Samlaut Uprising "Samlaut Rebellion" "Battambang Revolts" | |
---|---|
Date | 2 April 1967 –8 April 1968 (1 year, 2 months and 4 days) |
Location | Cambodia (Kampuchea); primarily Battambang Province |
Caused by | Sihanouk's strong-handed and corrupt Sangkum regime |
Resulted in |
|
| ||
---|---|---|
Later political career | ||
The Samlaut uprising, also called the Samlaut rebellion or Battambang revolts, consisted of two significant phases of revolt that first broke out near Samlaut in Battambang Province and subsequently spread into surrounding provinces of Cambodia in 1967-1968. The movement was largely made up of dissident rural peasantry led by a group of discontented leftist intellectuals against Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s political organization, the Sangkum regime.
The rebellion first erupted in early 1967 in the Samlaut subdistrict when hundreds of frustrated peasants, tired of government policies, mistreatment by local military, land displacement, and other poor socio-economic conditions. They then revolted against the government, killing two soldiers on the morning of April 2. [1] In the following weeks, the revolt expanded with more destruction of government property and personnel.
By June 1967, four thousand or more villagers had fled their homes in southern Battambang Province into the forest to join the growing group of rebels and escape the military troops sent by Sihanouk. [2] In early 1968, Cambodia experienced a more organized second uprising that expanded both geographically and politically through months of re-grouping, recruitment and propaganda processes, and was much more widespread and destructive than the first. [2]
Some academics such as Ben Kiernan and Donald Kirk, see the Samlaut rebellion as the beginnings of the Cambodian revolutionary movement (the Cambodian Civil War) that eventually led to the victory of the Khmer Rouge and the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea.
Kiernan says that the rebellion was the “baptism of fire for the small but steadily growing Cambodian revolutionary movement” [2] and Kirk mentions that it was “a prelude, in a microcosm, of the conflict that would sweep across the country three years later.” [3]
Narratives of this rebellion differ due to the problematic political alignments involved in the Cambodian struggle. The Republican government wanted to portray the Cambodian revolutionary movement as largely a foreign (mainly Vietnamese) transplant and preferred to gloss over the significance of indigenous leftist activity from 1967. [4] Alternatively, F.U.N.K.(National United Front of Kampuchea) wanted to demonstrate unity between Sihanouk supporters and the Khmer Rouge, understating the extent of the development of the revolutionary opposition to Sihanouk before his overthrow. [4]
Historians such as David Chandler and Milton Osborne understand the rebellion as primarily a localized action. According to Chandler, the revolt “sprang from local grievances against injustice and social change, corruption, and ham-fisted government behavior” and the participants “did not respond to orders from the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) central committee”. [5] Milton Osborne writes that the rebellion “was more an outbreak of largely spontaneous resistance to government actions than the first orchestrated challenge from the radicals”. [6] : 191
Apart from Sihanouk's Sangkum regime, other diverging strands contributed to this rebellion. For instance, the rebellion was identified to have communist roots as it was the first part of Pol Pot's social and political two-phased strategy executed by the CPK. [7] Furthermore, even Sihanouk himself was ignorant of this highly internalized and localized conflict, believing it result from foreign instigation. [8] [6] : 193
With the escalation of the war in South Vietnam in 1965, the colonization of Battambang entered a new phase as thousands of Khmer Krom families began to cross the Vietnam-Cambodia border. The main government settlements were established in Kampot, Kirirom, Kompong Chhnang (Chriev) and Ratanakiri, with Battambang having the largest settlement. [9] Sihanouk's generosity towards them increasingly became a source of grievance for the local inhabitants as they found themselves displaced from their land (many of whom did not even own their land) with unfavorable economic conditions. [10]
Following the September 1966 election, the National Assembly was dominated by right wing politicians with a minority of left leaning politicians, namely, Khieu Samphan, Hou Youn and Hu Nim, [6] : 187–188 all of whom played highly influential roles in leading the revolts to come. As the newly elected Government asserted its control over Cambodia's provinces, it penetrated the village level. It was supported by the Prime Minister Lon Nol and the Royal Cambodian Army, cracking down heavily on many peasants and pushing the Left towards the defensive. [11] Furthermore, Sihanouk's wavering stance between the Right and Left appeared to be leaning towards the Right as he had imprisoned several Pracheachon party members. It announced his non-endorsement for the September elections. [11] [6] : 192
