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Washington Post
4 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Cambodia says it will seek World Court ruling on border disputes with Thailand that led to clash
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia's government says it plans to seek a ruling from the U.N.'s International Court of Justice over border disputes with neighboring Thailand, one of which triggered a fatal military clash last week. Cambodia's National Assembly, where Prime Minister Hun Manet's ruling Cambodian People's Party holds all but a handful of seats, voted on Monday to support the government's decision. A 1962 ruling by the same court , awarding to Cambodia the disputed territory on which a historic temple is located, rankled Thailand and to this day remains a major irritant in bilateral relations. Thai officials did not immediately respond to Cambodia's intention to seek a ruling from the court, which is located in The Hague in the Netherlands and also known as the World Court. Thailand's Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said Sunday that Thailand's actions at the border were proportionate and in line with domestic and international law. He said the situation at the border remained calm, and that both sides agreed to find solutions to ease the tension as soon as possible. The brief May 28 clash near Morokot village, in Cambodia's northwestern province of Preah Vihear, in which one Cambodian soldier was killed, began when Cambodian troops were conducting a routine patrol along the border when the Thai side opened fire, the Cambodian side says. The Thai army says that Cambodian soldiers entered a disputed patch of land and opened fire when Thai soldiers approached them to negotiate. Hun Manet in social media posts on Sunday declared that his government will ask the court to rule on the demarcation of several disputed areas, including where the centuries-old Hindu-style Ta Moan Thom, Ta Moan Toch and Ta Kro Bei temples are located. In February, Cambodian troops and their family members entered the Ta Moan Thom temple in disputed territory and sang the Cambodian national anthem, leading to a brief argument with Thai forces. After last week's flare-up, both sides quickly called for calm and talks to ease their differences, while reserving the right to use military action to safeguard their sovereignty. On Thursday, the two countries' army commanders met to discuss how to avoid more clashes On Monday, Hun Manet called for the two countries to have their Joint Border Commission continue the work of border demarcation, as well as having the World Court take up the issue. Hun Manet's announced intention to appeal to the World Court may touch a raw nerve in Thailand, because the 1962 ruling awarding the major Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia is a touchstone issue for Thai nationalists. and wielded in domestic politics. Last year, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinatwatra's government was attacked on nationalist grounds for proposing to resume talks with Cambodia on demarcation of maritime territory believed to hold profitable hydrocarbon resources. In 2008, there were several deadly clashes between Cambodia and Thai forces at the Preah Vihear promontory, an area on which sits a 1,000-year-old temple that was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site that same year. In 2013, the World Court reaffirmed its 1962 ruling . Hun Manet, speaking Monday to Cambodia lawmakers, said his government would take the cases of the other disputed areas to the World Court to determine ownership even if Thailand did not join in the appeal, in order 'to end this problem and extinguish it once and for all so that there is no further confusion.' 'In particular, let's not fall for the incitement of a handful of extremist groups in Cambodia and Thailand, and let's not fall into the problem of confrontation by armed forces of the two countries,' he said. ——- Associated Press writer Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok contributed to this report.
The Independent
4 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Cambodia says it will seek World Court ruling on border disputes with Thailand that led to clash
Cambodia's government says it plans to seek a ruling from the U.N.'s International Court of Justice over border disputes with neighboring Thailand, one of which triggered a fatal military clash last week. Cambodia's National Assembly, where Prime Minister Hun Manet's ruling Cambodian People's Party holds all but a handful of seats, voted on Monday to support the government's decision. A 1962 ruling by the same court, awarding to Cambodia the disputed territory on which a historic temple is located, rankled Thailand and to this day remains a major irritant in bilateral relations. Thai officials did not immediately respond to Cambodia's intention to seek a ruling from the court, which is located in The Hague in the Netherlands and also known as the World Court. Thailand's Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said Sunday that Thailand's actions at the border were proportionate and in line with domestic and international law. He said the situation at the border remained calm, and that both sides agreed to find solutions to ease the tension as soon as possible. The brief May 28 clash near Morokot village, in Cambodia's northwestern province of Preah Vihear, in which one Cambodian soldier was killed, began when Cambodian troops were conducting a routine patrol along the border when the Thai side opened fire, the Cambodian side says. The Thai army says that Cambodian soldiers entered a disputed patch of land and opened fire when Thai soldiers approached them to negotiate. Hun Manet in social media posts on Sunday declared that his government will ask the court to rule