Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 36,400 (2003); mobile cellular: 1.062 million (2005). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 17, (2003). Television broadcast
stations: 9 (2006). Internet hosts: 1,378 (2006).
Internet users: 41,000 (2005).
Transportation: Railways: total: 602 km
(2005). Highways: total: 38,257 km; paved: 2,406 km; unpaved:
35,851 km (2004). Waterways: 2,400 km (mainly on Mekong River)
(2004). Ports and harbors: Phnom Penh. Airports: 20
(2006 est.).
International disputes:
Southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to check the
spread of avian flu; Cambodia and Thailand dispute sections of
boundary with missing boundary markers and Thai encroachments into
Cambodian territory; maritime boundary with Vietnam is hampered by
unresolved dispute over offshore islands; Cambodia accuses Thailand of
obstructing access to Preah Vihear temple ruins awarded to Cambodia by
ICJ decision in 1962; in 2004 Cambodian-Laotian and Laotian-Vietnamese
boundary commissions reerect missing markers completing most of their
demarcations.
Situated on the Indochinese peninsula, Cambodia is bordered by Thailand
and Laos on the north and Vietnam on the east and south. The Gulf of
Thailand is off the western coast. The size of Missouri, the country
consists chiefly of a large alluvial plain ringed by mountains and on the
east is the Mekong River. The plain is centered around Lake Tonle Sap,
which is a natural storage basin of the Mekong.
Government
Multiparty liberal democracy under a constitutional monarchy.
History
The area that is present-day Cambodia came under Khmer rule about 600,
when the region was at the center of a vast empire that stretched over
most of Southeast Asia. Under the Khmers, who were Hindus, a magnificent
temple complex was constructed at Angkor. Buddhism was introduced in the
12th century during the rule of Jayavaram VII. However, the kingdom, then
known as Kambuja, fell into decline after Jayavaram's reign and was nearly
annihilated by Thai and Vietnamese invaders. Its power steadily diminished
until 1863, when France colonized the region, joining Cambodia, Laos, and
Vietnam into a single protectorate known as French Indochina.
The French quickly usurped all but ceremonial powers from the monarch,
Norodom. When he died in 1904, the French passed over his sons and handed
the throne to his brother, Sisowath. Sisowath and his son ruled until
1941, when Norodom Sihanouk was elevated to power. Sihanouk's coronation,
along with the Japanese occupation during the war, worked to reinforce a
sentiment among Cambodians that the region should be free from outside
control. After World War II, Cambodians sought independence, but France
was reluctant to part with its colony. Cambodia was granted independence
within the French Union in 1949. But the French-Indochinese War provided
an opportunity for Sihanouk to gain full military control of the country.
He abdicated in 1955 in favor of his parents, remaining head of the
government, and when his father died in 1960, Sihanouk became chief of
state without returning to the throne. In 1963, he sought a guarantee of
Cambodia's neutrality from all parties in the Vietnam War.
However, North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops had begun using eastern
Cambodia as a safe haven from which to launch attacks into South Vietnam,
making it increasingly difficult to stay out of the war. An indigenous
Communist guerrilla movement known as the Khmer Rouge also began to put
pressure on the government in Phnom Penh. On March 18, 1970, while
Sihanouk was abroad, anti-Vietnamese riots broke out and Sihanouk was
overthrown by Gen. Lon Nol. The Vietnam peace agreement of 1973 stipulated
withdrawal of foreign forces from Cambodia, but fighting continued between
Hanoi-backed insurgents and U.S.-supplied government troops.
Combat climaxed in April 1975 when the Lon Nol regime was overthrown by
Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge forces. The four years of nightmarish
Khmer Rouge rule led to the state-sponsored extermination of citizens by
its own government. Between 1 million and 2 million people were massacred
on the “killing fields” of Cambodia or worked to death through
forced labor. Pol Pot's radical vision of transforming the country into a
Marxist agrarian society led to the virtual extermination of the country's
professional and technical classes.
Pol Pot was ousted by Vietnamese forces on Jan. 8, 1979, and a new
pro-Hanoi government led by Heng Samrin was installed. Pol Pot and 35,000
Khmer Rouge fighters fled into the hills of western Cambodia, where they
were joined by forces loyal to the ousted Sihanouk in a guerrilla movement
aimed at overthrowing the Heng Samrin government. The Vietnamese plan
originally called for a withdrawal by early 1990 and a negotiated
political settlement. The talks became protracted, however, and a UN
agreement was not signed until 1992, when Sihanouk was appointed leader of
an interim Supreme National Council convened to run the country until
elections could be held in 1993.
Free elections in May 1993 saw the defeat of Heng Samrin's successor,
Hun Sen, who refused to accept the outcome of the vote. In early July, Hun
Sen took advantage of the country's political turmoil to depose Prince
Norodom Ranariddh. the country's only popularly elected leader. Hun Sen
later launched a brutal purge, executing more than 40 political opponents.
Shortly after the July coup, the Khmer Rouge organized a show trial of
their notorious leader, Pol Pot, who had not been seen by the West in more
than two decades. He was sentenced to house arrest for his crimes against
humanity. He died on April 15, 1998. In the July 1998 election, Hun Sen
defeated opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Prince Ranariddh, but the
opposition parties accused him of voter fraud. Cambodia was able to regain
its UN seat, lost nearly a year earlier as a result of Hun Sen's coup.
Elections in July 2003 resulted in a stalemate—none of the
parties won the two-thirds majority required to govern alone. Almost a
year later, in June 2004, Ranariddh and Hun Sen agreed in June 2004 to
form a coalition, with Hun Sen remaining prime minister. In August,
Cambodia's parliament ratified the country's entry into the World Trade
Organization.
In March 2003 the UN and Cambodia announced that after five years they
had finally agreed on a special tribunal to try senior Khmer Rouge
officials on charges of genocide. Among those who were expected to stand
trial were Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, who ran the notorious Tuol Sleng
prison, and Ta Mok, alias The Butcher, who died in 2006 before his trial
took place. In April 2005, the UN agreed to a funding arrangement for the
tribunal.
King Norodom Sihanouk announced in Oct. 2004 that he had abdicated and
selected his son, Prince Norodom Sihamoni, to succeed him. Prince
Sihamoni, a ballet dancer and choreographer, lived in France and had kept
a distance from Cambodian politics.
In Feb. 2005, opposition leader Sam Rainsy was stripped of
parliamentary immunity. He fled to France and was convicted in December in
absentia of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen. He received a royal pardon in
2006. Hun Sen has used defamation laws to crack down on political
opponents and human rights groups, having at least seven activists and
critics arrested in 2005 and 2006. Facing criticism from home and abroad,
Hun Sen withdrew charges against four of the activists.
Prosecutors trying senior Khmer Rouge officials made their first indictment in July 2007, charging Kaing Guek Eav with crimes against humanity. In November, he sought bail on charges against humanity, becoming the first Khmer Rouge defendant to appear in court. The tribunal denied his plea in March 2008. In September 2007, Nuon Chea, who was second-in-command to Pol Pot, was arrested and charged with war crimes.
