ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the Cambodian peacekeeping operation in practice. The nature of politics in Cambodia drew on the legitimisation of violence and reinforced state control over people and resources to ensure access to power and privileges along political clan lines. The devastation wrought between 1975 and 1978 left Cambodia socio-economically brutalised with a severely depleted educated elite and civil bureaucracy, a ruined physical infrastructure, and the conspicuous absence of many of the elements that constituted pre-Pol Pot Khmer civil society. A number of social, economic, societal and political characteristics reflected these conditions, and influenced United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTACs) capacity to discharge its responsibilities in the manner of the Paris Peace Agreements (PPA). The combination of extremes of poverty, and a diminished respect for human rights, had exacerbated and aggravated a culture of violence and impunity.