on the demarcation of several disputed areas, including where the centuries-old Hindu-style Ta Moan Thom, Ta Moan Toch and Ta Kro Bei temples are located. In February, Cambodian troops and their family members entered the Ta Moan Thom temple in disputed territory and sang the Cambodian national anthem, leading to a brief argument with Thai forces. After last week's flare-up, both sides quickly called for calm and talks to ease their differences, while reserving the right to use military action to safeguard their sovereignty. On Thursday, the two countries' army commanders met to discuss how to avoid more clashes On Monday, Hun Manet called for the two countries to have their Joint Border Commission continue the work of border demarcation, as well as having the World Court take up the issue. Hun Manet's announced intention to appeal to the World Court may touch a raw nerve in Thailand, because the 1962 ruling awarding the major Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia is a touchstone issue for Thai nationalists. and wielded in domestic politics. Last year, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinatwatra's government was attacked on nationalist grounds for proposing to resume talks with Cambodia on demarcation of maritime territory believed to hold profitable hydrocarbon resources. In 2008, there were several deadly clashes between Cambodia and Thai forces at the Preah Vihear promontory, an area on which sits a 1,000-year-old temple that was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site that same year. In 2013, the World Court reaffirmed its 1962 ruling. Hun Manet, speaking Monday to Cambodia lawmakers, said his government would take the cases of the other disputed areas to the World Court to determine ownership even if Thailand did not join in the appeal, in order 'to end this problem and extinguish it once and for all so that there is no further confusion.' 'In particular, let's not fall for the incitement of a handful of extremist groups in Cambodia and Thailand, and let's not fall into the problem of confrontation by armed forces of the two countries," he said.
Al Jazeera
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Fifty years after fall of Phnom Penh, history weighs on Cambodian politics
Fifty years after the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge rebel army, the events of April 17, 1975 continue to cast a long shadow over Cambodia and its political system. Emerging from the bloodshed and chaos of the spreading war in neighbouring Vietnam, Pol Pot's radical peasant movement rose up and defeated the United States-backed regime of General Lon Nol. The war culminated five decades ago on Thursday, with Pol Pot's forces sweeping into Cambodia's capital and ordering the city's more than two million people into the countryside with little more than the belongings they could carry. With Cambodia's urban centres abandoned, the Khmer Rouge embarked on rebuilding the country from 'Year Zero', transforming it into an agrarian, classless society. In less than four years under Pol Pot's rule, between 1.5 and three million people were dead. They would also almost wipe out Cambodia's rich cultural history and religion. Many Cambodians were brutally killed in the Khmer Rouge's 'killing fields', but far more died of starvation, disease and exhaustion labouring on collective farms to build the Communist regime's rural utopia. In late December 1978, Vietnam invaded alongside Cambodian defectors, toppling the Khmer Rouge from power on January 7, 1979. It is from this point onwards that popular knowledge of Cambodia's contemporary tragic history typically ends, picking up in the mid-2000s with the start of the United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, where former regime leaders were put on trial. For many Cambodians, however, rather than being relegated to history books, the 1975 fall of Phnom Penh and the toppling of the Khmer Rouge in 1979 remain alive and well, embedded in the Cambodian political system. That tumultuous Khmer Rouge period is still used to justify the long-running rule of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) under varying forms since 1979, and the personal rule of CPP leader Hun Sen and his family since 1985, according to analysts. It was the now ageing senior leadership of the CPP who joined with Vietnamese forces to oust Pol Pot in 1979. While memories of those times are fading, the CPP's grip on power is as firm as ever in the decades since the late 1970s. The ruling CPP see 'themselves as the saviour and the guardian of the country', said Aun Chhengpor, a policy researcher at the Future Forum think tank in Phnom Penh. 'It explains the making of a political system as it is today,' he said, noting that the CPP has long done what it required to 'ensure that they are still there at the helm … at any cost'. Most Cambodians have now accepted a system where peace and stability matter above all else. 'There seems to be an unwritten social contract between the ruling establishment and the population that, as long as the CPP provides relative peace and a stable economy, the population will leave governance and politics to the CPP,' Aun Chhengpor said. 