy, 1970-75
- Cambodia-Climate
- Cambodia
- Cambodia-Threats and Capabilities
- Cambodia
- Cambodia-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS AFTER INDEPENDENCE
- Cambodia-Chapter 5 - National Security
- Cambodia-Government Structure
- Cambodia-Khmer Rouge Armed Forces MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS UNDER THE KHMER ROUGE
- Cambodia-POPULATION
- Cambodia-Topography
- Cambodia-The Judiciary
- Cambodia-Islam
- Cambodia-International and Western Aid
- Cambodia-EDUCATION
- Cambodia
- Cambodia-Diet
- Cambodia
- Cambodia-GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
- Cambodia-The Cambodian Left: The Early Phases
- Cambodia-CAMBODIA'S STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL, 1432-1887
- Cambodia-Foreword
- Cambodia-Cambodia in Turmoil
- Cambodia-Domination by Thailand and by Vietnam
- Cambodia-TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
- Cambodia-Background MAJOR POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS, 1977-81
- Cambodia-FINANCE
- Cambodia-Religious and Minority Communities
- Cambodia-The Paris Student Group
- Cambodia
- Cambodia-Mission and Doctrine
- Cambodia-Nonaligned Foreign Policy
- Cambodia-Phnom Penh and Its Allies
- Cambodia
- Cambodia-Organization and Control
- Cambodia-Chapter 3 - The Economy
- Cambodia-COALITION GOVERNMENT OF DEMOCRATIC KAMPUCHEA
- Cambodia-Labor Force
- Cambodia-Buddhist Education
- Cambodia
- Cambodia-Rice Production and Cultivation
- Cambodia-Currency Banking
- Cambodia-Society under the Angkar
- Cambodia
- Cambodia-Tenuous Security
- Cambodia-ENVIRONMENT
- Cambodia-Education and Health
- Cambodia-INTRODUCTION
- Cambodia
Background | | Most Cambodians consider themselves to be Khmers, descendants of the Angkor Empire that extended over much of Southeast Asia and reached its zenith between the 10th and 13th centuries. Attacks by the Thai and Cham (from present-day Vietnam) weakened the empire, ushering in a long period of decline. The king placed the country under French protection in 1863 and it became part of French Indochina in 1887. Following Japanese occupation in World War II, Cambodia gained full independence from France in 1953. In April 1975, after a five-year struggle, Communist Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh and evacuated all cities and towns. At least 1.5 million Cambodians died from execution, forced hardships, or starvation during the Khmer Rouge regime under POL POT. A December 1978 Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside, began a 10-year Vietnamese occupation, and touched off almost 13 years of civil war. The 1991 Paris Peace Accords mandated democratic elections and a ceasefire, which was not fully respected by the Khmer Rouge. UN-sponsored elections in 1993 helped restore some semblance of normalcy under a coalition government. Factional fighting in 1997 ended the first coalition government, but a second round of national elections in 1998 led to the formation of another coalition government and renewed political stability. The remaining elements of the Khmer Rouge surrendered in early 1999. Some of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are awaiting trial by a UN-sponsored tribunal for crimes against humanity. Elections in July 2003 were relatively peaceful, but it took one year of negotiations between contending political parties before a coalition government was formed. In October 2004, King Norodom SIHANOUK abdicated the throne and his son, Prince Norodom SIHAMONI, was selected to succeed him. Local elections were held in Cambodia in April 2007, and there was little in the way of pre-election violence that preceded prior elections. National elections in July 2008 were relatively peaceful.
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Location | | Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, between Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos
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Area(sq km) | | total: 181,035 sq km land: 176,515 sq km water: 4,520 sq km
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Geographic coordinates | | 13 00 N, 105 00 E
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Land boundaries(km) | | total: 2,572 km border countries: Laos 541 km, Thailand 803 km, Vietnam 1,228 km
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Coastline(km) | | 443 km
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Climate | | tropical; rainy, monsoon season (May to November); dry season (December to April); little seasonal temperature variation
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Elevation extremes(m) | | lowest point: Gulf of Thailand 0 m highest point: Phnum Aoral 1,810 m
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Natural resources | | oil and gas, timber, gemstones, iron ore, manganese, phosphates, hydropower potential
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Land use(%) | | arable land: 20.44% permanent crops: 0.59% other: 78.97% (2005)
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Irrigated land(sq km) | | 2,700 sq km (2003)
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Total renewable water resources(cu km) | | 476.1 cu km (1999)
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Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural) | | total: 4.08 cu km/yr (1%/0%/98%) per capita: 290 cu m/yr (2000)
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Natural hazards | | monsoonal rains (June to November); flooding; occasional droughts
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Environment - current issues | | illegal logging activities throughout the country and strip mining for gems in the western region along the border with Thailand have resulted in habitat loss and declining biodiversity (in particular, destruction of mangrove swamps threatens natural fisheries); soil erosion; in rural areas, most of the population does not have access to potable water; declining fish stocks because of illegal fishing and overfishing
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Environment - international agreements | | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea
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Geography - note | | a land of paddies and forests dominated by the Mekong River and Tonle Sap
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Population | | 14,494,293 note: estimates for this country take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2009 est.)
