Language/Central-khmer/Culture/Cambodia-Timeline

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Historical Timeline for Cambodia - A chronology of key events
Cambodia-Timeline-PolyglotClub.png

1953[edit | edit source]

  • November 1953: Cambodia, constitutional monarchy, French protectorate since July 1863, obtains its independence and becomes a sovereign state. It is the culmination of the "independence crusade" led by King Norodom Sihanouk.

1960[edit | edit source]

  • September 1960: Pol Pot creates the Khmer Communist Party.

1970[edit | edit source]

  • March 18, 1970: a coup d'état, organized by General Lon Nol, dismisses Norodom Sihanouk, head of state, who goes into exile in Beijing. The monarchy is abolished. The Republic will be proclaimed on October 9.

1975[edit | edit source]

  • April 17, 1975: the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot and Khieu Samphan, enter Phnom Penh and take power. They establish the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea and unleash a genocide that will claim nearly 2 million victims, out of a total population of 8 million.

1979[edit | edit source]

  • January 7, 1979: the Vietnamese take control of the country and install the People's Republic of Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge take the maquis.

1982[edit | edit source]

  • June 22, 1982: formation of a coalition government in exile, anti-Vietnamese. Chaired by Norodom Sihanouk in Beijing, and recognized by the UN, it brings together the Sihanoukists, the Republicans and the Khmer Rouge.

1985[edit | edit source]

  • January 1985: Hun Sen is appointed Prime Minister in Phnom Penh.

1989[edit | edit source]

  • October 1989: end of the official withdrawal of the Vietnamese army.

1991[edit | edit source]

  • October 23, 1991: the Paris agreements, signed by the Cambodians, the UN, and 18 guarantor countries, place the country under UN supervision until the organization of free elections.

1993[edit | edit source]

  • May 23, 1993: legislative elections controlled by the UN give a relative majority of 47% to the royalist Funcinpec, to the detriment of the Communist Cambodian People's Party. A coalition government, bringing together the two parties, was formed on June 16. It is headed by two Prime Ministers: Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen. The Monarchy is restored on September 24, Norodom Sihanouk returns to the throne.

1994[edit | edit source]

  • July 7, 1994: a vote in the National Assembly puts the Khmer Rouge "outlaw".

1996[edit | edit source]

  • August 8, 1996: A Khmer Rouge leader, Ieng Sary, joins the Phnom Penh regime, along with several thousand of his supporters.

1997[edit | edit source]

  • June 1997: refugee in the jungle, Pol Pot, is removed from the leadership of the Khmer Rouge by a dissident faction. He is tried and sentenced to life imprisonment by his former lieutenants.
  • July 1997: A coup by Hun Sen ousts Norodom Ranariddh from power.

1998[edit | edit source]

  • April 15: Pol Pot dies of a heart attack.
  • July 26: new legislative elections take place. Hun Sen retains power.
  • December 26: Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea join the government of Hun Sen.

1999[edit | edit source]

  • March 6: arrest of the former Khmer Rouge military leader, Chhit Cheun, alias Ta Mok.
  • April 28: Khmer Rouge Kaing Khek Iev, better known as Deuch, former director of the Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh, is found in western Cambodia. Legal proceedings will be initiated against him on May 14.
  • April 30: Cambodia is admitted to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which now brings together the 10 countries of the region.
  • September: Ta Mok and Deuch are charged with genocide on September 7 and 9, respectively.

2000[edit | edit source]

  • April 29: after months of negotiations, the Cambodian government and the UN agree on the establishment of a tribunal to try the former Khmer Rouge leaders.
  • July 18: Indicted for his role in the hostage-taking and murder of three Westerners in 1994, Chhouk Rin, a former Khmer Rouge joined the government, is acquitted.
  • November 23: a hand-up led by around 70 men against symbols of power in Phnom Penh and claimed by the "Cambodian Fighters for Freedom" (CFF), an ultra-nationalist group, kills 8. The CFF claim to be the heirs of the nationalist right-wing Khmers Serei (Khmers Libres) movement of the 1950s and 1960s, an anti-Sihanoukist group supported by the CIA, Thailand and the South Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War.
  • December 1: Prime Minister Hun Sen declares that he is opposed to prosecution of one of the main polpotist leaders, Ieng Sary, who received a royal pardon in 1996.

2001[edit | edit source]

  • January 2: the National Assembly adopts a bill establishing a special mixed tribunal made up of Cambodian magistrates, but also of other nationalities, to judge the former Khmer Rouge.
  • June 22: the 5 leaders of the failed coup of November 2000 are sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • August 10: Norodom Sihanouk promulgates the law establishing a special Cambodian court of "international character" to try former Khmer Rouge leaders.

2002[edit | edit source]

  • January 15: in a report on the electoral process relating to the municipal poll of February 3, the UN indicates that 15 candidates or political activists were assassinatedor died under suspicious conditions.
  • February 8: The UN announces its withdrawal from preparations for an international trial of the Khmer Rouge. This decision by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, for whom "the independence and objectivity of such a tribunal could not be guaranteed", puts an end to four and a half years of laborious negotiations.
  • November 4-5: The 8th ASEAN summit is held in Phnom Penh. This is the first major international meeting organized by Cambodia.
  • December 18: the United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the resumption of negotiations for the establishment of an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge.
  • December 23: a former Khmer Rouge commander, Sam Bith, tried in 1994 for the murder of three Western tourists, is sentenced to life imprisonment.

