1979 in Cambodia

← 1978 1977 1976 1979 in Cambodia → 1980 1981 1982
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	Other events of 1979 List of years in Cambodia

The following lists events that happened during 1979 in Cambodia .

Incumbents

• Chairman of the State Presidium: Khieu Samphan (until 7 January), ^[1] Heng Samrin (starting 7 January) ^[2]
• General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea: Pol Pot (until 7 January), vacant (starting 7 January)

Events

January

• January 6 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who was placed under house arrest by the Khmer Rouge in 1976, ^{[3] [4]} is allowed to fly to China to evade Vietnamese troops advancing on Phnom Penh. ^[5]
• January 7 - The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) (led by Lê Duẩn) and moderate dissidents from the Khmer Rouge (led by Heng Samrin) advanced and captured the city of Phnom Penh. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are pushed out of the capital and begin a guerrilla war in the forests near the Thai border. ^{[6] [7]}
• January 8 -The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the dissident rebels declare an end to Democratic Kampuchea, replacing it with the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), a Vietnamese puppet state. ^{[6] [7] [8]} Heng Samrin was installed as the head of the new PRK government. ^{[2] [9] [10]}
• January 15 - The PAVN capture the city of Sisophon. ^[11]

March

• Unknown date - The Thai government closed and mined the border with Cambodia, fearing the entry of an overwhelming flow of refugees. Refugee camps begin to appear in no man's land along the Thai-Cambodian border. ^[12]

June

• 8 June - Dangrek genocide ^[13] - Up to 45,000 Cambodian migrants were forced back into Cambodia by the Royal Thai Army at Preah Vihear, with up to 10,000 being killed attempting to cross minefields and descending the Dângrêk Mountains. ^{[13] [14] [15]}

August

• Unknown date - UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross are granted permission by the Vietnamese and PRK governments to deliver aid to quell famine in Cambodia. ^[9]

September

• September 19 - The Credentials Committee of the United Nations (UN) votes 6-3 in favour of recommending that the Democratic Kampuchea delegation over the PRK delegation for Cambodia's seat. ^[16]

November

• November 14 - The United Nations General Assembly voted on Resolution 34/2A, recognising the credentials of the Democratic Kampuchea delegation. ^{[17] [18]}

References

1. Etcheson, Craig (2005). After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide. Westport, CT: Praeger. p. 125. ISBN   0-275-98513-X.
2. Binder, David (9 January 1979). "New Cambodia Leaders Identified In Radio Broadcast From Vietnam". The New York Times . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
3. Whiteman, Hilary (5 February 2013). "Tears, prayers as late Cambodian king cremated". CNN . Retrieved 14 November 2025. When the group, led by Pol Pot, won control of Cambodia in 1975, Sihanouk returned as head of state. But by the following year, he was placed under house arrest.
4. "World: Norodom Sihanouk: A Once and Future Prince". Time Magazine . 22 January 1979. Retrieved 14 November 2025. For most of that time, Sihanouk had been kept under virtual house arrest in Phnom-Penh.
5. Osborne, Milton E. (1994). Sihanouk Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. p. 242. ISBN   978-0-8248-1639-1.
6. Pran, Dith (1 January 1989). "The World: A Reminiscence: The Killing Fields; Could the Vietnamese Withdrawal Bring Back Cambodia's Nightmare?". The New York Times . Retrieved 14 November 2025. A decade ago, Jan. 7, 1979, a group of moderate rebels in the Khmer Rouge, led by Heng Samrin and supported by Vietnamese troops, seized power in Phnom Penh.
7. Crossette, Barbara (7 December 1986). "Pol Pot Mystery: Illness and Conflict". The New York Times . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
8. Pilger, John (17 April 2000). "How Thatcher gave Pol Pot a hand". New Statesman . Retrieved 14 November 2025. Although the Khmer Rouge government ("Democratic Kampuchea") had ceased to exist in January 1979, its representatives were allowed to continue occupying Cambodia's seat at the UN;
9. Rungswasdisab, Puangthong. "Thailand's Response to the Cambodian Genocide". MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies . Yale University . Retrieved 14 November 2025. The Hanoi-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) led by Heng Samrin was proclaimed on 8 January 1979.
10. Heller, H (2007). "Cambodia: Modern History". In Marshall, Cavendish (ed.). World and Its peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia. Vol. 6. p. 765. ISBN   9780761476313. LCCN   2007060865. OL   10904958M . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
11. Short, Philip (2004). Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare. London: John Murray. p. 405. ISBN   978-0719565694.
12. Kim, Audrey U. (2003). Not Just Victims: Conversations with Cambodian Community Leaders in the United States. University of Illinois Press. p. 25. ISBN   978-0-252-07101-0 . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
13. Hinton, Alexander (2006). "Khmerness and the Thai 'Other': Violence, Discourse and Symbolism in the 2003 Anti-Thai Riots in Cambodia". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies . 37 (3): 445–468. doi:10.1017/S0022463406000737. ISSN   0022-4634. JSTOR   20071786. S2CID   162779371 . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
14. Land Mines in Cambodia: The Coward's War, September 199. Physicians for Human Rights. Human Rights Watch. 1991. ISBN   978-1-56432-001-8 . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
15. Thompson, Larry Clinton (2010). Refugee Workers in the Indochina Exodus, 1975-1982. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland Publishing Company. pp. 177–178. ISBN   978-0786445295.
16. Lescaze, Lee (19 September 1979). "Pol Pot Wins First Round in U.N. Battle for Representation". The New York Times . Retrieved 14 November 2025.
17. "Credentials of representatives to the 34th session of the General Assembly : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly". United Nations Digital Library . United Nations. 21 September 1979. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
18. "First report of the Credentials Committee". United Nations Digital Library . New York: United Nations. 20 September 1979. Retrieved 14 November 2025.