Fall of the Khmer Rouge

The Fall of the Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge themselves were mainly responsible for their own downfall, since the policies of the Democratic Kampuchea regime alienated the entire nation from them, even some of their own members. Not only that, their relations with the neighbors Vietnam had been strained due to the massive influx of refugees fleeing from Cambodia and on-going border conflicts.

While in power, Pol Pot feared that the Vietnamese could attack Democratic Kampuchea soon, so he decided to make a pre-emptive strike on Vietnam. The Democratic Kampuchea armed forces crossed the border into the Vietnamese territory and plundered the villages along the border. This enraged the Vietnamese who successfully managed to repel the Kampuchean forces back into their own territory. After the attack, the Khmer Rouge could sense the trouble they were about to face.

The dissatisfied members of the Khmer Rouge had already separated themselves and had formed an armed movement against them, called the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation. This group helped the Vietnamese Armed Forces to attack Democratic Kampuchea. This force proved to be almost unstoppable for the Khmer Rouge and Phnom Penh fell to the Vietnamese on January 7, 1979, which saw an end to the oppressive regime of the Democratic Kampuchea.

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, the Vietnamese installed a moderate and pro-Soviet puppet government in Phnom Penh, and renamed the country to People’s Republic of Kampuchea. However, the United Nations and most of the Western powers continued to recognize Democratic Kampuchea as the legitimate and the rightful government in Cambodia. The UN seat for the Democratic Kampuchea was retained in one form or another until 1993.

After losing control on the capital, the Khmer Rouge leadership fled to the western forests of Cambodia near the Thai border and held some territory there, such as the Khmer Malai, for about a decade after their fall. Furthermore, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge was supported by the West and received considerable military aid from USA, China and Britain, and also received military training and intelligence support. The Khmer Rouge was supported by the West because the People’s Republic of Kampuchea was installed under the auspices of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the western parts of Kampuchea of the time virtually became a Cold War battleground.

In 1985, Pol Pot stepped down as the leader of the Khmer Rouge and the title went to Khieu Samphan, the former President of the Democratic Kampuchea, but his presence and influence continued to be a driving force for the insurgencies that the Khmer Rouge continued to make. After decades of conflict, which never yielded any result, the pro-Vietnamese government and the Khmer Rouge rebels signed a cease-fire treaty in 1991 calling for elections in the country. The next year, Khmer Rouge boycotted the elections and continued fighting against the Vietnam-backed coalition government of Hun Sen.

But in the late 1990s, the Khmer Rouge rebels parted ways due to internal conflict as the coalition government engaged some of the Khmer Rouge rebel leaders while ignoring Pol Pot. The ever-paranoid Pol Pot was actually arrested in 1997 by Ta Mok, his former Army Chief, who was the head of his own rebel group and was put under house arrest. He died in April 1998 during the house arrest. In 1999, Ta Mok surrendered to the government as well, which made Khmer Rouge history. Apart from Pot, all major Khmer Rouge leaders have either faced trial or have apologized for the massacre that took place during their regime from 1975 to 1979. Some of the Khmer Rouge trials are still underway in Cambodia’s genocide tribunal even to this day.