Original scientific paper
CONFLICTS IN CAMBODIA: FROM INDEPENDENCE TO POSTCONFLICTUAL ELECTORAL CYCLES
Boško Picula
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Fifty two years ago, the Kingdom of Cambodia became an independent state. A former colony of French Indochina i.e. an associate member of the French Union, Cambodia gained sovereignty in 1954 at the Geneva Conference. Since then Cambodia has been trying to build stable political institutions, but from the long-term perspective this process has been hampered by the internal conflict, directly at first and later indirectly and generated by several foreign-policy actors.
The multi-stage civil war of 1970-1991, characterized by the
autogenocide of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) ravaged the
country and cost it several million lives. International community led
by the UN brokered the Paris Peace Agreement in 1991 and in 1993
organized the most complex and expensive elections in history. Since
then, Cambodia has held multiparty elections in regular electoral cycles in 1998 and 2003; nevertheless and despite the fifteen years of
peace, the country has just begun its democratic transition.
Keywords
civil war; foreign military interventions; postconflictual elections; international community; Cambodia
Hrčak ID:
20548
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2006.
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