Sihanouk's allegedly neutralist policy had its roots in the independence struggle against French colonialism where Sihanouk formed alliances with several anti-French guerilla groups, on both the Left and Right. After independence, this neutrality started to diverge as Sihanouk allied himself principally with politicians on the right. He did attempt to ally himself with certain members of the political left, such as Khieu Samphan. However, according to Etcheson, his relations with his domestic left were perfunctory and at most tactical. “The Prince encouraged his security forces to persecute the mass organizations of the Left, especially the main Leftist one, the Pracheachon, and its covert sister organizations in the countryside and the cities.” [12]
Progressively, there appeared to be increasingly visible cracks within the political sphere as respective sides strengthened and consolidated. As the Left gradually co-ordinated its activities, holding demonstrations in the towns, attacking the government, and conducting propaganda in the countryside, the predominantly right-winged government upped its military and economic regulations. [11]
While Sihanouk was away in France, Lon Nol had considerable autonomy in effecting his economic policies. [6] : 190 Often identified as the main driver of the rebellion, the rammassage du paddy was an efficient system imposed by Lon Nol in early 1967 whereby the government channels (mainly the military) took charge of buying and collecting the rice crops from the peasants. [13] [14] This was in response to the rise of a large rice export black market that greatly affected Cambodia's economy as it was heavily dependent on its taxation of rice exports. Here, farmers illegally sold much of Cambodia's rice to the Viet Cong (VC) across the borders as they paid more as compared to the Cambodian government.
Lon Nol was seriously concerned about the sale of large proportions of the rice crop to the VC or on the Saigon black market, where clandestine sales were handled by local Chinese middlemen who had found friends and worked in conjunction with cells of former Viet Minh sympathizers acting on behalf of the VC. [15] [16] This system provoked an uproar by the rural population in Battambang Province where it was first introduced as many households not only saw their earnings being severely reduced due to the low prices offered for the crops but were also forcibly made to surrender their produce at gunpoint. [17] : 192 [18]
Furthermore, the strong intervention and presence of the army in Battambang involved forming co-operatives, forcing villagers to regroup while bearing the obligation of being a co-operative member in paying subscriptions to finance loans that fell into the hands of corrupt officials. [19] In turn, they were given insecticides that were often mediocre quality or even false substitutes. Also, army officials could engage in illegal smuggling across the borders. [17] : 105 Generally, activities of the army in Battambang prior to the revolt were heavy-handed and often brutal, alienating and enraging the inhabitants. [20]
Another cause of growing peasant resentment and unrest would be attributed to the severe exploitation or confiscation of villagers by landowners. [21] For instance, in Pailin Province, arable land was bought from the villages and converted into plantations for the expanding fruit industry, dominated by the Chinese and Burmese. The Khmer peasants had to work for them as unskilled laborers or were displaced from their homeland. [22] In other areas like the Andoeuk Hep district, peasants faced harsh conditions due to the unsustainability and unproductivity of the cotton industry – due to the high cost of labour and materials in intensive cotton cultivation, peasants cultivated large areas of land with low yields per hectare. [23] The situation was further exacerbated by the increasing susceptibility to encroaching weeds and insects, greatly decreasing the yields. This caused large areas of land to lose their value, many peasants had to find other jobs while facing high indebtedness and landlessness.
Peasant discontent was contributed by the growing domination by the Chinese and other landowners, including Government officials. The continual buying and selling of land due to failed crops produced increasing impoverishment and a class conflict. Centered on rapidly growing fruit plantations, it was a conflict between a ‘rich and enterprising Chinese bourgeoisie which has taken possession of the land, and the alienated, indebted, and already semi-independent village communities.” [24]
According to Kiernan, it was clear that “corruption, the misuse of the military and other authority, and increasing impoverishment, in the Samlaut, Pailin and Andoeuk Hep districts, for example, created a vast reservoir of peasant unrest that lacked only a reasonably sophisticated leadership. By early 1967, that leadership had begun to take shape and it provided, as well as a sympathetic and purposeful ideology, the guidance to enable an already disaffected peasantry to carry out a serious and effective rebellion.” [25]
Vietnamese and Chinese communists played a small role in planting the seeds of rural revolt. For instance, after 1945, the Vietnamese Communists were active in their Cambodian oriented efforts, sending cadres into the country to encourage, encadred and attempt to establish Communist hegemony over the independence movement. [26] In September 1960, the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) was founded.