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Age structure(%) | | 0-14 years: 32.6% (male 2,388,922/female 2,336,439) 15-64 years: 63.8% (male 4,498,568/female 4,743,677) 65 years and over: 3.6% (male 197,649/female 329,038) (2009 est.)
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Median age(years) | | total: 22.1 years male: 21.4 years female: 22.8 years (2009 est.)
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Population growth rate(%) | | 1.765% (2009 est.)
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Birth rate(births/1,000 population) | | 25.73 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
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Death rate(deaths/1,000 population) | | 8.08 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
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Net migration rate(migrant(s)/1,000 population) | | NA
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Urbanization(%) | | urban population: 22% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 4.6% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
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Sex ratio(male(s)/female) | | at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.6 male(s)/female total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
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Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births) | | total: 54.79 deaths/1,000 live births male: 61.84 deaths/1,000 live births female: 47.42 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
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Life expectancy at birth(years) | | total population: 62.1 years male: 60.03 years female: 64.27 years (2009 est.)
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Total fertility rate(children born/woman) | | 3.04 children born/woman (2009 est.)
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Nationality | | noun: Cambodian(s) adjective: Cambodian
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Ethnic groups(%) | | Khmer 90%, Vietnamese 5%, Chinese 1%, other 4%
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Religions(%) | | Buddhist 96.4%, Muslim 2.1%, other 1.3%, unspecified 0.2% (1998 census)
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Languages(%) | | Khmer (official) 95%, French, English
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Country name | | conventional long form: Kingdom of Cambodia conventional short form: Cambodia local long form: Preahreacheanachakr Kampuchea (phonetic pronunciation) local short form: Kampuchea former: Khmer Republic, Democratic Kampuchea, People's Republic of Kampuchea, State of Cambodia
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Government type | | multiparty democracy under a constitutional monarchy
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Capital | | name: Phnom Penh geographic coordinates: 11 33 N, 104 55 E time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
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Administrative divisions | | 23 provinces (khett, singular and plural) and 1 municipality (krong, singular and plural) provinces: Banteay Mean Cheay, Batdambang, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Spoe, Kampong Thum, Kampot, Kandal, Kaoh Kong, Keb, Krachen, Mondol Kiri, Otdar Mean Cheay, Pailin, Pouthisat, Preah Seihanu (Sihanoukville), Preah Vihear, Prey Veng, Rotanah Kiri, Siem Reab, Stoeng Treng, Svay Rieng, Takev municipalities: Phnum Penh (Phnom Penh)
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Constitution | | promulgated 21 September 1993
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Legal system | | primarily a civil law mixture of French-influenced codes from the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) period, royal decrees, and acts of the legislature, with influences of customary law and remnants of communist legal theory; increasing influence of common law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations
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Suffrage | | 18 years of age; universal
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Executive branch | | chief of state: King Norodom SIHAMONI (since 29 October 2004) head of government: Prime Minister HUN SEN (since 14 January 1985) [co-prime minister from 1993 to 1997]; Permanent Deputy Prime Minister MEN SAM AN (since 25 September 2008); Deputy Prime Ministers SAR KHENG (since 3 February 1992); SOK AN, TEA BANH, HOR NAMHONG, NHEK BUNCHHAY (since 16 July 2004); BIN CHHIN (since 5 September 2007); KEAT CHHON, YIM CHHAI LY (since 24 September 2008); KE KIMYAN (since 12 March 2009) cabinet: Council of Ministers named by the prime minister and appointed by the monarch elections: the king is chosen by a Royal Throne Council from among all eligible males of royal descent; following legislative elections, a member of the majority party or majority coalition is named prime minister by the Chairman of the National Assembly and appointed by the king
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Legislative branch | | bicameral, consists of the Senate (61 seats; 2 members appointed by the monarch, 2 elected by the National Assembly, and 57 elected by parliamentarians and commune councils; members serve five-year terms) and the National Assembly (123 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms) elections: Senate - last held 22 January 2006 (next to be held in January 2011); National Assembly - last held 27 July 2008 (next to be held in July 2013) election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - CPP 69%, FUNCINPEC 21%, SRP 10%; seats by party - CPP 45, FUNCINPEC 10, SRP 2; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - CPP 58%, SRP 22%, HRP 7%; NRP 6%; FUNCINPEC 5%; others 2%; seats by party - CPP 90, SRP 26, HRP 3, FUNCINPEC 2, NRP 2
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Judicial branch | | Supreme Council of the Magistracy (provided for in the constitution and formed in December 1997); Supreme Court (and lower courts) exercises judicial authority
