Timeline Cambodia
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Traditional Cambodians
gave each day its
own
color and each month its own gender.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, zone 1 p.2)
April is the hottest month in Cambodia.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.T10)
Chronology of Cambodian History: http://www.geocities.com/khmerchronology
Odyssey of the Khmer People: http://members.aol.com/cambodia/
Cambodia Information Center: http://www.cambodia.org/
200-700AD Era
of the kingdom of Funan at Angkor Borei (Cambodia). In 1997 excavations
were proceeding on what might have been the capital.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.A,D)
400 About this time sage-prince
Kambu of the Cambodian legends, who belonged to the Kamboja lineage,
appears to have sailed from Indian subcontinent, probably from
Saurashtra/Gujarat on the west coast of India and established a small
Kamboja kingdom in Bassac around Vat-Ph'u hill in Mekong Basin. The
first Khmer or king, know as Kambu, founded Kambujadesa, which means
the Sons of Kambu or Kambuja for short.
(SFEC, 10/20/96,
T5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambu_Svayambhuva)
611 At Angkor Borei (Cambodia) the
earliest known Khmer inscriptions date to this time.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.D)
802 Jayavarman II proclaimed
himself a "universal monarch" in a ritual that united religion and
politics (Cambodia) and gave rise to the cult of the Devaraja (deified
king). He declared the region’s independence from Java.
(WSJ, 7/3/97, p.A9)(SFC, 8/14/07, p.A18)
889-1324 The Khmer Empire‘s dominions roughly
correspond to present-day Laos and Cambodia and reached its height
during the Angkor period (889-1434 AD). The kingdom flourished from the
6th to 15th centuries AD and then declined with invasions from
neighboring Thailand.
(HNQ, 8/7/00)
c1000-1400 Angkor Thom, capital of the Khmer empire,
reached its apogee during this period. It included the religious
monument of Angkor Wat. In 2007 new technology indicated that the city
covered an area over 115 square miles at its peak and used
sophisticated technology for managing and harvesting water.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.A)(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)(SFC,
8/14/07, p.A18)
1100-1200 The Khmer empire reached its peak under
King Jajavarman II in the 12th century.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T7)
1150 Suryavarman II, Khmer ruler
(Cambodia), died about this time. He commissioned the building of
Angkor Wat, possibly the largest religious monument in the world. He
traded elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns and kingfisher feathers for
gold. The feathers were prized in China for bridal attire.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R4,6)
1186 The temple monastery of Ta
Prohm at Angkor (Cambodia) was consecrated. Inscriptions say that
79,365 servants were required to for its upkeep. It was paid by funds
from over 3,000 villages.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T7)
1191 Preah Khan (Cambodia) was
dedicated on what is thought to be the site where the Khmer defeated
their eastern neighbors the Cham. The central temple was dedicated by
Jayavarman VII to his father, King Dharanindravavarman II, in the name
of Lokesvara, a god who embodies the compassionate qualities of the
Buddha. The temple covers 140 acres.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.E)(Arch, 5/04, p.64)
1350-1500 There was cold and drought during this
period in Central Asia as temperatures came down with low rainfall and
low productivity. The climatic effect on Sindh was that Jam Banbhniyo
Samma, tried to capture some areas of Delhi Sultanate in the Multan
Sarkar and also south in Gujarat.
(http://panhwar.com/Article129.htm)
1415-1439 The city of Angkor Wat (Cambodia) went into
rapid decline as a period of severe drought extended over South East
Asia.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.82)(http://tinyurl.com/d84z56)
1431 Thai armies invaded and
plundered the Khmer civilization at Angkor Thom (Cambodia). The court
moved south of the great lake Tonle Sap and later to Phnom Penh.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)
1596 The first documented official
contact between the Cambogee and the West took place. The king of
Angkor, Barom Reachea, in fear of attack sent to the Spanish governor
general at Manila a request for the assistance of his musket-armed
soldiers. The Spanish governor complied and sent a small expedition to
the king of Angkor (Cambodia).
(SFEC, 10/20/96, T5)
1598 The Spanish governor of
Manila sent a 2nd small expedition to the king of Angkor in what is now
Cambodia.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, T5)
c1598 A party of Iberian
conquistadors overthrew the Cambodian king and set themselves up as
governors in the Mekong delta.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1614 Portuguese writer Diego do
Couto wrote of a king in Cambodia who discovered an abandoned city
during an elephant hunt in the middle of the 16th century. The report
did not get published until 1958.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)
1641 Gerritt van Wuysthoff, a
Dutchman, struggled up the Mekong River through Cambodia and reached
Vientiane, Laos.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1863 Jul, The European public
first learned of Angkor (Cambodia) from the posthumously published
journal of French naturalist Henri Mouhot.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)
1866 French colonial officials
sent an expedition to explore the Mekong River (Cambodia) and check its
commercial potential.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1872 Frank Vincent Jr., an
American adventurer, journeyed from Bangkok to Angkor Wat (Cambodia).
The 175 mile trip took 17 days to traverse.
(SFEM, 4/30/00, p.6)
1893 French colonialists seized
control of Laos and tried to turn the Mekong River into a thoroughfare
linking their Indochina colonies.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1907 Explorations under Louis
Deleporte and the French School of the Far East began at the ancient
city of Angkor. Found artifacts were shared between France and Cambodia.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.60)(SFC, 2/4/04, p.D10)
1908 In Cambodia the seaside town
of Kep (Kep-sure-Mer) was founded during the French colonial era. It
was all but destroyed during the civil strife of the 1970s.
(SSFC, 8/31/08, p.E4)
1925 May 19, Pol Pot (d.1998),
Cambodian dictator and mass murderer, was born in Prek Sbauv, Cambodia.
(www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/pol_pot1.html)
1918 The French established the
National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh to house the findings from
their explorations.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.60)(WSJ, 7/3/97, p.A9)
1922 Oct 31, Norodom Sihanouk,
king, president and premier of Cambodia (My War with the CIA), was born.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1923 Andre Malraux was arrested,
while doing archeological research in Cambodia, for dislodging 7 heads
from a temple with a handsaw, a chisel and crowbar.
(WSJ, 7/3/97, p.A9)
1941 The French colonialists chose
Norodom Sihanouk (19) from the ranks of royalty to serve as king of
Cambodia.
(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.A8)
1945 At the end of World War II
Thailand was compelled to return territory it had seized from Laos,
Cambodia and Malaya. The exiled King Ananda returned.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1243059.stm)
1949-52 Saloth Sar (aka Pol Pot of Cambodia) went to
Paris on a government scholarship and became absorbed in Communist
ideology.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)
1950 May 21, French sources
reported that Viet Minh guerrillas had infiltrated Cambodia and opened
an arms-smuggling corridor to Thailand.
(www.geocities.com/khmerchronology/1950.htm)
1950 Dec 30, Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia became independent states in a French Union.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1952 Hun Sen, later Cambodia prime
minister, was born in a village northeast of Phnom Penh.
(WSJ, 7/9/99, p.A12)
1953 King Norodom Sihanouk gained
independence for Cambodia from France. Pol Pot helped set up the
Communist Party.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A17)
1954 Sep 8, SEATO (Southeast Asia
Treaty Organization), a sister organization to NATO, was created under
the Manila Pact by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, to
stop communist spread in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos).
The United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed the mutual defense treaty.
SEATO dissolved in 1977.
(HNQ, 4/2/01)(http://tinyurl.com/hpawj)
1955 Mar 2, King Norodom Sihanouk
of Cambodia put his father on the throne and assumed the position of
prime minister.
(SC, 3/2/02)(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.A8)
1960 Dec 9, The Laos government
fled to Cambodia as the capital city of Vientiane was engulfed in war.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1960-63 Prince Norodom Sihanouk repressed the
Communist party and Pol Pot, general secretary of the CP, and other
leaders fled to the jungle.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)
1962 The Int’l. Court of Justice
awarded the Preah Vihear temple, located on the Cambodia-Thai border,
to Cambodia, but did not specify where the border should be drawn.
(Econ, 7/26/08, p.47)
1963 Aug 27, Cambodia severed ties
with South Vietnam.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1964 Mar 15, Cambodia was
receiving military aid from Communist China.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1966 Jan 3, Cambodia warned the
UN of retaliation unless the U.S. and South Vietnam end intrusions.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1967 Feb 23, American troops began
the largest offensive of the war, near the Cambodian border. In order
to deny the Vietcong cover, and allow men to see through the dense
vegetation, herbicides were dumped on the forests near the South
Vietnamese borders as well as Cambodia and Laos.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1967 May 10, The Stockholm Vietnam
Tribunal condemned US aggression in Vietnam and Cambodia.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1967 Nov 24, Cambodian triple
agent Inchin Lam was murdered. Special Forces Captain John J. McCarthy
was accused and later tried for the murder in a court in Vietnam.
Murder charges were later dropped.
(HN,11/24/98)(www.copvcia.com/Mac.htm)(www.geocities.com/larryjodaniel/17.html)
1967-68 The Khmer Rouge took up arms in support of a
peasant uprising in northwest Cambodia against a government rice tax.
The army ruthlessly suppressed the insurrection.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)
1968 Jan 19, Cambodia charged that
the United States and South Vietnam had crossed the border and killed
three Cambodians.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1968 Jan 29, A court convened in
Vietnam for the murder of Cambodian, triple agent Inchin Lam, by
Special Forces Captain John J. McCarthy Jr. Murder charges were later
dropped due to exculpatory evidence and proven prosecutorial fraud on
the court. A civil action for $1.3 billion in US Federal District
Court, Washington D.C. against the CIA and associated agencies was
dismissed in 2003.