The rebellion was not simply a result of plotting by the radical left, though small pro-communist groups had been established in Battambang for years. CPK agitators like Khieu Samphan did play a part in fanning peasant discontent. They were aided by widespread resentment at falling crop prices, bankruptcy, and military actions.
Some historians, such as Ben Kiernan, have stated that evidence points to the fact that the clandestine CPK was in fact planning an uprising across the country, citing the fact that the demonstrations rapidly spread to other, widely separated provinces. It is argued that some of the disturbances in 1967 were part of a coordinated effort by the leftists to destabilise Sihanouk's regime, though the official Khmer Rouge historiography given by Pol Pot later sought to deny this, stating its open rebellion only occurred in January 1968 and that the Samlaut incident was "premature" [27] and surprised the communist party [28]
“The people armed themselves with knives, axes, clubs, and other weapons they could lay their hands on to attack police stations and military garrisons,” “[But] the Party Central Committee had not yet decided on general armed insurrection throughout the country."
— Pol Pot [29]
Armed resistance by the left broke out in April, erupting in the Samlaut area in northwestern Battambang Province, long noted for large landowners and great disparities of wealth. [30] On 2 April 1967, angry peasants attacked the soldiers who were collecting rice from the villagers, killing two of them and stole several rifles. [6] : 190 [31] In the afternoon, 200 rebels marched carrying banners denouncing the Lon Nol government and U.S. imperialism, and attacked the J.S.R.K. (Royal Khmer Socialist Youth) agricultural settlement at Stung Kranhoung, the most obvious symbol of government presence in the area, the source of the villagers’ grievances and official mistreatment, as the target for their first organized display of force. [32] By evening they had defeated guards from two other posts and executed a mayor. Over the next few weeks, the rural movement caused destruction to public infrastructure, and agricultural settlements, seized weaponry and killed several army and village officials. [32]
During this initial outbreak, Sihanouk was on one of his frequent sojourns in France, and Lon Nol, the prime minister, responded harshly. A platoon of paratroopers and national police were sent into the region to protect the population, allegedly having been offered a bounty for each severed head of a rebel or leftist that they sent back to Phnom Penh. [33] There, they discovered a rebel hide-out, their ration depots, stolen weaponry and captured 73 rebels. [31] [34] In the subsequent three weeks, nearly 200 rebels were captured and 19 killed, but rebel operations continued to spread geographically. [31] On 22 April, Sihanouk charged five leftist deputies, including Khieu Samphan, Hou Yuon and Hu Nim with the responsibility for the rebellion, however, Khieu and Hou managed to disappear into the maquis. [6] : 194 Hu Nim persisted in his attempts to maintain a public profile and to work alongside the government. Still, after repeated warnings from Sihanouk, he departed by the year's end. [6] : 194–195 On 5 May, workers from the Kompong Cham textile facotory, as well as its director, and students from Kompong Cham University staged a demonstration with banners and loudspeakers, blaming the government for the disappearance and suspected execution of Khieu and Hou. [35]
Despite Sihanouk's attempts to offer amnesty to the local rebels, the rebellion spread to other districts to the north and the east, with many of the villagers fleeing to the maquis to avoid the advancing army battalion. [36] On the eastern side of the country, seventy armed followers of CPK cadre So Phim infiltrated the town of Kandol Chrum, killed a former district chief, and wounded a government agent; Ieng Thirith, another prominent Communist, was seen in Samlaut itself. [37] In several areas across the country, suspected Communists were arrested, driven underground, or in some cases shot. [38] With growing peasant unrest, Sihanouk was ready to sanction the brutal repression of leftist rebels, [6] : 192 using the greatest possible force. Lon Nol had been implacable and retribution had ranged from summary execution to the burning of villages. Ghoulish details were provided of trucks filled with severed heads sent from Battambang to Phnom Penh so that Lon Nol would be assured that his programme was being followed. [17]
At the end of April, Lon Nol resigned, though reasons behind his resignation were not clear he was said to have suffered from some form of injury during the period of unrest. [6] : 191–193
In May and June, the military became even more violent with Royal Cambodian Air Force aircraft bombing and strafing villages and jungle hide-outs, villages burned to the ground or surrounded by the army and peasants massacred. [36] [39] In June, Sihanouk declared that the Samlaut Rebellion was at an end, by which more than 4000 residents had fled into the forests for over a month.