'The bigger picture is how the CPP perceives itself and its historic role in modern Cambodia. It's not that different from how the palace-military establishment in Thailand or the Communist Party in Vietnam see their roles in their respective countries,' he said. The CPP headed a Vietnamese-backed regime for a decade, from 1979 to 1989, bringing relative order back to Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge, even as fighting persisted in many parts of the country as Pol Pot's fighters tried to reassert control. With support dwindling from the Soviet Union in the last days of the Cold War and an economically and militarily exhausted Vietnam withdrawing from Cambodia, Hun Sen, by then the leader of the country, agreed to hold elections as part of a settlement to end his country's civil war. From 1991 to 1993, Cambodia was administered by the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). The Cambodian monarchy was formally re-established, and elections were held for the first time in decades in 1993. The last Khmer Rouge soldiers surrendered in 1999, symbolically closing a chapter on one of the 20th century's bloodiest conflicts. Despite a bumpy road forward, there were initial hopes for Cambodian democracy. The royalist National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia Party – better known by its acronym FUNCINPEC – won the UN-administered elections in 1993. Faced with defeat, the CPP refused to cede power. The late King Norodom Sihanouk stepped in to broker an agreement between both sides that preserved the hard-won peace and made the election a relative success. The international community breathed a sigh of relief as the UNTAC mission in Cambodia had been the largest and costliest at that time for the world body, and UN member states were desperate to declare their investment in nation rebuilding a success. Ruling jointly under a power-sharing agreement with CPP and FUNCINPEC co-prime ministers, the unsteady alliance of former enemies held for four years until ending in a swift and bloody coup by Hun Sen in 1997. Mu Sochua, an exiled opposition leader who now heads the nonprofit Khmer Movement for Democracy, told Al Jazeera that the CPP's resistance to a democratic transfer of power in 1993 continues to reverberate throughout Cambodia today. 'The failure of the transfer of power in 1993 and the deal the King made at the time … was a bad deal. And the UN went along because the UN wanted to close shop,' she told Al Jazeera from the US, where she lives in exile after being forced to flee the CPP's intensifying authoritarianism at home. 'The transitional period, the transfer of power … which was the will of the people, never happened,' Mu Sochua said. Following the coup in 1997, the CPP did not come close to losing power again until 2013, when they were challenged by the widely popular Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP). By the time of the next general election in 2018, the CNRP was banned from politics by the country's less-than-independent courts, and many of the opposition leaders were forced to flee the country or ended up in prison on politically motivated charges. Unhindered by a viable political challenger, Hun Sen's CPP went on to win all seats in the 2018 national election, and all but five of the 125 parliamentary seats contested during the last general election in 2023. The CPP has also firmly aligned with China, and the country's once vibrant free press has been shut down, and civil society organisations cowed into silence. After notching up 38 years in power, Hun Sen stepped aside as prime minister in 2023 to make way for his son Hun Manet – a sign that the CPP-led political machine has eyes on dynastic, multi-generational rule. But new challenges have emerged in Cambodia's post-war decades of relative prosperity, huge inequality and de facto one-party rule. Cambodia's booming microcredit industry was intended to help lift Cambodians out of poverty, but the industry has instead burdened families with high levels of personal debt. One estimate put the figure at more than $16bn in a country with a population of just 17.4 million and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $42bn in 2023, according to World Bank estimates. Aun Chhengpor told Al Jazeera there are signs the government is taking note of these emerging issues and demographic changes. Hun Manet's cabinet is shifting towards 'performance-based legitimacy' because they lack the 'political capital' once bestowed by the public on those who liberated the country from the Khmer Rouge. 'The proportion of the population that remembers the Khmer Rouge, or that has usable memories of that period, is shrinking year by year,' said Sebastian Strangio, author of Hun Sen's Cambodia. 'I don't think [the CPP 's legacy] is sufficient for the majority of the population born since the end of the Cold War,' Strangio told Al Jazeera. Now, there even appears to be room for a limited amount of popular opposition, analyst Aun Chhengpor said. In January, Cambodian farmers blockaded a main highway to protest against the low prices of their goods, suggesting there may be 'some space' in the political system for localized dissent on community-based issues, he said. '[It] will be an uphill struggle for the fractured political opposition to thrive – not to mention to organise among themselves and, let alone, have the hope of winning a general election,' Aun Chhengpor said. 'However, there are indications that the CPP still somehow believes in the multiparty system and limited democracy in the way that they can have a say on when and how much democracy,' he added. Speaking in exile from the US, Mu Sochua had a dimmer view of Cambodia's situation. The same month as the farmer protests in Cambodia, a former Cambodian opposition member of parliament was shot dead in broad daylight on a street in Thailand's capital, Bangkok. The brazen assassination of Lim Kimya, 74, a dual Cambodian-French citizen, recalled memories of the chaotic political violence of the 1990s and early 2000s in Cambodia. Peace and stability, Mu Sochua said, exist only on the surface in Cambodia, where still waters run deep. 'If politics and the space for people to engage in politics is non-existent, what dominates then is not peace,' she said. 'It's still the feeling of war, of insecurity, of the lack of freedom,' she told Al Jazeera. 'After the war, 50 years later, at least there is no bloodshed, but that alone does not mean there is peace.'
