ABSTRACT
Cambodia is a small state occupying the middle drainage basin of the Mekong River. Both before and after World War II Cambodia was a protectorate of France. In November 1953, when nearing defeat in Vietnam, France granted independence to Cambodia under the government of King Sihanouk. In 1970, he was deposed and the Khmer republic, which had little rural support and was fatally implicated in the Vietnam War, was proclaimed. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot established the government of Democratic Kampuchea. The new Peoples Republic of Kampuchea continued with one-party rule until a peace agreement in 1991 provided for political party pluralism and UN-supervised elections in 1993. The Khmer Rouge surrender to the government on 7 December 1998, and 30 years of civil war effectively ended. Elections on 26 July 1998 confirmed in power the government of Hun Sen and subsequently Cambodia, with a new coalition government, joined the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
