UN Security Council Resolution 668 | ||
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Date | 20 September 1990 | |
Meeting no. | 2,941 | |
Code | S/RES/668 (Document) | |
Subject | The situation in Cambodia | |
Voting summary |
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Result | Adopted | |
Security Council composition | ||
Permanent members | ||
Non-permanent members | ||
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United Nations Security Council resolution 668, adopted unanimously on 20 September 1990, after noting the ongoing political discussions and efforts regarding a just and lasting peaceful situation in Cambodia, the council endorsed the political framework that would enable the Cambodian people to exercise their right to self-determination through U.N. organised elections.
The council had been considering the question of Cambodia and the occupation of the country by Vietnamese troops for almost a decade, however, the council could not act due to lack of agreement amongst its permanent members. Instead, it was addressed by the General Assembly. [1] After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Vietnam installed a puppet government, which was opposed by several groups in the country, including the United National Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia, Khmer People's Liberation Front and the Party of Democratic Kampuchea, but supported by both Vietnam and the Soviet Union. Representatives from each party gathered for the Paris Conference in 1989, but an agreement was not reached.
After the Fall of Nations, the September 1990 Sino-Vietnamese Chengdu Conference favored the Beijing-proposed 13 members dialogue [2] instead of the Hanoi-proposed 12 members dialogue solution. [3] Following discussions in Indonesia and Japan in October 1990, the parties agreed a plan in which they would be guided by certain principles in order to solve the Cambodian problem. [1] The Security Council, in Resolution 668, acknowledged and welcomed the agreement.
The resolution went on to welcome the creation of a Supreme National Council as a source of authority throughout the transitional period. It also requested other countries and the Secretary-General to continue to assist in the peace settlement. A move in the General Assembly to endorse the peace process was also approved in Resolution 45/3 on 15 October 1990. [4]
The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the Democratic Kampuchea through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihanouk to describe his country's heterogeneous, communist-led dissidents, with whom he allied after the 1970 Cambodian coup d'état.
The Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is a Cambodian political party which has ruled the country since 1979. Founded in 1951, it was originally known as the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP).
The Third Indochina War was a series of interconnected military conflicts, mainly among the various communist factions over strategic influence in Indochina after Communist victory in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in 1975. The conflict primarily started due to continued raids and incursions by the Khmer Rouge into Vietnamese territory that they sought to retake. These incursions would result in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War in which the newly unified Vietnam overthrew the Pol Pot regime and the Khmer Rouge, in turn ending the Cambodian genocide. Vietnam had installed a government led by many opponents of Pol Pot, most notably Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander. This led to Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia for over a decade. The Vietnamese push to completely destroy the Khmer Rouge led to them conducting border raids in Thailand against those who had provided sanctuary.
The Cambodian–Vietnamese War was an armed conflict between Democratic Kampuchea, controlled by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war began with repeated attacks by the Kampuchea Revolutionary Army on the southwestern border of Vietnam, particularly the Ba Chúc massacre which resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Vietnamese civilians. On 23 December 1978, 10 out of 19 of the Khmer Rouge's military divisions opened fire along the border with Vietnam with the goal of invading the Vietnamese provinces of Đồng Tháp, An Giang and Kiên Giang. On 25 December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea, occupying the country in two weeks and removing the government of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from power. In doing so, Vietnam put an ultimate stop to the Cambodian genocide, which had most likely killed between 1.2 million and 2.8 million people—or between 13 and 30 percent of the country's population. On 7 January 1979, the Vietnamese captured Phnom Penh, which forced Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to retreat back into the jungle near the border with Thailand.
The Khmer People's National Liberation Front was a political front organized in 1979 in opposition to the Vietnamese-installed People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) regime in Cambodia. The 200,000 Vietnamese troops supporting the PRK, as well as Khmer Rouge defectors, had ousted the Democratic Kampuchea regime of Pol Pot, and were initially welcomed by the majority of Cambodians as liberators. Some Khmer, though, recalled the two countries' historical rivalry and feared that the Vietnamese would attempt to subjugate the country, and began to oppose their military presence. Members of the KPNLF supported this view.
The Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, renamed in 1990 to the National Government of Cambodia, was a coalition government in exile composed of three Cambodian political factions, namely Prince Norodom Sihanouk's FUNCINPEC party, the Party of Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) formed in 1982, broadening the de facto deposed Democratic Kampuchea regime. For most of its existence, it was the internationally recognized government of Cambodia.
FCU – UNTAC, the Force Communications Unit UNTAC, was the Australian component of the UNTAC mission in Cambodia.