(www.copvcia.com/Mac.htm)(http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id299.html)
1968 Oct 4, Cambodia admitted that
the Viet Cong used their country for sanctuary.
(www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins200408180835.asp)
1969 Feb 23, Pres. Nixon approved
the bombing of Cambodia.
(www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a04242670parrotsbeak)(SFEC,
4/23/00, p.A19)
1969 Mar 18, President Richard M.
Nixon authorized Operation Menu, the 'secret' bombing of Cambodia [see
Feb 23].
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Menu)
1969 Apr 24, President Nixon
ordered US and South Vietnamese troops to secretly invade the “Parrot’s
Beak” region of Cambodia, thought to be a Viet Cong stronghold.
(www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a04242670parrotsbeak)
1969-1973 The US Air Force dropped 539,129 tons of
bombs on Cambodia and killed some 700,000 people. The bombing drove
rural people into the cities and caused a collapse of the agricultural
system that contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and a famine
that was later blamed on the Khmer Rouge.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.A25)
1970 Mar 13, Cambodia ordered
Hanoi and Viet Cong troops to get out.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1970 Mar 18, Prince Sihanouk was
overthrown by Gen’l. Lon Nol in a right-wing coup backed by the US. He
joined the Khmer Rouge in a resistance war. The US and Vietnamese
forces invaded and drove the Viet Cong from border sanctuaries deep
into Cambodia where they joined with the weak and isolated Khmer Rouge.
A full scale civil war began. The next 8 years are covered in the 1988
book "Goodnight Cambodia, Forbidden History" by Vibol Ouk, who lived
through the horrors of Pol Pot.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 1/11/98, BR p.3)(WSJ,
7/9/99, p.A127)
1970 Apr 24, Operation Patio was a
covert aerial interdiction effort conducted by the United States
Seventh Air Force in Cambodia from 24-29 April 1970 during the Vietnam
Conflict. It served as a tactical adjunct to the heavier B-52 bombing
missions being carried out in Operation Menu.
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Operation-Patio)
1970 Apr 29, 50,000 US and South
Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia [see Apr 30].
(SFEC, 4/23/00,
p.A19)(www.democraticcentral.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1972)
1970 Apr 30, President Nixon
announced the United States was sending troops into Cambodia, an action
that sparked widespread protest. Nixon widened the war to Cambodia and
protests increased. U.S. troops invaded Cambodia to disrupt North
Vietnamese Army base areas. U.S. President Richard Nixon announced to a
national TV audience American troop movements into Cambodia to attack
Communist border sanctuaries. Calling the joint U.S.-South Vietnamese
operation "indispensable," some 32,000 American and 48,000 South
Vietnamese troops captured large caches of supplies, but most Communist
forces had already been withdrawn. A storm of protest against expansion
of the war swept the United States and four days later four student
protesters at Ohio's Kent State University were shot dead by National
Guardsmen.
(AP, 4/30/97)(TMC, 1994, p.1970)(HN, 4/30/98)(HNQ,
5/3/98)
1970 May 4, A dispatch filed from
Saigon described looting by US soldiers at the Cambodian town of Snuol.
The mention of looting was removed by an editor in New York before the
story was transmitted to newspapers in the United States.
(AP, 7/11/07)
1970 May 20, Some 100,000 people
demonstrated in New York's Wall Street district in support of U.S.
policy in Vietnam and Cambodia.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)
1970 Jun 17, North Vietnamese
troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1970 Jun 29, The United States
ended a two-month military offensive into Cambodia.
(HN, 6/29/98)(AP, 6/29/99)
1970 Oct 9, Khmer Republic
(Cambodia) declared independence.
(http://flagspot.net/flags/kh_hstry.html)
1970 Cambodia's Prince Norodom
Sihanouk fled to China and began compiling his Bulletin Mensuel de
Documentation (Monthly Documentation Bulletin). The bulletin continued
on an off thru 2003.
(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.A1)
1970 An AP story of looting and
raping by American soldiers in Cambodia was killed by Wes Gallagher
(d.1997 at 86), general manager of the new service.
(SFC, 5/12/97, p.B5)
1970-1975 Lon Nol was officially backed by the US as
leader of Cambodia. He officially invited the US to extend the war in
Vietnam into Cambodia to wreck the Ho Chi Minh supply trail.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.A25)
1970-1998 The history of Cambodia over this period
was covered by Henry Kamm of the NY Times: "Cambodia: Report from a
Stricken Land."
(SFEC, 10/18/98, BR p.2)
1971 Jan 22, Communist forces
shelled Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the first time.
(HN, 1/22/99)
1971 Aug 20, The Cambodian
military launched a series of operations against the Khmer Rouge.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1971 Francois Bizot, French
ethnologist, was kidnapped by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In 2003 he
authored "The Gate," an account of his captivity and the Khmer Rouge
takeover.
(WSJ, 3/12/03, p.D10)
1973 Mar 17, Twenty were killed in
Cambodia when a bomb went off that was meant for the Cambodian
President Lon Nol.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1973 Jun 27, Nixon vetoed a Senate
ban on Cambodia bombing.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1973 Aug 7, A US plane
accidentally bombed a Cambodian village, killing 400 civilians.
(HN,
8/7/98)(www.massviolence.org/+-Cambodia-+?id_rubrique=6&artpage=11-18)
1973 Aug 14, The U.S. "secret"
bombing of Cambodia came to a halt, marking the official end to 12
years of American combat in Indochina.
(AP, 8/14/97)(HN, 8/14/98)
1974 Jan 9, Cambodian Government
troops opened a drive to avert insurgent attack on Phnom Penh.
(HN, 1/9/98)
1974 Ta Mok (1926-2006), a Khmer
Rouge senior advisor, cleansed Cambodia’s old royal city of Oudong of
its 30,000 residents and burned it to the ground.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.77)
1975 Jan 1, On New Year's Day
Communist troops launched an offensive which, in 117 days of the
hardest fighting of the war, collapsed the Khmer Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cambodia)
1975 Feb 6, President Gerald Ford
asked Congress for $497 million in aid to Cambodia.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1975 Apr 12, The US removed its
embassy personnel from Phnom Penh. Some of Cambodia's most senior
government ministers, including the Acting President, Saukham Khoy,
were among the evacuees.
(http://tinyurl.com/rsqt5)
1975 April 17, The US-backed Lon
Nol government of Cambodia surrendered to the Khmer Rouge. The nominal
leader of the Khmer Rouge was Khieu Samphan. Pol Pot, leader of the
Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodia), occupied the capital Phnom Penh ending
Cambodia's five-year war. This began the brutal regime that resulted in
the death of one to three million people. The Khmer Rouge began to
immediately clear Phnom Penh. Agrarian communism was forced on the
people and purges extended from the leadership down to the masses. The
country was renamed Democratic Kampuchea. After the Khmer Rouge took
power they employed a system of forced marriages to help engineer a
classless society.
(NG, 5/85, p.574)(WSJ,4/17/95, p.A-12)(AP,
4/17/97)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(WSJ, 6/16/97, p.8)(SFC, 4/17/98,
p.A16)(http://tinyurl.com/qot7t)(SFC, 1/23/96, p.A10)
1975 May 11, The Cambodian
government seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.T10)
1975 May 12, The White House
announced the new Cambodian government had seized an American merchant
ship, the Mayaguez, with 39 crew members in international waters. Pres.
Gerald Ford sent a company of Marines to rescue the ship. The ship was
freed but there were 41 Americans killed or missing and more than 50
wounded.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.T10)(AP, 5/12/97)
1975 May 15, US forces raided the
Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship
Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia, but
some 40 US servicemen were killed in the military operation. Some 200
Marines stormed the island of Koh Tang to rescue the crew of the
Mayaguez, but the crew had been moved. The Marines fought all day
against the Khmer Rouge and escaped by helicopter in the evening. Three
comrades were left behind and later died under the Khmer Rouge. The
crew was freed about the same time that the Marine assault began.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A14)(AP, 5/15/08)
1975-1979 Pol Pot (1925-1998), whose real name is
Saloth Sar, led the Khmer Rouge and ruled Cambodia. In 1987 Joan D.
Criddle and Teeda Butt Mam authored "To Destroy You Is No Loss: The
Odyssey of a Cambodian Family." The work was recorded on cassette in
1992 and told the extraordinary story of a Cambodian family caught up
in the genocide under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. An estimated 1.7
million people were killed under the Khmer Rouge. In 2000 Loung
Ung authored "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia
Remembers."
(WSJ, 6/7/96, p.A11)(AR, 9/4/99)(SFC, 9/8/99,
p.A15)(SFEC, 6/11/00, BR p.6)
1975-1979 During this period the Khmer Rouge of
Cambodia executed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians and condemned
more than a million to death by starvation and disease. As many as
20,000 men, women and children entered Cambodia’s Tuol Sleng prison and
only 7 are known to have survived. In 1997 two of the administrators of
the prison, known as Duch and Chan, were living openly in territory
controlled by the government.
