ABSTRACT
The Thai border has a long history of serving as a refuge for Cambodian resistance groups. The Cambodian side of the Thai border, the resistance leaders of the Khmer Rouge and the Sereikar, along with the Thai state, asked for aid from international donors, relief organizations, and the UN refugee agency UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Anti-colonial fighters of the Khmer Issarak and Sereikar operated in the remote areas of the northwestern border regions during the 1940s and 1950s to fight for independence from the French. In mid-1979, more and more refugees came to the areas with Khmer Rouge soldiers and non-Communist resistance groups scattered along the border. The Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) always emphasized its set-up as a 'front' uniting various factions fighting along the Thai border, having only resistance against the Vietnamese in common. The Cambodian insurgency comprises several habitus groups on different levels of the three military organizations.