The People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) was a partially recognised state in Southeast Asia which existed from 1979 to 1989. It was a satellite state of Vietnam, founded in Cambodia by the Vietnamese-backed Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, a group of Cambodian communists who were dissatisfied with the Khmer Rouge due to its oppressive rule and defected from it after the overthrow of Democratic Kampuchea, Pol Pot's government. Brought about by an invasion from Vietnam, which routed the Khmer Rouge armies, it had Vietnam and the Soviet Union as its main allies.
United Nations Security Council resolution 717, adopted unanimously on 16 October 1991, after noting a report by the Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and reaffirming Resolution 668 (1990), the Council decided to establish the United Nations Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC) immediately after the signing of agreements for a political settlement in Cambodia.
United Nations Security Council resolution 718, adopted unanimously on 31 October 1991, after recalling resolutions 668 (1990) and 717 (1991), and noting that at the Paris Conference, a political agreement was signed by parties to the situation in Cambodia, the Council authorised the Secretary-General to submit a report on the costs for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, prior to its establishment.
United Nations Security Council resolution 766, adopted unanimously on 21 July 1992, after recalling resolutions 668 (1990), 717 (1991), 718 (1991), 728 (1992) and 745 (1992), the Council acknowledged and expressed its concern at the difficulties experienced by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in the implementation of a political settlement in Cambodia signed at the Paris Conference on 23 October 1991.
United Nations Security Council resolution 783, adopted unanimously on 13 October 1992, after recalling resolutions 668 (1990), 717 (1991), 718 (1991), 728 (1992), 745 (1992) and 766 (1992) and noting a report by the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the council welcomed the progress the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) had made in Cambodia in accordance with the Paris Agreements, however it recognised various security and economic concerns facing UNTAC.
United Nations Security Council resolution 792, adopted on 30 November 1992, after recalling resolutions 668 (1990), 717 (1991), 718 (1991), 728 (1992), 745 (1992), 766 (1992) and 783 (1992) noting a report by the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Council concerned itself with preparations for the 1993 elections in Cambodia by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) while condemning the refusal of the Party of Democratic Kampuchea to co-operate.
United Nations Security Council resolution 810, adopted unanimously on 8 March 1993, after recalling resolutions 668 (1990) and 745 (1992), the council, after deploring continuing political violence in Cambodia in violation of the Paris Agreements as well as attacks and detention of members of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), discussed upcoming elections to the Constituent Assembly, as part of a process of national reconciliation.
United Nations Security Council resolution 826, adopted unanimously on 20 May 1993, after recalling resolutions 668 (1990), 745 (1992) and 810 (1993), the council supported the five million Cambodians who registered to vote despite violence and intimidation and discussed further preparations for the upcoming elections.
United Nations Security Council resolution 835, adopted unanimously on 2 June 1993, after recalling resolutions 668 (1990), 745 (1992), 810 (1993), 826 (1993) and other relevant resolutions, the council expressed appreciation for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in the aftermath of recent elections in Cambodia.
United Nations Security Council resolution 840, adopted unanimously on 15 June 1993, after recalling resolutions 668 (1990), 745 (1992), 810 (1993), 826 (1993), 835 (1993) and other relevant resolutions, the Council endorsed the results of the 1993 general elections in Cambodia.
General elections were held in Cambodia on 1 May 1981 and marked the establishment of the new, Vietnamese-backed, state of the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). The Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party was the only party to contest the election, and won all 117 seats. Voter turnout was reported to be 97.8%.
The Cambodian Constituent Assembly was a body elected in 1993 to draft a constitution for Cambodia as provided in the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements. The writing of the Cambodian Constitution took place between June and September 1993 and it resulted in the transformation of the political situation of Cambodia from civil-war-marred, autocratic oligarchy to a constitutional monarchy. Achieved under the guidance, auspices and funding of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), the drafting of the constitution was the culmination of a larger, $1.6 billion effort to end the decades-old country’s civil wars and bring the warring parties into political, rather than military competition. The result of the process was the creation of a constitution for Cambodia that, at least on paper, guarantees free political competition, regular elections, equal rights and representation and universal suffrage.
The Cambodian conflict, also known as the Khmer Rouge insurgency, was an armed conflict that began in 1979 when the Khmer Rouge government of Democratic Kampuchea was deposed during the Cambodian-Vietnamese War. The war concluded in 1999 when remaining Khmer Rouge forces surrendered. Between 1979 and the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, it was fought between the Vietnam-supported People's Republic of Kampuchea and an opposing coalition. After 1991, the unrecognized Khmer Rouge government and insurgent forces continued to fight against the new government of Cambodia from remote areas until their defeat in 1999.