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cambodia's haunted present: 50 years after Khmer Rouge's rise, murderous legacy looms large
On April 17, 1975, tanks rolled into the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, to cheering crowds who believed that the country's long civil war might finally be over. But what followed was one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. During a brutal four-year rule, the communist-nationalist ideologues of the Khmer Rouge killed between 1.6 million and 3 million people through executions, forced labor and starvation. It represented a quarter of the country's population at the time. Fifty years on, the Khmer Rouge's legacy continues to shape Cambodia – politically, socially, economically and emotionally. It's etched into every Cambodian's bones – including mine. I write this not just as an academic or observer but as a survivor. My father died under the Khmer Rouge, succumbing to dysentery and malnutrition after being forced to work in a labor camp. My mother pretended to be Vietnamese to save our family. She escaped Cambodia with five children in 1976, crossing through Vietnam before reaching France in 1978 and finally the United States in 1985. We were among the lucky ones. Today, Cambodia is physically unrecognizable from the bombed-out fields and empty cities of the 1970s. Phnom Penh gleams with high-rises and luxury malls. And yet beneath the glitter, the past endures – often in silence, sometimes in cynical exploitation. The Khmer Rouge came to power on a wave of disillusionment, corruption, civil war and rural resentment. Years of American bombing, the 1970 U.S.-backed coup that ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk, and the subsequent deeply unpopular U.S.-aligned military regime set the stage for the Khmer Rouge's rise. Many Cambodians, particularly in the countryside, welcomed the Khmer Rouge, with its mix of hard-line communist ideology and extreme Cambodian nationalism, as liberators who promised to restore order and dignity. But for the next four years, the Khmer Rouge, under feared leader Pol Pot, brought terror to the nation through ideological purges, forced labor, racial genocide of minority groups and policies that brought widespread famine. The regime fell in 1979, when Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia and toppled the Khmer Rouge leadership, installing a new, pro-Hanoi government. But its shadows remain. The now ruling Cambodian People's Party, in power for over four decades, has justified its grip on the country through the trauma of the genocide. 'Peace and stability' have become mantras used to squash dissent. Every sham election becomes a referendum not just on policy but on avoiding a return to war. Critics of Cambodia's rulers are framed as threats to peace and unity. Opposition parties have been dissolved, activists jailed, media muzzled. This political culture of fear draws directly from the Khmer Rouge playbook – minus the overt violence. The trauma inflicted by that regime taught people to distrust one another, to keep quiet, to survive by keeping their heads down. That impulse still shapes public life. The Khmer Rouge tribunal – officially the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia – was supposed to bring closure. It has brought some. But it took decades to begin, cost over US$300 million and convicted only three senior Khmer Rouge leaders over the 1975–79 genocide. Many mid- and lower-level perpetrators walk free, some are still in government positions, some neighbors to survivors. For a nation where the majority of the population was born after 1979, there remains a glaring gap in education and public reckoning over the Khmer Rouge's atrocities. Cambodia's school curriculum still struggles to teach this period adequately. For many young people, it's something their parents don't talk about and the state prefers to frame selectively. In raw numbers, Cambodia's economic progress over the past two decades has been impressive. GDP growth averaged around 7% annually before the COVID-19 pandemic. Cities have expanded, and investment – especially from China – has flooded in. But much of this growth is precarious. Cambodia's economy remains dependent on garment exports, tourism and construction. This leaves it vulnerable to external shocks, such as the Trump administration's imposition of 49% tariffs on Cambodian goods, now temporarily paused. Instead of building a resilient, diversified economy, Cambodia has relied on relationships – with China for investment, with the U.S. for markets – without investing enough in its own human capital. That, too, I believe, is a legacy of the Khmer Rouge, which destroyed the country's intellectual and professional classes. The psychological toll of genocide doesn't disappear with time. Survivors carry the scars in their bodies and minds. But so do their children and grandchildren. Studies in postgenocide Cambodia have shown elevated rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression among survivors and their descendants, resulting in intergenerational trauma. There are not nearly enough mental health services in the country. Trauma is often dealt with privately, through silence or resilience rather than therapy. Buddhism, the country's dominant religion, offers rituals for healing, reincarnation and forgiveness. But this isn't a substitute for systemic mental health infrastructure. Worse, in recent years, even the memory of the genocide has been politicized. Some leaders use it as a tool to silence dissent. Others co-opt it for nationalist narratives. There's little room for honest, critical reflection. Some independent initiatives, such as intergenerational dialogue programs and digital archives, have tried to fill the gap but face limited support. This is, I believe, a second tragedy. A country cannot truly move forward if it cannot speak freely about its past. April 17 is not a national holiday in Cambodia. There are no official commemorations. The