(WSJ, 4/17/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A9)
1976 Apr 11, In Cambodia Khmer
Rouge leader Khieu Samphan (b.1931) succeeded Prince Sihanouk as
premier. In 1979 he was succeeded by Heng Samrin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khieu_Samphan)(Econ,
1/12/08, p.52)
1976 Nov 23, The Thai government
returned 26 refugees to Cambodia saying that they are a threat to the
national security. The government said some 70,000 refugees in Thailand
who escaped Communist rule in other Indochina states, including 10,000
Cambodians, would also not be permitted to stay.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1976 Nhem Ein, photographer, was
assigned by the Khmer Rouge to Cambodia’s Tuol Sleng interrogation
center called S-21. He proceeded to methodically photograph all the
prisoners who arrived before they were tortured and executed.
(WSJ, 9/16/97, p.A20)
1977 Mar 9, Pres. Carter proposed
an end to travel restrictions to Cuba, Vietnam, N. Korea and Cambodia
effective as of March 18.
(www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=7139)
1977 Dec 31, Cambodia broke
relations with Vietnam.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1977-1978 Pol Pot of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, fearing
traitors, purged his own Khmer Rouge, especially in the eastern zone.
Many of his former cadre flee to Vietnam.
(WSJ, 4/17/95, p.A-12)
1978 Jan 3, Vietnamese troops
were reported to be occupying 400 square miles in Cambodia. North
Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops were using Laos and Cambodia as staging
areas for attacks against allied forces.
(HN, 1/3/02)
1978 Dec 25, Vietnam invaded
Cambodia and drove the Khmer Rouge into sanctuaries along the Thai
border, finally ending the mass genocide depicted in the 1984 film "The
Killing Fields." It was the first full-scale war between the two
countries since 1917. 400 people were killed in initial clashes.
(NG, 5/85, p.574-5)(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC,
6/14/97, p.A15)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A11)
1978 An estimated 15,000 Chinese
advisors were present in Cambodia during Pol Pot's rule.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A10)
1979 Jan 7, The Vietnamese army
captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh overthrowing the Khmer
Rouge government. The People’s Party, a Hanoi installed Khmer Rouge
faction, took power with Hun Sen as prime minister and Heng Samrin as
president. This finally ended the mass genocide depicted in the 1984
film "The Killing Fields." The Khmer Rouge retreated into sanctuaries
along the Thai border, set up bases and picked up support from Thailand
and China.
(WSJ, 2/27/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(WSJ,
5/3/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A8)(AP,
1/7/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heng_Samrin)
1979 Jan 15, The Soviet Union
vetoed a United Nations resolution and called for the withdrawal of all
Vietnamese troops from Cambodia.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1979 Apr 11, Chinese diplomats of
Cambodia crossed into Thailand after a 15-day, 125-mile escape from the
Vietnamese Army. In 1992 "Chinese Diplomats in International Crisis
Situations" was authored by Yun Shui. An English translation came out
in 2003.
(AP, 1/13/03)
1979 Aug 19, In Cambodia a Phnom
Penh court tried, convicted and sentenced Pol Pot and his deputy, Leng
Sary, to death in absentia for genocide during the Khmer Rouge regime.
A "Hate Day" was created to recall Khmer Rouge crimes. Denise Affonco’s
testimony during the trial was later published as “To the End of Hell:
One Woman’s Struggle to Survive Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.”
(SFC, 9/15/96, p.A16)(WSJ, 7/19/00,
p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/2onrxp)(Econ, 12/15/07, p.93)
1979 The National Museum re-opened
in Cambodia. It had been closed under the Khmer Rouge rule.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.60)
1979 Documents from Phnom Penh,
Cambodia, that detailed the genocide by the Khmer Rouge, were
discovered and copied for storage in American libraries.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A16)
1979 The Khmer Rouge took refuge
in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains and fought on for another 19 years.
Their presence in the area acted as a preservative for the natural
wildlife.
(SFC, 4/8/00, p.A14)
1979 Cambodian farmer Neang Say
stumbled onto the Killing Fields, the main execution and disposal site
for the condemned inmates of Tuol Sleng, Pol Pot’s most notorious
prison.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.45)
1982 The Khmer Rouge and 2
non-Communist groups formed a resistance coalition with Sihanouk as a
figurehead leader. The UN recognized it as the government of Cambodia.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)
1985 Jan 7, Vietnam seized the
Khmer National Liberation Front headquarters near the Thai-Cambodia
border.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1985 Feb 14, Hanoi troops
surrounded the main Khmer Rouge base at Phnom Malai, Cambodia.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1989 Aug 30, The Cambodian peace
talks in Paris collapsed.
(Hem, 4/96, p.15)(http://tinyurl.com/nz3x5)
1989 Sep 26, The last Vietnamese
soldiers left Cambodia. Vietnam withdrew the last of 26,000 troops.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(PC, 1992 ed, p.1113)
1989 Oct 22, Khmer Rouge occupied
Pailin in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge used the gem mining town of Pailin
near the Thai border to finance its operations with gem and timber
profits.
(http://tinyurl.com/p6u5f)
1990 Nov 26, Five permanent
members of U.N. Security Council agreed on peace plan for Cambodia.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1990 "Homrong" was recorded by the
musicians of Cambodia’s National Dance Company.
(NH, 9/97, p.75)
1990 Bernard Krisher founded the
nonprofit group ‘American Assistance for Cambodia following a request
from Prince Sihanouk.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.B7)
1991 Oct 23, Cambodia's warring
factions and representatives of 18 other nations signed a peace treaty
in Paris. All the factions signed The Paris Peace Agreements with the
UN to provide peacekeeping and elections. Khmer Rouge Pres. Khieu
Samphan and commander Son Sen soon returned to Phnom Penh for the first
time since 1979, then fled the same day as mobs tried to lynch Khieu
Samphan.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)(AP,
10/23/01)
1991 Nov 11, The United States
stationed its first diplomat in Cambodia in 16 years to help the
war-shocked nation arrange democratic elections.
(AP, 11/11/01)
1991 Nov 14, Cambodian Prince
Norodom Sihanouk returned to his homeland after 13 years of exile.
(AP, 11/14/01)
1991 HIV was first detected in
Cambodia. By 1999 some 100 people were being infected with the AIDS
virus per day.
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.C2)
1992 Mar 15, The United Nations
officially embarked on its largest peacekeeping operation with the
arrival of a diplomat in Cambodia.
(AP, 3/15/97)
1992 The Asian Development Bank
began building and improving transport and telecom links between China,
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.42)
1992 UNESCO named the Angkor
temples of Cambodia a World Heritage Site.
(SFC, 2/4/04, p.D10)
1993 Sep 24, Sihanouk was
reinstalled as king of Cambodia.
(HN, 9/24/98)
1993 "The Music of Cambodia" was
recorded by David and Kay Parsons as a 3-CD box that included Royal
Court music and a nine-gong ensemble.
(NH, 9/97, p.75)
1993 Cambodia held free elections
under UN supervision. The communist Cambodian People’s Party (CPP)
under Hun Sen lost the elections and formed a coalition government with
the elected Funcinpec under Prince Ranarridh, son of King Sihanouk. The
Khmer Rouge boycotted the elections. The communists maintained control
over the defense and interior ministries. Ranariddh and Hun Sen ran the
country as co-premiers.
(WSJ, 5/3/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 6/19/97, p.A13)(WSJ,
7/9/99, p.A12)
1993 The Int'l. Coordination
Committee was created to channel aid to Cambodia's Angkor Wat zone.
(SFC, 2/4/04, p.D10)
1993 In Cambodia an armed group
robbed the Angkor storage depot at Siem Reap and took 22 pieces
including several important stone sculptures.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.60)
1993-96 In Cambodia the Khmer Rouge remained active
in the countryside. They killed 100 Vietnamese settlers, abducted
villagers for forces labor and kidnapped westerners.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)
1994 Mar 19, Cambodian government
seizes control of Pailin, the Khmer Rouge main stronghold.
(AP, 3/19/02)
1994 Jul 26, In Cambodia 3 Western
backpackers were kidnapped from a train by the Khmer Rouge. The
surprise train attack left 13 dead. Frenchman Michel Braquet, Briton
Mark Slater, and Australian David Wilson were held at the base of Nuon
Paet, who later ordered them killed. Paet was convicted for the
killings in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison. Sam Bith and Chhouk
Rin, former Khmer Rouge guerrillas, were charged in connection with the
abduction and slayings in 1999. Col. Rin was arrested in 2000. Chhouk
Rin was acquitted in 2000 due to an amnesty for rebel defectors. In
2002 Bith was convicted and jailed for life.
(SFC, 6/8/99, p.A12)(SFC, 6/22/99, p.A12)(SFC,
6/22/99, p.A12)(SFC, 1/19/00, p.A16)(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.A1)(MC,
7/26/02)(AP, 12/23/02)
1994 The book "Cambodian Culture
Since 1975: Homeland and Exile" by Sam-Ang Sam was published. It
included information on Cambodian music.
(NH, 9/97, p.75)
1994 Bernard Krisher founded and
became the publisher of The Cambodian Daily, a small English-language
newspaper in Phnom Penh.
(SFC, 8/21/00, p.B7)
1994 The Australian foreign
minister, Gareth Evans, accused "freelance military personnel and
business spivs" (shady dealers) in Thailand of providing refuge for
Khmer Rouge leaders and helping them get gems and timber out of
Cambodia. The statement was made after 2 Australians were murdered by
the Khmer Rouge.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A12)
1994 Cambodia’s 7 million mines
amount to two for every single Cambodian child, and between 200 and 250
people become victims every month.