2003[edit | edit source]

  • January: a hundred young demonstrators ransack the embassy and a dozen Thai companies in Phnom Penh, to protest against anti-Cambodian remarks attributed to a Thai actress. According to many observers, this outbreak of violence was encouraged for political ends.
  • June 6: signing of an agreement between the UN and the Cambodian government on the trial of the Red Kmers.
  • August 30: The National Elections Committee of Cambodia (CNE) ratifies the victory of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (PPC) in the legislative elections of July 27, with 73 seats out of 123.

2004[edit | edit source]

  • January 22: One of Cambodia's best-known union leaders, Chea Vichea, is shot dead in broad daylight in Phnom Penh.
  • June 26: Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and Prince Norodom Ranariddh's Funcinpec reach an agreement on the formation of a government, ending a political crisis lasting nearly a year.
  • July 15: the National Assembly re-elects the Prime Minister to his post and gives its confidence to the new coalition government.
  • October
  • 4: The National Assembly ratifies a law on a trial in Cambodia of former Khmer Rouge leaders.
  • 7: Norodom Sihanouk, 81, announces from Beijing that he is abdicating. The king had repeatedly threatened to do so when he worried about not having a designated successor.
  • 11: the Senate approves a law on the functioning of the Council of the Throne. The latter, made up of the Prime Minister, the President of the Senate, that of the National Assembly, their two vice-presidents and two high Buddhist dignitaries, must elect a new king.
  • 14: Norodom Sihamoni, 51, son of Norodom Sihanouk and Queen Monineath, former ambassador to Unesco, is elected new king of Cambodia.
  • 29: enthronement ceremony of the new king.

2005[edit | edit source]

  • February 3: Parliament lifts the immunity of opposition leader Sam Rainsy and two members of his party, Cheam Channy and Chea Poch, so that they face defamation charges. Sam Rainsy leaves Cambodia for Paris.
  • February 7: The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Human Rights in Cambodia asks Parliament to restore the immunity of the three Cambodian deputies.
  • April 28: Hun Sen asks opposition leader Sam Rainsy to return to Cambodia, assuring him that he would not be arrested despite the lifting of his parliamentary immunity.
  • December 22: Sam Rainsy is sentenced in absentia to 18 months imprisonment for slander against Hun Sen and Norodom Ranariddh.

2006[edit | edit source]

  • January 24: the Prime Minister announces that he has asked the courts to drop the defamation charges against human rights activists.
  • February 10: after receiving forgiveness from King Norodom Sihamoni, Sam Rainsy, in exile for a year in France, returns to Cambodia.
  • March 3: Norodom Ranariddh, President of the National Assembly, resigns the day after Hun Sen's dismissal of two ministers from Funcipec, his party, and the adoption of a constitutional amendment reducing the number of deputies required to form a majority .
  • July 3: inauguration of the special tribunal to try the former Khmer Rouge leaders. It brings together 30 magistrates, 17 Cambodians and 13 international judges.
  • July 21: death of Ta Mok, former Khmer Rouge military leader. He was due to appear before the genocide tribunal.
  • October 18: Prince Norodom Ranariddh, former prime minister, is excluded from the Funcinpec party he had led for more than twenty years.

2007[edit | edit source]

  • April: further delay in the judicial process against the Khmer Rouge. The thirteen international judges who are to sit there refuse the conditions proposed by the Cambodian justice for the proper continuation of the process.
  • June 13: after months of negotiations, the court which is to try the Khmer Rouge leaders adopts its internal rules of procedure. Prosecutors can send their first cases to investigating judges.s; the judges of the Khmer Rouge Special Court (TRK) proceed to the first indictment, that of Kang Kek known as "Douch", ex-director of the Tuol Sleng detention center (S-21).
  • September 19: arrest of Nuon Chea, the former number two of the Khmer Rouge, considered to be the instigator of the genocide.
  • November 12: Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, respectively former Khmer Rouge foreign and social affairs ministers, are arrested.
  • November 19: arrest in Phnom Penh of the former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan.

2008[edit | edit source]

  • July 27: the legislative elections consolidate the power of Hun Sen. The opposition denounces irregularities in the holding of the poll.
  • October: a border crisis breaks out between Cambodia and Thailand, over a disputed area near the sacred Temple of Preah Vihear, listed in July 2008 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

2009[edit | edit source]

  • February 17: Kaing Guek Eav, alias Douch, appears for a preliminary hearing before the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Cambodian Courts (ECCC) for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
  • November: final pleadings of the lawyers of the civil parties in the Douch trial against which a 40-year prison sentence is required. At the last moment, the accused catches everyone by surprise ... and pleads guilty.
  • November 4: the appointment of the ex-Thai Prime Minister in exile, Thaksin Shinawatra, as advisor to the Cambodian government causes a crisis between the two countries.
  • December 18: Former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan is charged with murder, torture and religious persecution before the Special Tribunal responsible for trying the Khmer Rouge.

2010[edit | edit source]

  • July 26: A 30-year prison sentence is pronounced against Douch, former director of Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, when 40 years were required.
  • September 16: Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan are sent to court for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

2011[edit | edit source]

  • March 28-29: on appeal, the lawyers of "Douch" ask for his acquittal and the prosecution for a heavier sentence.
  • June 27: opening of the trial of Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan before the international tribunal in Phnom Penh.

2012[edit | edit source]

  • Cambodia: UN recognizes genocide of minoritiesCambodia: UN recognizes genocide of minorities
  • "Hun Sen locks power in family" "Hun Sen locks power in family"
  • Cambodia: ruling party claims landslide victoryCambodia: ruling party claims landslide victory
  • February 3: Douch is sentenced on appeal to life imprisonment by the court sponsored by the United Nations.
  • October 15: Former King Norodom Sihanouk dies in Beijing at the age of 89.
  • July 31: opening of the Khmer Rouge trial

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