government doesn't encourage remembrance of the day Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge. But to my mind, it should. Not to reopen wounds, but to remind Cambodians why justice, democracy and dignity matter. The danger isn't that Cambodia will return to the days of the Khmer Rouge. The danger is that it becomes a place where history is manipulated, where authoritarianism is justified as stability and where development is allowed to paper over injustice. As the world marks the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge's rise, Cambodia must, I believe, reckon with this uncomfortable truth: The regime may be long gone, but its legacy lives on in the institutions, behaviors and fears that continue to shape Cambodia today. When I look back, I think of my father – whom I never knew. I think of my mother, who risked everything to save us. And I think of the millions of Cambodians who live with memories they cannot forget, and the young Cambodians who deserve to know the full truth. My life has been shaped by what happened on April 17, 1975. But that story isn't mine alone. It belongs to Cambodia – and it's still being written. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Sophal Ear, Arizona State University Read more: Henry Kissinger's bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge Cambodia PM Hun Sen will shut down opposition on election day – even if he can no longer threaten voters on Facebook Bearing witness to Cambodia's horror, 20 years after Pol Pot's death Sophal Ear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Hill
05-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Cambodia's leader presides at ceremony for upgrade of naval base with help from China
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Saturday presided over the opening of an expansion of his country's main naval base, which analysts and the U.S. government suspect will be used as a strategic outpost by China. Construction of a new pier to accommodate much larger ships, a dry dock for repairs and other features was completed in recent weeks at the Ream Naval Base in southern Cambodia, on the Gulf of Thailand. The project has drawn great attention mainly because Washington — noting that China is Cambodia's closest ally and main source of investment and aid — believes that Beijing has been secretly granted special and exclusive privileges to use the base, a claim repeatedly denied by Cambodian officials. Hun Manet at the inauguration noted that the ceremony was taking place two weeks ahead of a visit to Cambodia by Chinese President Xi Jinping. He praised Xi's government for help in building the expansion and other projects, describing bilateral relations as good and strong. At the same time, he declared that the Ream base expansion was not hidden from other countries, and said warships from all friendly countries can visit the base and hold joint military exercises, except for very big warships that cannot be physically accommodated. 'I would like to take this opportunity to make it clear that the Cambodian government led by the Cambodian People's Party has no intention, in the past or today or in the future, of violating its Constitution by allowing any country's troops to establish exclusive bases on Cambodian territory,' he said. China's Defense Ministry, in a statement issued in Beijing, said the China-Cambodia Ream Naval Base Joint Support and Training Center — part of the facility that was officially opened Saturday — will support a wide range of joint operations. Areas of cooperation will include counterterrorism, disaster prevention and relief, humanitarian assistance and joint training, the ministry said in a news release. 'Necessary personnel from both countries will be stationed at the site to ensure smooth operation of the center. The center's establishment and operation are based on mutual respect and equal consultation between China and Cambodia,' the statement said. Cao Qingfeng, a visiting senior member of China's Central Military Commission, said in a speech that the base 'will surely become a new starting point to continuously promote the relationship between the two armies and consolidate the development.' A contingent of at least 100 Chinese sailors who have been on temporary duty at the base also took part, marching and singing. The senior U.S. diplomat in Cambodia, Chargé d'Affaires Bridgette Walker, attended the ceremony but declined to comment on it. The base is slated to host a Japanese vessel in the near future as the first foreign warship to make a port call at the base. The Cambodian government described giving priority to Japanese warships as a tribute to the high level of openness in cooperation, relations, and mutual trust. The announcement of Japan's planned port call showed that Cambodia is likely trying to project that it's open to countries other than China, said Euan Graham, a senior defense analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. 'This would appear to be a conscious demonstration by Cambodia' that Ream is not exclusively for China's military, he said. Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force has confirmed Cambodia's invitation to Japanese ships, but refused to give any specifics, citing regular operational security regulations. Fears over China's activity at the Ream base arose in 2019 when The Wall Street Journal reported that an early draft of an agreement seen by U.S. officials would allow China 30-year use of the base, where it would be able to post military personnel, store weapons and berth warships. China and Cambodia broke ground on the port project in 2022, in an expression of the close political, military and economic ties between the two authoritarian states. That involved demolishing naval structures previously built at the base by the U.S., with little explanation. In September, Cambodia's Defense Ministry said that China would give Cambodia's navy two warships of the type docked there while the expansion project was still underway. ——