(UNICEFF Mailer,11/94)
1995 Nov, In Cambodia Hun Sen
arrested the sec. general of Funcinpec, Prince Norodom Sirivudh, and
tried him for terrorism and coup plotting. The trial was a transparent
mockery of justice.
(WSJ, 5/3/96, p.A-10)
1995 The Future Light Orphanage in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, was founded to teach children skills to avoid
poverty.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12)
1995 The Khmer Rouge was ousted in
Cambodia after a 3 year reign of terror in which hundreds of thousands
died.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)
1996 Mar 26, In Cambodia the Khmer
Rouge kidnapped Christopher Howes (37), a mine-clearing expert from
Bristol, England, and Huon Huot, his interpreter. In November Howes’
employer paid $120,000 for his release. The two men were killed shortly
after their abduction. Their remains were found in 1998. In 2008 a
Cambodian court sentenced four former Khmer Rouge rebels each to up to
20 years in prison for their involvement in the murders.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A11)(SFC, 4/13/98,
p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/7s7x4)(AP, 10/14/08)
1996 Apr 16, Khmer Rouge guerillas
attacked a group of tourists near Kompot, 85 miles southwest of Phnom
Penh, Cambodia. Reports have it that they killed and wounded a number
of people and kidnapped about 20.
(SFC, 4/17/96, p.A-10)
1996 Jun 7, In Cambodia it was
reported that Pol Pot was gravely ill or possibly dead. Pol Pot died
1998.
(WSJ, 6/7/96, p.A11)(SFC, 4/16/98, p.A1)
1996 Jun 21, In Cambodia Khmer
Rouge guerrillas held dozens of sawmill workers for ransom and killed
14 of them with axes.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A12)
1996 Jul 10, The Khmer Rouge
attacked a government base in southwestern Cambodia. They were also
accused of killing 60 forestry workers kidnapped previously. 25,500
people have died since 1995 in fighting with the Khmer Rouge.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)
1996 Aug 8, In Cambodia the
government announced an internal power struggle and split in the Khmer
Rouge. Leng Sary, a Pol Pot chum and the Khmer Rouge foreign minister,
opposed Son Sen, the minister of defense and led defections that grew
to 10,000.
(SFC, 8/12/96, p.A13)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)(WSJ,
4/17/98, p.A13)
1996 Sep 5, Cambodia rushed troops
to aid the 1,000 or so Khmer Rouge dissidents near the village of Chup
Koki. About 5,500 Khmer Rouge rebels remain loyal to Pol Pot.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A14)
1996 Sep 14, In Cambodia King
Norodom Sihanouk granted amnesty to Leng Sary, the Khmer Rouge rebel
leader.
(SFC, 9/15/96, p.A16)
1996 Oct 18, Cambodia’s king
granted amnesty to all prison inmates except those convicted of serious
crimes and judged to be too dangerous. He also proposed tearing down
the country’s dilapidated prisons which house about 2,000 people, many
held without trial. Leng Sary was granted amnesty and formed a
political party. His followers maintained rule over Pailin under
nominal government control.
(SFC, 10/19/96, A11)
1996 Oct 27, Cambodia’s king
reversed his decision for amnesty after students issued a warning of
increased national insecurity.
(SFC, 10/28/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct, Mr. Robert Prins,
president of Iowa Wesleyan College, bestowed an honorary law degree to
Hun Sen and his Cambodia chief of cabinet Sok An at the behest of Mr.
Ted Sioeng, Indonesian businessman.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A22)
1996 Nov, The IMF canceled a $20
million loan because of Cambodia’s failure to halt illegal logging and
channel timber revenue into its budget.
(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A10)
1996 In Cambodia Ta Mok ousted Pol
Pot from power and kept him under house arrest until his death in 1998.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A17)(SFC, 7/21/06, p.A20)
1997 Feb 14, Khmer Rouge
guerrillas killed all but three Cambodian government officials sent to
make peace.
(SFC, 4/12/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 30, In Cambodia a grenade
attack at a political rally killed at least 16 and wounded over 100 as
opposition leader Sam Rainsy led some 200 members of his Khmer Nation
Party in front of the National Assembly.
(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A10)(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 11, In Cambodia Pol Pot
ordered the killing of the former Khmer Rouge defense minister Son Sen
(67) and his powerful wife, Yun Yat (63), and 9 relatives.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 17, Fighting broke out in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, between the 2 competing prime ministers. Security
troops of Prince Ranariddh faced troops of the national police under
Hok Lundy, a supporter of Hun Sen.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 18, In Cambodia it was
reported that Pol Pot had surrendered with 15 followers.
(SFC, 6/19/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 19, In Cambodia the
report of Pol Pot’s surrender was rescinded.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A19)
1997 Jun 21, Cambodia government
sources announced that former Khmer Rouge troops had captured Pol Pot.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun, Cambodia’s Hun Sen wrote
to the UN and asked for help in bringing remaining Khmer Rouge to trial.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.A14)
1997 Jul 4, In Cambodia troops of
prince Ranariddh laid down their arms and some 140 were taken prisoner
by troops of 2nd Prime Minister Hun Sen. Ranariddh was on a trip to
France and Hun Sen claimed that illegal negotiations were taking place
with Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 5, Cambodia's 2nd PM Hun
Sen launched a bloody coup that toppled 1st PM Norodom Ranariddh. Heavy
fighting in Phnom Penh indicated the collapse of the fragile coalition.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.A3)(AP, 7/5/98)
1997 Jul 6, In Cambodia Hun Sen
declared victory while Prince Ranariddh planned from France to carry
out a resistance effort.
(SFC, 7/7/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 8, Cambodia Interior
Minister Ho Sok was seized and executed by forces loyal to Hun Sen.
Some 30 soldiers loyal to Ranariddh were captured and tortured by
Regiment 911 at Kambol
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A6)(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 9, In Cambodia some 30
opposition officials were arrested in Pray Veng Province, 13 in
Battambang, and 20 in Kompong Speu. Prince Ranariddh was in
consultation with the United Nations for support.
(SFC, 7/10/97, p.E3)
1997 Jul 10, ASEAN foreign
ministers voted to suspend Cambodia’s membership. The US announced a
3/4 reduction of staff and some aid. More than 50 people were dead
after 2 days of fighting.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul 16, In Cambodia Hun Sen
named a new co-premier, Ung Huot, the foreign minister and a member of
Ranariddh’s Funcinpec Party. Exiled legislators said was the
appointment was illegal.
(SFC, 7/17/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 7/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 18, In Cambodia Prince
Ranariddh called off armed resistance and proposed a caretaker
government and new elections.
(SFC, 7/19/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 19, In Cambodia Hun Sen
rejected a peace plan proposed by the 7-nation ASEAN group.
(SFEC, 7/20/97, p.A19)
1997 Jul 26, Communist guerrillas
in Cambodia announced that Pol Pot was sentenced to life
imprisonment. Nate Thayer, a US reporter for the Far Eastern Economic
Review, claimed to have seen Pol Pot and prepared a report for the
Review.
(WSJ, 7/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Aug 8, US Sec. of State
Madeleine Albright announced that the bulk of US aid to Cambodia would
be suspended.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A9)
1997 Aug 19, In Cambodia 35,000
people fled across the border to Thailand to escape fighting between
forces loyal to Prince Ranariddh and troops of coup leader Hun Sen.
(WSJ, 8/20/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 24, In Cambodia troops of
Hun Sen overran O’Smach, the last frontier town held by forces loyal to
Prince Ranariddh.
(SFC, 8/25/97, p.A8)
1997 Sep 3, In Cambodia a
Vietnam Airlines, Tupelov 134, Soviet jet crashed on approach to
Phnom Penh airport and killed 65 people. One child, 1-year-old
Chanayuth Nim-Anong, survived. A 2nd child about 4 also survived.
(WSJ, 9/3/97, p.A1)(SFC, 9/4/97, p.A12)(SFC, 9/5/97,
p.A12)
1997 Dec 20, Theng Bunma,
Cambodian business tycoon and accused drug trafficker, was awarded an
honorary doctorate from Iowa Wesleyan College via the manipulations of
Ted Sioeng, an Indonesia-born businessman. Sioeng was at the heart of
the "donorgate" scandal over China’s attempt to influence the 1996 US
elections.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A22)
1998 Mar 29, In Cambodia civilians
fled fighting between factions of the Khmer Rouge
(WSJ, 3/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 30, Prince Norodom
Ranariddh returned to Cambodia and planned to oppose Hun Sen in the Jul
26 elections.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B4)
1998 Mar 31, In Cambodia
government soldiers made a major offensive to destroy the remnants of
the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, whose numbers were disintegrating due to
defections and internal fighting.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A8)
1998 Apr 15, Pol Pot (73) died of
a heart attack in Anlong Veng, northern Cambodia. His body was
cremated. It was later reported that he killed himself with malaria
pills and tranquilizers after learning that an aide planned to hand him
over to the US. In 1999 it was reported that Ta Mok had Pol Pot
executed. In 2001 the place of his death was designated as a historic
site and plans were made to make it a tourist attraction. In 2004
Philip Short and John Murray authored “Pol Pot: The History of a
Nightmare.”
(SFC, 4/16/98, p.A1)(SFC, 4/18/98, p.A8)(WSJ,
1/21/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/27/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/21/01, p.H5)(Econ, 11/6/04,
p.89)
1998 Apr 17, A Thai military team
collected evidence from the body of Pol Pot, former chief of Cambodia's
Khmer Rouge guerrillas, to confirm that one of the century's worst
tyrants was truly dead.