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Political pressure groups and leaders | | Cambodian Freedom Fighters or CFF; Partnership for Transparency Fund or PTF (anti-corruption organization); Students Movement for Democracy; The Committee for Free and Fair Elections or Comfrel other: human rights organizations; vendors
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International organization participation | | ACCT, ADB, APT, ARF, ASEAN, EAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (subscriber), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
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Flag description | | three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (double width), and blue with a white three-towered temple representing Angkor Wat outlined in black in the center of the red band note: only national flag to incorporate an actual building in its design
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Economy - overview | | From 2004 to 2007, the economy grew about 10% per year, driven largely by an expansion in the garment sector, construction, agriculture, and tourism. Growth dropped to below 7% in 2008 as a result of the global economic slowdown. With the January 2005 expiration of a WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, Cambodian textile producers were forced to compete directly with lower-priced countries such as China, India, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. The garment industry currently employs more than 320,000 people and contributes more than 85% of Cambodia's exports. In 2005, exploitable oil deposits were found beneath Cambodia's territorial waters, representing a new revenue stream for the government if commercial extraction begins. Mining also is attracting significant investor interest, particularly in the northern parts of the country. The government has said opportunities exist for mining bauxite, gold, iron and gems. In 2006, a US-Cambodia bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) was signed, and several rounds of discussions have been held since 2007. The tourism industry has continued to grow rapidly, with foreign arrivals exceeding 2 million per year in 2007-08, however, economic troubles abroad will dampen growth in 2009. Rubber exports declined more than 15% in 2008 due to falling world market prices. The global financial crisis is weakening demand for Cambodian exports, and construction is declining due to a shortage of credit. The long-term development of the economy remains a daunting challenge. The Cambodian government is working with bilateral and multilateral donors, including the World Bank and IMF, to address the country's many pressing needs. The major economic challenge for Cambodia over the next decade will be fashioning an economic environment in which the private sector can create enough jobs to handle Cambodia's demographic imbalance. More than 50% of the population is less than 21 years old. The population lacks education and productive skills, particularly in the poverty-ridden countryside, which suffers from an almost total lack of basic infrastructure.
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GDP (purchasing power parity) | | $28.01 billion (2008 est.) $26.67 billion (2007 est.) $24.2 billion (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
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GDP (official exchange rate) | | $11.25 billion (2008 est.)
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GDP - real growth rate(%) | | 5% (2008 est.) 10.2% (2007 est.) 10.8% (2006 est.)
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GDP - per capita (PPP) | | $2,000 (2008 est.) $1,900 (2007 est.) $1,800 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
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GDP - composition by sector(%) | | agriculture: 29% industry: 30% services: 41% (2007 est.)
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Labor force | | 8.6 million (2008 est.)
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Labor force - by occupation(%) | | agriculture: 75% industry: NA% services: NA% (2004 est.)
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Unemployment rate(%) | | 3.5% (2007 est.) 2.5% (2000 est.)
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Population below poverty line(%) | | 35% (2004)
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Household income or consumption by percentage share(%) | | lowest 10%: 3% highest 10%: 34.2% (2007)
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Distribution of family income - Gini index | | 43 (2007 est.) 40 (2004 est.)
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Investment (gross fixed)(% of GDP) | | 22.4% of GDP (2008 est.)
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Budget | | revenues: $1.274 billion expenditures: $1.592 billion (2008 est.)
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Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%) | | 25% (2008 est.) 5.9% (2007 est.)
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Stock of money | | $591.7 million (31 December 2008) $513.6 million (31 December 2007)
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Stock of quasi money | | $2.328 billion (31 December 2008) $2.309 billion (31 December 2007)
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Stock of domestic credit | | $1.67 billion (31 December 2008) $1.131 billion (31 December 2007)
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Market value of publicly traded shares | | $NA
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Economic aid - recipient | | $698.2 million pledged in grants and concession loans for 2007 by international donors (2007)
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Agriculture - products | | rice, rubber, corn, vegetables, cashews, tapioca, silk
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Industries | | tourism, garments, construction, rice milling, fishing, wood and wood products, rubber, cement, gem mining, textiles
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Industrial production growth rate(%) | | 8% (2008 est.)
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Current account balance | | -$1.06 billion (2008 est.) -$506.3 million (2007 est.)
