By Matt Reed
The cambodia daily

A soldier tries to stop traffic from crossing the National Route 2 bridge by shooting periodically into the air while a fire rages through a Muslim fishing village on the Tonle Sap river in 1994. More than 600 houses were destroyed.

The revival of the Khmer Rouge as a nationwide military threat marked 1994—the first full year of the so-called two-headed government run by First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Second Prime Minister Hun Sen.

While the government—along with the country—struggled to get on its feet in the months after the withdrawal of Untac, Khmer Rouge attacks and abductions throughout the country and a feisty defense of their strongholds in Pailin and Anlong Veng proved that peace and reunification had yet to be achieved.

The year began with fighting between Khmer Rouge and government soldiers near Poipet, Anlong Veng and in Preah Vihear province. A major government offensive in February captured the large rebel base at Anlong Veng on Feb 5.

The government had planned to move on Pailin next, but rebel forces surrounded Anlong Veng in late February and forced government troops to retreat in early March.

Nonetheless, the government went ahead with its campaign against Pailin and captured it in mid-March. General Pol Saroeun, the RCAF deputy chief of general staff, said the victory showed the weakened state of the Khmer Rouge.

“If the Khmer Rouge were still strong, we could not have taken Pailin,” he said.

But a force of 3,000 rebels stormed back into Pailin in mid-April, chasing some 7,000 government troops.

Hun Sen angrily accused the Thai government of helping the Khmer Rouge take back the gem-rich area—an accusation that reflected the general feeling of other Cambodian officials, including Foreign Minister Prince Norodom Sirivudh. Thai officials repeatedly denied the accusations.

More than 60,000 Cambodian villagers in the northwest left their homes during fighting in May, which saw the Khmer Rouge advance to within 20 km of Battambang.

A peace proposal put forth early in the year by King Norodom Sihanouk and two roundtable talks sponsored by the King—one in Pyongyang in May and one in Phnom Penh in June—proved unsuccessful.

“Even with 100 roundtables there will be no peace,” a distraught King told journalists on May 12. “I don’t understand why Khmers want to destroy their own country, want to destroy their own peace.”

Prince Ranariddh returned from the Pyongyang talks saying that continued war was the only solution to the Khmer Rouge problem, while Hun Sen said that the promise of economic and social development was the “bomb” that had the greatest ability to destroy the Khmer Rouge.

In early July, the National Assembly unanimously voted to outlaw the Khmer Rouge. Just weeks later, on July 26, Khmer Rouge rebels attacked a train in Kampot province.

The raid immediately resulted in nine deaths and sparked a months-long hostage crisis that received international attention and eventually resulted in the deaths of three Western backpackers and 13 Cambodians.

Negotiations and, later, heavy fighting between government and Khmer Rouge forces in Kampot, continued through September.

In October, members of the rebel group that had carried out the train attack—led by Chhouk Rin—defected to the government.
And in early November, Hun Sen announced that the three Western hostages—Briton Mark Slater, Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet and Australian David Wilson—were dead and had been killed by their Khmer Rouge captors in September.

The news sparked outrage from officials in London, Paris and Canberra. The French and British embassies in Phnom Penh demanded justice. The Australian government announced approval of military aid for RCAF.

The onset of the dry season in November brought more fighting between the Khmer Rouge and the government in the northwest and in Preah Vihear and Kompong Speu provinces.

Several rebel commanders and their troops in Siem Reap province defected to the government in November and December. Prince Ranariddh called the defections a “major victory” for the government.

In other news, international donors pledged $773 million in aid to Cambodia at a March conference in Tokyo.

Former CPP parliamentarians Prince Norodom Chakrapong and Sin Song allegedly tried to take control of the government July 2. But the several hundred troops they had enlisted were turned back by government soldiers outside of Phnom Penh.

Prince Chakrapong denied involvement in a coup d’etat attempt and fled to exile in France. Sin Song was arrested in Thailand and later was allowed to go to Malaysia.

In October, the Assembly approved a major Cabinet reshuffle, which included the ouster of outspoken Finance Minister Sam Rainsy. Prince Norodom Sirivudh, a close ally of Sam Rainsy, resigned his position as foreign minister shortly thereafter.

AIDS began to emerge as a major problem in Cambodia.
The Ministry of Health in February estimated that as many as 4,000 Cambodians had become infected with HIV.

The National Theater Building, also known as the Bassac Theater, was destroyed by fire in February. The theater was built in 1966 and was undergoing a $5 million renovation at the time of the blaze.

Minister of State Vann Molyvann, the theater’s architect, watched the building burn and refused to speak to journalists.

A police officer at the scene said tears would flow from the eyes of King Sihanouk when he saw the ruins. “This is a big shock for me because this is a symbol of the nation,” the officer said.

The withdrawal of thousands of UN officials at the end of Untac in late 1993 sparked what one UN volunteer called a “looting fest” of leftover UN equipment. More than 200 UN vehicles were lost or stolen.

Warehouses full of batteries, fire extinguishers, fans, gas pumps and other portable items were systematically plucked by everyone, predominantly the Cambodian security forces, said one UN volunteer.

“Items gone missing could be found in the markets the next day.... But Untac doesn’t want any of the bad stories about its mission here to get out—I don’t blame them,” the volunteer said.

Nguon Noun, editor of the biweekly newspaper Damnang Peel Pruk (The Morning News) was arrested in April after refusing to respond to two court summonses. He had accused Svay Rieng provincial Governor Hok Lundy of participating in car robberies against Untac and NGOs, along with former transportation minister Ros Chhun. Hok Lundy denied the charges.

King Sihanouk issued a statement saying the editor should be released immediately and allowed to continue his journalistic duties.
The incident occurred as debate over a draft press law intensified. On several occasions in 1994, the King urged the government to draft a law that would not place limits on the freedom of the press.

But in May, authorities closed the offices of Sakal (Universe) newspaper after it allegedly printed an article that insulted the King. And the Foreign Ministry and Information Ministry looked into whether a book on the King—Milton Osborne’s “Sihanouk: Prince of Darkness, Prince of Light”—should be banned.

Both incidents took place even though the King had requested that “no sanction at all be taken against such and such a periodical or journalist guilty of criticizing me.”

Another closure of a newspaper in June—of the Pruom Bayon newspaper—was ordered by the Information Ministry because the paper’s articles were allegedly sympathetic to the Khmer Rouge.

That same month, the editor of the Antarakum (Intervention News) newspaper, Thou Hammangkul, was savagely beaten and killed. And in September, Nong Chon, the editor of Samleng Yuvachon Khmer (Voice of Khmer Youth) was gunned down near Wat Phnom.