(AP,, 4/17/99)
1998 Apr 18, In Cambodia the Khmer
Rouge killed 22 ethnic Vietnamese at Chhanok Tru, a fishing village on
Tonle Sap Lake.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A15)
1998 Apr 21, Khmer Rouge rebels
drove a large government force back in 2 days of fighting along the
Thai-Cambodian border.
(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A9)
1998 May 2, Cambodian refugees
entered Thailand as government troops declared that they had all but
destroyed the Khmer Rouge.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.16A)
1998 May 20, In Cambodia Prince
Ranariddh quit as head of an opposition alliance against Hun Sen and
chose to support Son Soubert.
(WSJ, 5/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 5, Over 1,000 former
Khmer Rouge soldiers were inducted into the Cambodian army at Anlong
Veng. Khmer Rouge leader Ta Mok and some loyalists were still in the
jungles along the Thai border.
(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A11)
1998 Jun 28, In Cambodia an
opposition activist was found beaten to death near Phnom Penh.
(WSJ, 6/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 17, In Cambodia Khmer
Rouge guerrillas under Ta Mok attacked a convoy of election workers and
killed 2 people.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A24)
1998 Jul 23, It was reported that
3 ethnic Vietnamese were killed last week in a racist attack prior to
Cambodian elections. Ethnic slurs against the Vietnamese were turning
up in the election campaign.
(SFC, 7/23/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 26, In Cambodia a Khmer
Rouge attack left 10 people dead as the nation voted for a new
government. 40-50 guerrillas struck at an army outpost at O’Kong Bich.
No party was expected to win a majority of the 122 seat National
Assembly.
(SFC, 7/27/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 28, The Cambodian
People's Party (CPP) of Hun Sen claimed victory and preliminary results
showed him with 67 seats, Ranariddh with 42 and Rainsy with 13.
(WSJ, 7/29/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/9/99, p.A12)
1998 Aug 5, In Cambodia election
officials declared Hun Sen the winner and int’l. monitors backed the
results.
(WSJ, 8/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 20, A grenade attack in
Phnom Penh, apparently aimed at Sam Rainsy, killed one man but left
Rainsy unhurt.
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 7, In Phnom Penh Hun Sen
ordered the arrests of his opponents and at least one person was killed
as police fired into a crowd of protestors.
(SFC, 9/8/98, p.A8)
1998 Sep 8, In Phnom Penh police
scattered demonstrators and ended a 2-week protest against alleged
fraud in the national elections. Protestors called their tent city
Democracy Square and thousands participated with hopes of launching a
people-power revolution.
(SFC, 9/9/98, p.A8)
1998 Sep 23, In Cambodia a rocket
attack intended for Huns Sen killed 4 people including 2 children.
(SFC, 9/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 13, In Cambodia the
warring political parties agreed to form a coalition government led by
Hun Sen. Opposition leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh will become
president of the National Assembly.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 25, Cambodia’s new
National Assembly began office with Prince Ranariddh as speaker of the
120-seat group.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B8)
1998 Dec 4, In Cambodia the last
Khmer Rouge fighting force surrendered, but 3 leaders refused to give
up.
(WSJ, 12/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 7, The UN agreed to give
Cambodia’s UN seat to the new government.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 9, In Cambodia Khmer
Rouge guerrillas kidnapped 48 people, including 3 aid workers, and
demanded ransom.
(WSJ, 12/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 20, In Cambodia there
were riots in Sihanoukville to protests suspected toxic waste imports
from Taiwan. Hundreds of Cambodians fled the city after reports of
deaths from 3,000 tons of toxic waste dumped 2 weeks ago. The waste was
loaded with mercury and a plan was made to move it away from
Sihanoukville. Taiwan ordered Formosa Plastics to take back the 3,000
tons of waste but the firm said the government used tests by an
environmental group.
(WSJ, 12/21/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
12/28/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/29/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 26, In Cambodia 2 aides
of the late Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, emerged from the
jungle and expressed in writing their desire to become ordinary
citizens and allegiance to the government. Prime Minister Hun Sen
welcomed them and spoke against a trial and reopening old wounds.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A22)(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A8)
1998 Dec 31, In Cambodia Hun Sen
said he would not oppose a trial of the 2 recently emerged Khmer Rouge
defectors. The National Assembly passed a $393.4 million budget that
included $133 million for defense and security.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1998 Over 8,000 Cambodians died
from AIDS in this year.
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 9, Some 1,700 guerrillas
of the Khmer Rouge were inducted into the Cambodian military.
(SFC, 2/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 26, In Japan int'l.
donors at a 2 day conference pledged to provide $470 million in aid to
Cambodia, if the country takes steps to reduce its army and promote
democracy.
(SFC, 2/27/99, p.A16)
1999 Feb, A UN panel recommended
that an int'l. tribunal be established to prosecute those persons most
responsible for the crimes of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 6, In Cambodia Ta Mok
(72), aka "the butcher," the one-legged last senior leader of the Khmer
Rouge, was arrested.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A17)(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar, In Cambodia Hun Sen
rejected a UN proposal to hold an int’l. tribunal.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.A14)
1999 Apr, Kaing Khek Iev (aka
Comrade Duch), the chief executioner of Pol Pot's regime, was uncovered
by Nick Dunlop, a foreign journalist. The Cambodia government
reportedly knew of his whereabouts for 2 years. In May Duch was put
under protective custody after agreeing to testify against his former
comrades. In 2006 Dunlop authored “The Lost Executioner: A Journey to
the heart of the Killing Fields.”
(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A8,10)(SSFC, 3/5/06, p.M3)
1999 Apr 30, Cambodia was admitted
as the 10th member of the Association of Asian Nations (ASEAN).
(SFC, 5/1/99, p.B1)
1999 Apr, Hun Sen accepted a
compromise offer for an int’l. tribunal with both foreign and Cambodian
judges. Talks soon collapsed.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.A14)
1999 Jun 26, Samdach Vira Bhante,
a Cambodian monk, died in Stockton, Ca. at age 110.
(SFC, 7/1/99, p.C4)
1999 Jul 6, Srei Chea (29),
Cambodian film star, was shot 3 times by 2 gunmen. She died a week
later. Her films included "Shadow of Darkness," which was about life
under the Khmer Rouge.
(SFC, 7/19/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 6, Piseth Peaklica (34),
Cambodian actress, was shot by 2 gunmen in a Phnom Penh market and died
on July 13. It was rumored that she was involved with a high official
(Hun Sen) and ordered killed by a jealous wife (Bun Rany).
(SFC, 11/4/99, p.A15)(http://tinyurl.com/5n83tu)
1999 Aug 11, It was reported that
an estimated half of Cambodia's 10-20 thousand sex workers were
infected with the AIDS virus, HIV.
(SFC, 8/11/99, p.C2)
1999 Sep 7, In Cambodia the
military court charged Ta Mok, a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla chief,
with genocide.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A15)
1999 Sep 9, In Cambodia Kaing
Khek, aka "Duch" and former head of Tuol Sleng, a converted school that
served as a Khmer Rouge torture center, was charged with genocide.
(SFC, 9/10/99, p.D4)(SSFC, 3/5/06, p.M3)
1999 Oct 19, In Cambodia Prime
Minister Hun Sen reportedly gave his approval for a tribunal to hear
genocide charges against the Khmer Rouge.
(SFC, 10/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Cambodia agreed to allow
environmentalists to begin an experiment in wildlife and forest
protection with enforcers paid by outside nations.
(WSJ, 6/19/01, p.A1)
1999 Bernard Krisher, American
philanthropist (retired magazine journalist), began to link rural
schools with solar power and Internet linked computers. His Japan
Relief for Cambodia was responsible for the Cambodia Daily, the
country's first English language daily newspaper and an orphanage in
Phnom Penh.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.AA7)
2000 Jan 2, It was reported that
Cambodia’s Hun Sen, in an effort to boost tourism, had approved direct
flights to Angkor Wat, with a required one night stay in the adjacent
town of Siem Riap.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.T3)
2000 Jan, In Cambodia Hun Sen
moved ahead with plans to hold national trials without int’l.
assistance.
(WSJ, 7/19/00, p.A14)
2000 May, At least 6
anti-government royalists were killed by government soldiers in
Cambodia’s Kratie province according to charges made by a human rights
group in August. 25 people were missing and presumed dead.
(SFC, 8/18/00, p.D6)
2000 Sep 14, In Cambodia and
Vietnam the Mekong River flooded. At least 89 people had died in
Cambodia and 8 in Vietnam since the floods began in July.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A18)
2000 Sep 21, In Southeast Asia the
death toll from floods reached 235. The Red Cross issued an appeal for
emergency aid to Cambodia.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.D2)
2000 Nov 24, Several dozen gunmen
attacked government offices in Phnom Penh. At least 7 people were
killed and 12 wounded. Police fought a US-based anti-communist group
known as the Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF). 8 were killed and 60
rounded up. 38 people, including 4 American citizens, were later
charged with terrorism. In 2002 a court sentenced 20 people to prison
terms of 5 years to life for the plotting to overthrow the government.
(SFC, 11/25/00, p.A18)(WSJ, 11/27/00, p.A1)(SFC,
11/30/00, p.C3)(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A17)
2001 Aug 7, Cambodia’s
Constitutional Council approved legislation to establish a special
court to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity.
