CAMBODIA

Conflicts in Cambodia stem from the country's geographic position next to Vietnam, from its long history of foreign intervention and foreign domination, from fighting among armed Cambodian factions, and from its relatively undeveloped, rural economy. The disorder created by the spillover of the war in neighboring Vietnam and by massive American bombing of the Cambodian countryside brought the radical Khmer Rouge ("Red Cambodians") to power in 1975. War with Vietnam led to invasion and conquest by the Vietnamese in 1978 and the establishment of a Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government. The Khmer Rouge joined with anticommunist forces and forces loyal to Cambodia's royal family to fight against the Vietnamese. Under international diplomatic pressure, the Vietnamese began withdrawing troops in 1989. The year 1991 saw an agreement among the four major Cambodian factions: the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government, the supporters of the former king, the anticommunists, and the Khmer Rouge. Following a 1993 election, the royalists (the supporters of the former king) entered into a coalition government with the Cambodian leaders who had earlier been allies of the Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge, however, resumed their guerrilla war against this new government. By 1997, the Khmer Rouge began to lose strength, but fighting broke out between the two factions of the coalition government.

In that year, Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge who had been prime minister of the Vietnamese-backed government, seized power. Following a questionable election in the summer of1998, Hun Sen managed to establish himself as sole prime minister. After the death of Pol Pot, in 1998, the Khmer Rouge was no longer a political or military force. However, many in the country disagreed about how other former Khmer Rouge leaders should be held responsible for the organization's years in power.

Cambodia, also known as Kampuchea, is a Southeast Asian country of about 13 million people. Its capital, Phnom Penh, lies in the south central part of the country. Cambodia is bordered on the west and northwest by Thailand, on the north by Laos, on the east by the southern part of Vietnam, and on the south by the

Gulf of Thailand. The climate is tropical, with monsoon rains from May to October and a dry season from December to March. There are mountains in the southwest and north, but most of the country consists of low, flat plains. Three-quarters of the land is covered with forests and woodland and much of the cultivated land is covered with rice paddies.

The Cambodian people and their language are known as Khmer, a term much closer to their own word for themselves. About 90 percent of the people in Cambodia are ethnic Cambodians, or Khmer, 5 percent are Vietnamese, 1 percent are Chinese, and 4 percent belong to a variety of other ethnic groups. Nine out of ten Cambodians are farmers, and rice is both their main crop and their main food.

The Cambodian people are related to their neighbors by language, religion, and culture. The Khmer or Cambodian language is one of the languages in the Mon-Khmer language group, a group that is also thought to include Vietnamese. In religion and culture, however, the Cambodians are closer to the people of Thailand and Laos. Most Cambodians adhere to Theravada Buddhism, the type of Buddhism most common in Thailand and Laos, rather than to Mahayana Buddhism, the form of the religion practiced by most Vietnamese and Chinese Buddhists.