From October 1967 onwards, younger left-wing groups from the towns, including school teachers and ex-students, stepped up their liaisons with previously dormant cells of Communist sympathizers in remote areas like southern Battambang, while others joined the maquis. [11] By the end of 1967, unrest was reported in eleven of the country's eighteen provinces. The Khmer Loeu regions of Mondulkiri Province and Ratanakiri Province fell almost entirely under CPK control by the end of the decade. In December, word had been passed around that the Samlaut rebellion was about to enter another phase. [40]
Peasant support for the revolutionaries was compounded by oppressive processes such as the resumption of rammassage campaigns in late December 1967 and the government’s decision to appoint village headmen and officials directly. Before 1968, villagers elected headmen, although the provincial authorities usually selected the candidates. [41] The central Government intervention represented a significant development in rural administrative repression by Phnom Penh, resented by many peasants who cherished the traditional autonomy of village affairs. Local corruption and increased administrative domination threatened to add to other long-standing peasant grievances. Furthermore, in January, the American escalation of the Vietnam War peaked, instilling paranoia and discontent amongst Kampuchea’s outlawed dissident Left about Cambodia’s potential sell-out to the Americans under Sihanouk. [42]
The CPK’s mid-1967 decision to organize a peasant army to wage all-out armed struggle against the Sihanouk regime could not be implemented immediately. By January 1968, the Battambang rebels were in touch with others in Kompong Chhnang and Kompot. More townspeople and intellectuals who were younger radicals left their jobs and fled to the forests. The rate of town disappearances increased as rural revolt flared in early 1968. [43] A period of planning, preparation and communication between CPK cadres in various regions of Kampuchea continued until 17 January 1968 when the first attack was launched by the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea (RAK) [44] on a military post at Baydamram in Battambang Province. [28] [45]
This was followed by a series of clashes between troops and rebels, rebel ambushes on government military outposts, attacks on provincial guards, and stealing rifles and weapons. Rebels rounded up families from villages who followed them into the forests – with a successful attack occurring on 25 January as rebels rounded up around 500 families from Thvak, Chisang, Beng Khtum and Samlaut. [46] Rebels were active and widespread, with several rebel camp hideouts set up in forested areas throughout Battambang.
It soon became evident to Sihanouk and Lon Nol that the outbreaks in early 1968 had been well-prepared and more serious than the initial outbreak in Samlaut in April 1967. [46] Signs of unrest were also spotted in northeastern provinces like Ratanakiri [47] as land was taken by the government to set up rubber plantations. [48] In late January, Sihanouk brought back Lon Nol as Minister of Defence and Inspector-General of the Armed Forces. [49]
Fighting continued with increasing intensity until 25 February 1968, when the Khmer Rouge launched their most widespread campaign yet. [50] According to Sihanouk, ‘the blow of 25 February’ was an operation ordered by Khmer Rouge command consisting of a few intellectuals executing a concerted operation against isolated troops where similar movements and tactics were employed in Battambang, Pursat, Takeo, Kampot, Koh Kong, Kompong Chhnang and Kirirom. More than 10,000 villagers from all over took to the forests to join the rebellion as a result of years of propaganda work. [50]
By March 1968, general conditions that prevailed almost everywhere made it suitable for developing a mass-based revolutionary insurrection. This led to the replacement of provincial leaders with military officials and the harsh counter-forces of Lon Nol, including the use of air force to bomb targeted rebel camps in the jungle. [51] Not wanting to accede to the requests of the Khmer Rouge for a liberated zone (withdrawal of government troops from all villages and provinces where the Khmer Rouge are located) under the exclusive control and administration of the resistance, the rebellion continued to intensify throughout March. However, the situation started to turn bleak for the Khmer Rouge, suffering heavier losses against an increasingly consolidated and violent army that destroyed their camps and supplies and a mobilized group of townspeople who supported Sihanouk and went against the peasants. [51]
On 8 April, an important Khmer Rouge network consisting of two large fortified hide-outs and important installations, including a rifle factory at Phnom Veay Chap were destroyed by the army. [52] With the destruction of the Khmer Rouge base and a growing number of casualties and captures, an increasing number of peasants began to surrender and return to their villages, concluding the series of 1968 revolts, at least for the time being. [53]
Ultimately, all these measures increased the rural population's isolation from and resentment of the government, military and the urban elite, strengthening support for the revolutionaries as dissidence continued to persist in the following years.