(SFC, 8/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 10, Cambodia’s King
Sihanouk signed war-crimes legislation to try senior Khmer Rouge
leaders.
(WSJ, 8/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 23, Cambodia’s PM Hun Sen
shut down the country’s bars, nightclubs, discos and karaoke parlors.
He said they were spawning crime and eroding traditional values. The
action followed a series of shootings at nightspots.
(SSFC, 12/2/01, p.C13)
2001 Kay Kimsong, along with two
Americans working for the Cambodian Daily, were sued over two articles
published in early 2001 that said Foreign Minister Hor Namhong had
played an active part in running a Phnom Penh prison camp during the
Khmer Rouge's brutal 1975-79 reign. An appeal by Kimson in 2005 was
rejected and he was fined $7,500.
(AP, 8/31/05)
2001 Arn Chorn-Pond started the
Silipak Khmer Amatak (Cambodian Living Arts) organization. It aimed to
locate and support Cambodian master artists.
(SFCM, 8/8/04, p.12)
2001 The UN said 170,000 people in
Cambodia had HIV. About 2.7% of the adult population was infected with
AIDS.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.41)
2002 Feb 3, In Cambodia’s 1st
local elections Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won control of up to
1600 of the 1,621 local councils. A US monitoring group said the polls
were competently run but neither free nor fair.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Aug 30, Floodwaters along the
lower stretches of the Mekong have wreaked havoc in Laos, Cambodia
(18), Thailand (12) and Vietnam (25), claiming at least 55 lives and
leaving thousands homeless across the region.
(AP, 8/30/02)
2002 Sep 29, In Cambodia 2 nuns
and a monk burned to death in bathtubs of gasoline and three suffered
multiple stab wounds in Wat Thmar Sar. Police later detained Dem Mam
the leader of an extremist Buddhist cult.
(Reuters, 10/2/02)
2002 Nov 5, The ASEAN group
(Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam,
Brunei, Thailand and Myanmar) ended a 2-day conference in Cambodia that
was also attended by representatives from China, Japan, and India and
South Africa.
(AP, 11/5/02)
2002 Dec 19, In Cambodia some 1
million people participated in the transfer of some remains of Buddha
from Phnom Penh to a new shrine in Oudong.
(SFC, 12/20/02, p.A18)
2003 Jan 29, In Cambodia
protesters looted and set fire to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh. The
protest was against a Thai TV star who was quoted in the media as
saying Cambodia had stolen the famous Angkor Wat temple from Thailand.
(AP, 1/29/03)
2003 Jan 30, Thailand sealed its
border with Cambodia, recalled its ambassador and sent military planes
to evacuate hundreds of terrified Thais after rioters looted and
torched its embassy in the Cambodian capital.
(AP, 1/30/03)
2003 Mar 5, Cambodia sealed
its border with Thailand, due to sluggish progress "to normalize
relations in border areas" since January’s anti-Thai riots.
(AP, 3/5/03)
2003 Apr 11, Cambodia and Thailand
agreed to resume full diplomatic relations, which were suspended after
anti-Thai riots shook Cambodia's capital in January.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 Jul 27, Cambodia held
elections for seats in the123-member national Assembly in the third
democratic election in a decade.
(AP, 7/27/03)(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A9)
2003 Jul 28, In Cambodia PM Hun
Sen's party claimed victory in general elections, saying it expects to
win around 73 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly. Hun Sen's
party swept to victory, but apparently fell short of the two-thirds
majority needed to govern outright.
(AP, 7/28/03)(AP, 7/29/03)
2003 Jul 30, In Cambodia
opposition parties said they would only form a coalition government if
PM Hun Sen stepped down.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A3)
2003 Oct 26, It was reported that
Cambodian prostitutes were being subjected to gang rapes, and that the
practice, called "bauk," has been common for years.
(SSFC, 10/26/03, p.A11)
2003 Nov 5, Cambodia's three main
parties agreed to form a tripartite coalition government with Prime
Minister Hun Sen at the helm, ending a deadlock from inconclusive
elections.
(AP, 11/5/03)
2003 Nov 25, In Cambodia PM Hun
Sen's nephew was arrested on murder charges for allegedly shooting to
death two people after a car crash.
(AP, 11/25/03)
2003 Dec 15, Cambodia's prime
minister ordered the destruction of the country's surface-to-air
missiles to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists. Hun
Sen issued the order after a meeting in Phnom Penh with U.S. Ambassador
Charles Ray.
(AP, 12/16/03)
2003 Dec 30, In Cambodia former
Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan (72) acknowledged for the first
time that his regime committed genocide.
(AP, 12/30/03)
2003 Evan Gottlesman authored
"Cambodia: After the Khmer Rouge."
(WSJ, 4/25/03, W6)
2004 Jan 22, In Cambodia gunmen
assassinated Chea Vichea, a prominent labor leader linked to the main
opposition party, as he read a newspaper on a capital street.
(AP, 1/22/04)
2004 Apr, SF based non-profit Room
to Read (R2R), founded by former Microsoft executive John Wood, opened
its 1000th library in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
(SFCM, 9/26/04, p.7)
2004 May 11, The Int’l. Justice
Mission, a US-based evangelical Christian organization, was reported to
be active in battling the child-sex trade in Cambodia. The group,
founded in 1997 by Gary Haugen, was operating with $1.7 million in
federal funds.
(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 6, Actress Angelina Jolie
(29) arrived in Cambodia. PM Hun Sen had offered her citizenship in
recognition of her nature conservation work in the country’s northwest.
(SFC, 7/7/04, p.E3)
2004 cJul 8, In Cambodia Hun Sen
and Prince Ranariddh signed an agreement to share power with Hun Sen as
PM and Ranariddh as speaker of the National Assembly.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.36)
2004 Jul 13, Police forces loyal
to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen forced the acting head of state
Chea Sim out of the country in a purge of the ruling party.
(AP, 7/13/04)
2004 Jul 14, King Sihanouk
reappointed Hun Sen as Cambodia’s premier.
(WSJ, 7/15/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 4, Cambodia's legislature
approved a long-delayed agreement to put surviving Khmer Rouge leaders
on trial for atrocities that claimed nearly two million lives during
their murderous rule in the late 1970s.
(AP, 10/4/04)
2004 Oct 7, Cambodia’s King
Norodom Sihanouk (81) abdicated due to poor health.
(SFC, 10/7/04, p.A9)
2004 Oct 14, In Cambodia Prince
Norodom Sihamoni, retiring King Norodom Sihanouk's son, a former ballet
dancer and U.N. cultural ambassador, was officially confirmed to
succeed his father on the throne.
(AP, 10/14/04)
2004 Oct 28, Cambodia's King
Norodom Sihamoni, the 51-year-old son of former king Norodom Sihanouk,
was formally sworn in as monarch.
(AP, 10/29/04)
2005 Jan 1, The 1974 Multi-Fiber
Arrangement (MFA), which had restricted Chinese textile exports, ended.
This forced Cambodia to face fierce competition from rival exporters.
This led to the loss of some 30,000 jobs in Mauritius.
(www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/February06/Features/feature2.htm)(Econ,
2/19/05, p.42)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.58)
2005 Feb 3, The US embassy in
Phnom Penh condemned the Cambodian parliament's vote to strip
opposition leader Sam Rainsy and two of his deputies of immunity.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb, Sam Rainsy fled Cambodia
after his parliamentary immunity was removed.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.47)
2005 Mar 18, A Cambodian-Japanese
joint venture, JC Royal, was awarded a 30-year management lease to
oversee and upgrade the Choeung Ek memorial, site of the killing fields
(1975-1979). Profits were marked for the unregistered Sun Fund charity.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.45)(http://tinyurl.com/dlpm7)
2005 Mar 25, Cambodia and Vietnam
each confirmed an additional death from bird flu, raising Southeast
Asia's death toll to 48.
(AP, 3/25/05)
2005 May 18, Cambodia's
legislature ratified a pact with the US exempting each country's
citizens from extradition for prosecution by the International Criminal
Court, an agreement sought by Washington to avoid political trials of
its citizens.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 Jun 16, In northwestern
Cambodia a man driven by a grudge against his former employer
spearheaded an assault on an international school, taking dozens of
children hostage and silencing a crying a 2-year-old Canadian boy by
shooting him in the head.
(AP, 6/17/05)(SFC, 6/17/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun 30, A Cambodia doctor
reported that 2 infants have died in Cambodia from influenza, part of
an outbreak that has hospitalized more than 1,000 children. He said the
illness appears to be a form of human flu, not the avian influenza.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jul 20, Cambodia handed over
some 107 Montagnards, a largely Christian hilltribe people, to
Vietnamese authorities. More than 1,000 Montagnards fled to Cambodia
after security forces put down demonstrations in Vietnam's Central
Highlands in 2001 against land confiscation and religious persecution
of ethnic minorities. In January, Vietnam, Cambodia and the UNHCR
signed a memorandum of understanding to resettle or repatriate about
700 ethnic minority Vietnamese who were estimated at the time to be in
Cambodia.
(AFP, 7/20/05)
2005 Aug 1, In Cambodia 2 men who
said their confessions were coerced by police were convicted of murder
in the death of a prominent labor union leader. Chea Vichea, the former
head of Cambodia's Free Trade Union of Workers, was gunned down in
January 2004 at a roadside newsstand in the capital, Phnom Penh. The
union leader was an outspoken critic of government corruption and human
rights abuses.