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Exports | | $4.708 billion (2008 est.) $4.089 billion (2007 est.)
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Exports - commodities(%) | | clothing, timber, rubber, rice, fish, tobacco, footwear
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Exports - partners(%) | | US 54.4%, Germany 7.7%, Canada 5.9%, UK 5.5%, Vietnam 4.5% (2008)
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Imports | | $6.534 billion (2008 est.) $5.424 billion (2007 est.)
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Imports - commodities(%) | | petroleum products, cigarettes, gold, construction materials, machinery, motor vehicles, pharmaceutical products
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Imports - partners(%) | | Thailand 26.8%, Vietnam 19%, China 14.5%, Hong Kong 8.1%, Singapore 6.9% (2008)
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Reserves of foreign exchange and gold | | $2.641 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $2.143 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
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Debt - external | | $4.127 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $3.89 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
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Exchange rates | | riels (KHR) per US dollar - 4,070.94 (2008 est.), 4,006 (2007), 4,103 (2006), 4,092.5 (2005), 4,016.25 (2004)
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Currency (code) | | riel (KHR)
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Telephones - main lines in use | | 45,100 (2008)
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Telephones - mobile cellular | | 4.237 million (2008)
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Telephone system | | general assessment: mobile-phone systems are widely used in urban areas to bypass deficiencies in the fixed-line network; fixed-line connections stand at well less than 1 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular usage, aided by increasing competition among service providers, is increasing and stands at 30 per 100 persons domestic: adequate landline and/or cellular service in Phnom Penh and other provincial cities; mobile-phone coverage is rapidly expanding in rural areas international: country code - 855; adequate but expensive landline and cellular service available to all countries from Phnom Penh and major provincial cities; satellite earth station - 1 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region) (2008)
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Internet country code | | .kh
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Internet users | | 74,000 (2008)
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Airports | | 17 (2009)
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Roadways(km) | | total: 38,093 km paved: 2,977 km unpaved: 35,116 km (2007)
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Ports and terminals | | Phnom Penh, Kampong Saom (Sihanoukville)
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Military branches | | Royal Cambodian Armed Forces: Royal Cambodian Army, Royal Khmer Navy, Royal Cambodian Air Force (2009)
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Military service age and obligation(years of age) | | conscription law of October 2006 requires all males between 18-30 to register for military service; 18-month service obligation (2006)
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Manpower available for military service | | males age 16-49: 3,759,034 females age 16-49: 3,784,333 (2008 est.)
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Manpower fit for military service | | males age 16-49: 2,673,383 females age 16-49: 2,763,256 (2009 est.)
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Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually | | male: 177,881 female: 175,332 (2009 est.)
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Military expenditures(% of GDP) | | 3% of GDP (2005 est.)
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Disputes - international | | Cambodia and Thailand dispute sections of boundary with missing boundary markers and claims of Thai encroachments into Cambodian territory; maritime boundary with Vietnam is hampered by unresolved dispute over sovereignty of offshore islands; Thailand accuses Cambodia of obstructing inclusion of Thai areas near Preah Vihear temple ruins, awarded to Cambodia by ICJ decision in 1962, as part of a planned UN World Heritage site
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Electricity - production(kWh) | | 1.273 billion kWh (2007 est.)
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Electricity - production by source(%) | | fossil fuel: 65% hydro: 35% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2001)
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Electricity - consumption(kWh) | | 1.272 billion kWh (2007 est.)
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Electricity - exports(kWh) | | 0 kWh (2008 est.)
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Electricity - imports(kWh) | | 167 million kWh (2007 est.)
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Oil - production(bbl/day) | | 0 bbl/day (2008 est.)
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Oil - consumption(bbl/day) | | 4,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)
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Oil - exports(bbl/day) | | 0 bbl/day (2007 est.)
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Oil - imports(bbl/day) | | 30,970 bbl/day (2007 est.)
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Oil - proved reserves(bbl) | | 0 bbl (1 January 2009 est.)
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Natural gas - production(cu m) | | 0 cu m (2008 est.)
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Natural gas - consumption(cu m) | | 0 cu m (2008 est.)
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Natural gas - exports(cu m) | | 0 cu m (2008)
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Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m) | | 0 cu m (1 January 2009 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%) | | 0.8% (2007 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS | | 75,000 (2007 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - deaths | | 6,900 (2007 est.)
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Major infectious diseases | | degree of risk: very high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and malaria note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)
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Literacy(%) | | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 73.6% male: 84.7% female: 64.1% (2004 est.)
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School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)(years) | | total: 10 years male: 10 years female: 9 years (2006)
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Education expenditures(% of GDP) | | 1.7% of GDP (2004)
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