Although most of the 10,000 or so peasants involved in the February 1968 exodus to the maquis returned to their villages by April and May, the Khmer Rouge still benefitted from a degree of popular support and protection. According to Charles Meyer, after 1967, the Khmer Rouge armed propanganda teams circulated in nearly all the villages in Kampuchea. [54] Since the suppression of their forces, rebels in southern Battambang began to move south-east to link up with the Khmer Rouge in other provinces like Pursat, Kompong Chhnang and Kampong Speu. [55] By mid-1968, they had established a network of bases, calls and lines of communication throughout Kampuchea. [56]
The RAK obtained minimal assistance from the North Vietnamese, the VC and the Chinese. Although North Vietnam had established a special unit in 1966 to train the CPK, it was extremely reluctant to alienate Sihanouk at a time when vital supplies were passing through the port of Sihanoukville and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the VC bases along the Cambodia-Vietnam border. [57] Beijing and Moscow also provided Sihanouk with arms, many of which were being used against the insurgents. Perhaps, the indifference of the world communist movement to the Cambodian struggle since early 1967 made a permanent impression on Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge leaders, shaping their isolated and self-sufficient vision of Democratic Kampuchea.
Sihanouk's policies, economically and politically oppressive Sangkum Regime, condoning of Lon Nol's brutal response to peasant unrest, and initial ignorance of the localized context of the rebellion had paved the way for Cambodia's increasing politicization of significant numbers of peasants, contributing to the growing Cambodian civil war and influenced the ideological groundings behind Democratic Kampuchea. Such growing dissidence from the beginnings of April 1967 was capitalized on and organized in the 1968 revolts, eventually leading to the growing establishment of the Khmer Rouge-led peasant rebellion that manifested in 1970. [58] when Sihanouk's regime was overthrown by Lon Nol's March 1970 Coup.
The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by then Chief of State Norodom Sihanouk to describe his country's heterogeneous, communist-led dissidents, with whom he allied after the 1970 Cambodian coup d'état.
Pol Pot was a Cambodian communist revolutionary, politician and a dictator who ruled Cambodia as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1976 and 1979. Ideologically a Maoist and a Khmer ethnonationalist, he was a leading member of Cambodia's communist movement, the Khmer Rouge, from 1963 to 1997, and served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981. His administration converted Cambodia into a one-party communist state and perpetrated the Cambodian genocide which killed nearly 25% of Cambodia's population.
Marshal Lon Nol was a Cambodian politician and general who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as defence minister and provincial governor. As a nationalist and conservative, he led the military coup of 1970 against Prince Norodom Sihanouk, abolished the monarchy, and established the short-lived Khmer Republic. Constitutionally a semi-presidential republic, Cambodia was de facto governed under a military dictatorship. He was the commander-in-chief of the Khmer National Armed Forces during the Cambodian Civil War. On April 1, 1975, 16 days before the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, Lon Nol fled to the United States, first to Hawaii and then to California, where he remained until his death in 1985.
The Khmer Republic was a Cambodian state under the United States-backed military dictatorship of Marshal Lon Nol from 1970 to 1975. Its establishment was formally declared on 9 October 1970, following the 18 March 1970 coup d'état which saw the overthrow of Norodom Sihanouk's government and the abolishment of the Cambodian monarchy.
The Cambodian Civil War was a civil war in Cambodia fought between the forces of the Communist Party of Kampuchea against the government forces of the Kingdom of Cambodia and, after October 1970, the Khmer Republic, which had succeeded the kingdom.
Hou Yuon (Khmer: ហ៊ូ យន់, 1930 – August 1975 was a veteran of the communist movement in Cambodia. A member of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, he served in several ministerial posts during the 1960s and 1970s.
Khieu Samphan is a Cambodian former communist politician and economist who was the chairman of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) from 1976 until 1979. As such, he served as Cambodia's head of state and was one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge movement, although Pol Pot remained the General Secretary in the party.