(AP, 8/2/05)
2005 Sep 2, The US Embassy in
Cambodia said the US has established a $2 million endowment (DC-Cam) to
assist a Cambodian group researching crimes committed by the Khmer
Rouge government in the late 1970s.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 6, Australia staged a
high seas arrest of a Cambodian-flagged ship with an international crew
suspected of fishing illegally in sub-Antarctic waters.
(AFP, 9/10/05)
2005 Oct 25, Chhouk Rin, former
Khmer Rouge field commander, was caught in northwestern Cambodia. In
1994 he was convicted in absentia for the murder of 3 Western
backpackers.
(AP, 10/26/05)
2005 Dec 31, In Cambodia police
arrested two leading human rights activists on defamation charges as
the UN human rights body expressed "extreme concern" over the move.
(AFP, 12/31/05)
2005 Dec, The IMF decided to write
off Cambodia’s $82 million debt.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.52)(http://tinyurl.com/yvqvuh)
2005 Some 80% of Cambodians lived
in the countryside.
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.42)
2006 Jan 17, Cambodia, under US
pressure, released four prominent government critics from a Phnom Penh
prison but said they will still face defamation charges.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Jan 22, Cambodia held its
first Senate election. PM Hun Sen's ruling party secured a landslide
victory. Only 123 parliamentarians and 11,261 members of commune
councilors, local administrative bodies, were able to vote.
(AFP, 1/29/06)
2006 Feb 5, Cambodia's king
pardoned exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy who was sentenced to jail
for defamation, in a move officials said was at the request of PM Hun
Sen.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 10, Sam Rainsy, an exiled
Cambodian opposition leader, returned home to cheering crowds of
supporters after a royal pardon ended his long feud with PM Hun Sen.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Mar 1, Cambodia’s National
Assembly convened to amend 8 legislations to the constitution
especially the new article 90 to diminish the votes of support for
lawmakers from 2/3 to 50% plus one votes in order to form a government,
according to the lawmakers' proposals from the 3 main parties.
(http://tinyurl.com/jg63b)
2006 Mar 4, Cambodia deported an
American for running websites that promoted the impoverished kingdom as
a destination for people who wanted to end their lives. Californian
Roger Graham, 57, who owned the Blue Mountain Coffee and Internet Cafe
in the quiet coastal backwater of Kampot, had advertised his avid
support of euthanasia, or mercy killing, on his websites
www.euthanasiaincambodia.com and www.asian-hearts.com.
(AFP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 29, Cambodia's PM Hun Sen
said that Yash Ghai, a UN human rights representative, was no longer
welcome in the Southeast Asian nation after the envoy criticized the
government's crackdown on dissent.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Apr 15, Cambodian soldiers
departed to Sudan for a UN-backed landmine clearing operation, saying
they hoped they could use their experience recovering from civil war to
help the war-torn Sudanese.
(AFP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 21, The Cambodian PM Hun
Sen ruled out sending troops to Iraq, rejecting a request by the US for
non-combat forces to assist with humanitarian work.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr, China’s PM Wen Jiabao
visited Cambodia and announced aid for roads, dams and other projects
for up to $600 million.
(Econ, 3/31/07, SR p.14)
2006 May 4, Cambodia's highest
judicial body approved 30 Cambodian and UN judges to preside over a
long-awaited genocide tribunal for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 9, A land mine killed
five Cambodian soldiers and maimed another as they tried to remove it
from an area being developed to build a casino.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 Jun 6, In Cambodia more than
1,000 police, many armed and in riot gear, evicted hundreds of families
who had refused to leave a Phnom Penh shantytown, as authorities moved
to end a standoff that has stalled millions of dollars in commercial
development.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jul 3, Judges and prosecutors
from Cambodia and abroad were sworn in to begin the UN-backed judicial
process to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes
against humanity.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 21, In Cambodia Ta Mok
(80), known as "The Butcher" for his brutality as military chief of the
communist Khmer Rouge, died.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.77)
2006 Aug 6, Cambodian customs over
the weekend seized 12 luxury vehicles stolen in Canada, including a
Hummer and a Cadillac popular with hip-hop music stars, giving an
intriguing insight into the world of international car smuggling.
(Reuters, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 30, Cambodian lawmakers
curtailed parliamentarians’ right to speak without fear of prosecution
in a bill that granted them pensions and other perks.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Aug 31, Heng Pov, former
Phnom Penh police chief, was arrested at a hotel in Singapore when a
clerk brought food for him. A Cambodian court warrant had been recently
issued against him accusing him of involvement in a number of crimes
such as the killing of Phnom Penh judge Sok Sethamony, assassination
attempts on general Sao Sokha and judge Uk Savuth, as well as a number
of other criminal cases. Pov claimed that he was being framed for
refusing orders to kill Hok Lundy, the internal security chief.
(http://tinyurl.com/gtumm)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Sep 1, Cambodia’s PM Hun Sen
pushed a bill through the lower house of parliament banning
extra-marital affairs. The legislation could get adulterers up to a
year in jail.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Sep 19, Cambodia's King
Norodom Sihamoni started the official part of a week-long visit to the
Czech Republic, a country where he spent 13 years from 1962-1975 and
considers as his "second home."
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Oct 3, In California
Cambodian and US representatives signed a sister park accord between
Samlaut Park and Sequoia National Park.
(SFC, 10/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 9, Cambodian PM Hun Sen
began a six-day official visit to Australia that will focus on security
and trade.
(AFP, 10/9/06)
2006 Oct 18, Cambodia's royalist
party voted to remove Prince Norodom Ranariddh as its leader, saying
his long absences from the country left him unable to lead the
fractious party.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 31, Cambodian police said
an American police officer, killed himself while in custody in the
capital. Donald Rene Ramirez of SF was accused of sexually abusing a
14-year-old girl. Ramirez had been going on vacation to Asia for at
least 2 decades.
(AP, 10/31/06)(SSFC, 11/5/06, p.B1)
2006 Nov 10, Asian nations reached
their first international agreement to implement what has been dubbed
the "Iron Silk Road." Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia,
Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and seven other
nations agreed to meet at least every two years to identify vital rail
routes, coordinate standards and financing and plan upgrades and
expansions, among other measures. The UN first conceived the
Trans-Asian Railway Network in 1960.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 21, Cambodian PM Hun Sen,
other senior officials and South Korea’s President Roh Moo-Hyun arrived
in Siem Reap, the gateway to the famed Angkor temple complex, to kick
off the Angkor-Gyeongju Culture Expo, a joint cultural festival that
runs through January 2007.
(AFP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 30, Cambodia's PM Hun Sen
condemned attempts by Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels to push for a
separate state, after talks in Phnom Penh with the island's premier.
(AFP, 11/30/06)
2006 Cambodia’s PM Hun Sen
financed and provided a foreword to a book by Ros Chantrabot about
Sdach Korn, an alleged Cambodian historical figure. 5,000 copies were
distributed out. Hun Sen wanted to rehabilitate this ordinary man who
supposedly toppled his king and ruled during the 16th century.
(http://ki-media.blogspot.com/search/label/Hun%20Sen)(Econ, 4/7/07,
p.38)
2007 Feb 2, US Peace Corps
volunteers flew to Cambodia to teach English at rural schools, marking
the 45-year-old organization's first mission there.
(AP, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 9, In Cambodia the
American navy's USS Gary docked at Sihanoukville, becoming the first US
military craft to visit the former communist country in more than 30
years.
(AFP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 15, It was reported that
shooting ranges continued to operate in Cambodia despite
government cancellation of licenses in 1997. Tourists were able
to fire 30 rounds with an AK-47 for $30. Other offers included tossing
grenades at chickens for $200 and killing a cow with a rocket-propelled
grenade for $555.
(SFC, 2/15/07, p.14)
2007 Feb 27, In Cambodia the US
ambassador said direct US aid to support Cambodian government projects
will resume following the lifting of a decade-old ban by Washington.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Mar 5, In Cambodia PM Hun Sen
publicly rebuked members in the upper ranks of his Cambodian People’s
Party for dodgy land deals as small farmers and slum-dwellers fell
victim to land-grabbing.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.38)
2007 Mar 12, Preah Maha Ghosananda
(78), Buddhist spiritual leader of Cambodia, died.
(Econ, 3/24/07, p.98)
2007 Mar 16, Cambodian and foreign
judges reached a key agreement on procedures governing Cambodia's
long-stalled Khmer Rouge tribunal.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 19, A Cambodian court
official said that Prince Norodom Ranariddh has been charged with
adultery for having a mistress while still being legally married to his
wife.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 24, Thieves in Cambodia
poisoned a 62-year-old domesticated elephant and sawed off its tusks to
sell on the black market. In 2008 2 men were arrested for the killing
and faced up to 3 years in prison for the intentional destruction of
private property.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/26/08)
2007 Apr 1, Cambodia held local
commune elections. The Cambodian People’s Party won control in 1,592 of
1,621 communes amid opposition claims of fraud.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.38)
2007 Apr 6, Health officials said
teenage girls in Cambodia and Indonesia have died of bird flu as the
virus continues to stalk across Asia.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2007 May 22, Cambodian PM Hun Sen
met with junta head Senior General Than Shwe in military-ruled Myanmar,
as the two nations moved to improve tourism links.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 Jun 4, Cambodian and foreign
judges began a weeklong meeting to confirm rules for the much-delayed
genocide trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders, blamed for the deaths of
1.7 million people.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 13, Cambodian and foreign
judges announced rules clearing the way for a UN-assisted genocide
tribunal to begin investigating Khmer Rouge leaders in the deaths of
1.7 million people during their 1975-79 communist regime.