The 1970 Cambodian coup d'état was the removal of the Cambodian Chief of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, after a vote in the National Assembly on 18 March 1970. Emergency powers were subsequently invoked by the Prime Minister Lon Nol, who became effective head of state, and led ultimately to the removal of Queen Sisowath Kossamak and the proclamation of the Khmer Republic later that year. It is generally seen as a turning point in the Cambodian Civil War. No longer a monarchy, Cambodia was semi-officially called "État du Cambodge" in the intervening six months after the coup, until the republic was proclaimed.
The Khmer Issarak was a "loosely structured" anti-French and anti-colonial independence movement. The movement has been labelled as “amorphous”. The Issarak was formed around 1945 and composed of several factions, each with its own leader. Most of the Issarak factions fought actively between the end of the Second World War in 1945 and Cambodia’s independence in 1953. The initial objective of the Khmer Issarak was to fight against the French in order to gain independence, before later focusing on overthrowing the Cambodian government. The term Issarak originally referred to non-communist, but in the early 1950s the Việt Minh-guided guerrillas branded themselves Issaraks for the sake of unifying other non-communist forces.
The Khmer National Armed Forces were the official armed defense forces of the Khmer Republic, a short-lived state that existed from 1970 to 1975, known today as Cambodia. The FANK was the successor of the Royal Khmer Armed Forces (FARK) which had been responsible for the defense of the previous Kingdom of Cambodia since its independence in 1953 from France.
Sơn Ngọc Thành was a Cambodian nationalist and republican politician, with a long history as a rebel leader and a government minister.
Democratic Kampuchea was the Cambodian state from 1975 to 1979, under the totalitarian dictatorship of Pol Pot and the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), commonly known as the Khmer Rouge. It was established following the Khmer Rouge's capture of the capital Phnom Penh, effectively ending the United States-backed Khmer Republic of Lon Nol. After Vietnam took Phnom Penh in 1979, it was disestablished in 1982 with the creation of the CGDK in its place.
Hu Nim, alias "Phoas" (ភាស់), was a Cambodian Communist intellectual and politician who held a number of ministerial posts. His long political career included spells with the Sangkum regime of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the Communist guerrilla resistance, the GRUNK coalition government-in-exile, and the administration of Democratic Kampuchea, when the country was controlled by the Communist Party of Kampuchea.
The Sangkum Reastr Niyum, usually translated as Popular (or People's) Socialist Community and commonly known simply as the Sangkum, was a political organisation set up on 22 March 1955 by Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. Though it described itself as a 'movement' rather than a political party, the Sangkum retained control of the government of Cambodia throughout the first administration of Sihanouk, from 1955 to 1970. Central to the Sangkum ideology were nationalism, conservatism, preserving the monarchy, and a conservative interpretation of Buddhism.
The Khmer Rumdos, also spelt Khmer Rum or Khmer Rumdoh, were one of several groups of guerrillas operating within the borders of Cambodia during the Cambodian Civil War of 1970–1975. They were a part of the National United Front of Kampuchea, an association between Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who had been ousted from power in 1970, and communist forces.
The National United Front of Kampuchea was an organisation formed by the deposed then Chief of State of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, in 1970 while he was in exile in Beijing.
The Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea was a government-in-exile of Cambodia, based in Beijing and Hong Kong, that was in existence between 1970 and 1976, and was briefly in control of the country starting from 1975.
The Krom Pracheachon, often referred to simply as Pracheachon, was a Cambodian political party that contested in parliamentary elections in 1955, 1958 and 1972.
The Democratic Party, commonly referred to as The Democrats, was a left-wing pro-independence political party formed in 1946 by Prince Sisowath Youtevong, who had previously been a member of the French Section of the Workers' International. It was the sole dominant party in Cambodia from 1946 until the creation of Sangkum in 1955.
The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), also known as the Khmer Communist Party, was a far-left communist party in Cambodia. Its leader was Pol Pot, and its members were generally known as the Khmer Rouge. Originally founded in 1951, the party was split into pro-Chinese and pro-Soviet factions as a result of the Sino–Soviet split with the former being the Pol Pot faction, and the latter adopting a more revisionist approach to Marxism. As such, it claimed that 30 September 1960 was its founding date; it was named the Workers' Party of Kampuchea before it was renamed the Communist Party in 1966.