(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jun 14, Cambodian PM Hun Sen,
visiting Japan, pledged to fight corruption to lure more investors from
top donor Japan as he tries to wean his government away from foreign
aid.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 25, A charter plane
carrying 22 people between two popular Cambodian tourist destinations
crashed in a mountainous region in the south of the country. All aboard
were killed.
(AP, 6/25/07)(AP, 6/27/07)
2007 Jun, Cambodia received
pledges from foreign governments, agencies and charities of $690
million in aid, 15% more than last year as China joined the pledge
process.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.49)
2007 Jul 17, Cambodia's government
issued a directive preventing Christians from promoting their religion
in public places, or using money or other means to persuade people to
convert.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 31, In Cambodia Kang Kek
Ieu (alias Duch), a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, was charged with
crimes against humanity and detained by Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal
in the first legal action taken by the court against regime leaders.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Sep 19, In Cambodia Nuon
Chea, the top surviving leader of the notorious Khmer Rouge, whose
radical policies were responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7
million people, was charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
(AP, 9/19/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Cambodia Alexander
Trofimov (41), the Russian chairman of Koh Puos Investment Group Ltd.,
was charged with debauchery, a Cambodian legal offense covering sexual
abuse of children. He was detained in the southern resort town of
Sihanoukville and accused of raping at least six girls. In September
last year, the Cambodian government gave Trofimov's company permission
to develop an island near Sihanoukville into a tourist resort.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 12, In Cambodia Ieng Sary
and Ieng Thirith, the ex-foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge regime and
his wife, were arrested on charges of crimes against humanity. Ieng
Sary was sentenced to death in absentia in August 1979, eight months
after a Vietnam-led resistance movement overthrew the Khmer Rouge
regime. In 1996 the king rewarded Ieng Sary with an amnesty for
breaking away from his comrades-in-arms.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 19, In Cambodia a
UN-backed tribunal arrested Khieu Samphan (76), the former Khmer Rouge
head of state. He was the fifth senior official of the brutal regime to
be rounded up ahead of a long-delayed genocide trial. In his book
"Reflection on Cambodian History Up to the Era of Democratic
Kampuchea," which was released last week, Khieu Samphan says the Khmer
Rouge only wanted what was best for Cambodia.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 20, In Cambodia Kaing
Guek Eav (66), also known as Duch, the head of the Khmer Rouge's
largest and most notorious torture center appeared in court in the
first public session of the long-delayed UN-backed tribunal probing the
regime's reign of terror in the 1970s.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Dec 25, Some 600 protesters
marched in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh to call for speedier
trials for the former leaders of Khmer Rouge regime.
(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Khamboly Dy authored "A
History of Democratic Kampuchea," the first history book written by a
Cambodian about the Khmer Rouge.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2008 Jan 19, Activists said
actress Mia Farrow has arrived in Cambodia and plans to defy a ban on
holding a ceremony at a former Khmer Rouge prison, as part of her
campaign on Darfur.
(AFP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 20, In Cambodia American
actress Mia Farrow was forced to cancel a ceremony in Phnom Penh
highlighting human rights abuses in Sudan after authorities barred her
access to the city's genocide museum.
(AFP, 1/20/08)
2008 Mar 30, Dith Pran (65), whose
experiences during the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s were adapted
into the award-winning movie "The Killing Fields," died in New Jersey.
(AFP, 3/30/08)
2008 Apr 16, In Cambodia an
attacker hurled a hand grenade into a crowd of people dancing at a
Buddhist temple to celebrate the traditional New Year, killing one
villager and wounding 25.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Jun 2, The US gave 31 used
trucks to Cambodia in its first direct supply of military hardware in
more than a decade, saying ties between the two countries were
improving.
(AFP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 20, Cambodian officials
said authorities working with Australian police had destroyed an
enormous stockpile of 33 tons of safrole-rich oil, a key ingredient
used in producing the synthetic drug Ecstasy. Cambodian authorities
have been working since 2002 to stem the distillation of the oil and
since then have succeeded in detecting and dismantling more than 50
clandestine laboratories capable of producing up to 15 gallons of oil a
day. Cambodian officials are trying to preserve the sassafras tree,
which is classified as a rare species that grows mainly in Cambodia's
Cardamom Mountains.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jul 1, Thailand’s deputy
prime minister said the Thai government has suspended its decision to
support Cambodia's bid to have an 11th century temple near the Thai
border declared a world landmark. In 1962, the International Court of
Justice awarded the Preah Vihear temple and the land it occupies to
Cambodia.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 7, A UNESCO official said
that an 11th century temple that sits on Cambodia's disputed border
zone with Thailand has been designated as a world heritage site.
Hindu-themed Preah Vihear reflects the beliefs of the kings who ruled
what was then the Angkorean empire.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 11, In Cambodia
journalist Khim Sam Bo (47) was shot twice and his 19-year-old son was
seriously wounded in the chest and died at the hospital. A gunman on a
motorcycle shot five times at the victims as they were leaving a sports
stadium on a motorcycle.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 16, Cambodia assembled
its troops near the Thai border in the second day of alleged incursions
by Thai soldiers amid tensions over disputed border land near a
historic temple.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 18, Thailand sent more
military reinforcements to a disputed part of the Cambodian border,
after the tense four-day standoff nearly erupted into gunfire during
the night.
(AFP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 21, Talks between
Cambodia and Thailand to resolve a military stand-off on their joint
border ended without a solution.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 22, Cambodia asked the UN
Security Council and its Southeast Asian neighbors to intervene in
resolving a military standoff over disputed border territory around an
ancient temple, stepping up its rhetoric against Thailand.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 27, Cambodian PM Hun
Sen's party claimed it won a sweeping victory in polls overshadowed by
a military standoff with Thailand. Tens of thousands of opposition
supporters were excluded from the elctoral register.
(AFP, 7/27/08)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.45)
2008 Aug 3, Cambodia said that
Thai soldiers are occupying a second temple site on their border in an
escalation of an ongoing armed standoff that nearly led to clashes
between the neighbors last month.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 6, Officials said
Cambodia's genocide tribunal has been hit by new corruption
allegations, compelling foreign donors to withhold more than $300,000
from the proceedings pending a review of the claims.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 12, Cambodia's genocide
tribunal formally indicted Kaing Guek Eav (aka Duch), a former prison
chief of the country's notorious Khmer Rouge, paving the way for a
historic trial.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 16, A monthlong standoff
between Cambodia and Thailand appeared to be ending as both sides
pulled back their troops from disputed territory around a temple near
their shared border.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, The United States
pledged 1.8 million dollars to Cambodia's cash-strapped Khmer Rouge
court, making its first donation to the UN-backed genocide tribunal
aimed at trying regime leaders.
(AFP, 9/16/08)
2008 Oct 3, Soldiers from both
Cambodia and Thailand were wounded in a brief clash along their
volatile border.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 7, The UN food agency
(WFP) said it is resuming free breakfasts for hundreds of thousands of
poor Cambodian schoolchildren after securing new funds for a program
suspended due to high food prices.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, The Asian Development
Bank announced $35 million in emergency food aid to ease the burden of
soaring food prices among some of Cambodia's poorest people.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 13, Cambodian PM Hun Sen
gave Thailand an ultimatum to withdraw troops from a disputed stretch
of jungle-clad border within 24 hours or his forces would turn the area
into a "death zone." Thai troops retreated the next day.
(Reuters, 10/13/08)(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 15, Cambodia and Thailand
exchanged fire on the border in a clash over disputed land which left
two soldiers dead and several wounded.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 16, Cambodia and Thailand
agreed to joint patrols of disputed border areas after deadly clashes,
but made little progress toward resolving their long-standing
territorial spat.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Nov 18, A Cambodian monk (17)
was arrested for raping a British woman (39) while taking her on a tour
of a cave in the northwestern Sampov mountains near his Buddhist
temple. The monk also allegedly stole $55 and a cell phone from the
woman.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Dec 10, The government of
Cambodia and the UN agreed in principle to strengthen measures to
prevent corruption among staff at the country's genocide tribunal.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2009 Jan 9, Cambodian judges
denied that they paid kickbacks to government officials to secure jobs
on a genocide tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge leaders.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Cambodia police in
Siem Reap arrested Jack Louis Sporich (75), an American from Chicago.
He was charged with sexually abusing four Cambodian boys.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 5, A nongovernment
organization said the corrupt elite of Cambodia, one of the world's
most impoverished nations, has laid the groundwork for siphoning off
vast profits from a coming boom in mining and oil exploitation.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Mar 31, In Cambodia Kaing
Guek Eav (aka Duch), the chief Khmer Rouge torturer, formally
apologized for the deaths of more than 14,000 people at S-21 prison,
the first Pol Pot cadre to accept blame for crimes committed by the
regime 30 years ago.
(Reuters, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 3, Cambodian and Thai
soldiers traded fire with machine guns and rocket launchers along a
disputed border, killing as many as four people in an escalation of
tensions in a long-standing feud over an 11th century temple.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 May 1, In Cambodia a court
official said Japan has donated $4.17 million to the UN-backed genocide
tribunal trying former Khmer Rouge leaders on war crimes charges, just
as the troubled court was running out of funding.
(AP, 5/1/09)
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Subject = Cambodia
End of file