I don’t know the area that well but I had wondered how long it would be before some of the more obvious ghosts along the Thailand-Cambodia border started to rear their heads.
According to this Voice of America report somewhere in the order of 500 former Khmer Rouge fighters have been brought to the Preah Vihear area as part of the Cambodian standoff with Thai troops. Are these informal reinforcements, or do they have some kind of more official paramilitary status? Has something happened in the past decade (such as a process of formalisation) that allows them to operate alongside the Royal Cambodian Army? In the current circumstances, and given some of the history of armed groups in that area, it is all very intriguing.
I expect that many New Mandala readers would be interested to learn more.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Erik Davis // Jul 21, 2008 at 11:18 am
This is confusing indeed - the vast majority of ‘former Khmer Rouge’ fighters were given blanket amnesty (as indeed were highup leaders, including some who are now in the ECCC dock) as an attempt to prevent further bloodshed; many of those were incorporated in the state’s armed forces for the same reason, which resulted in an enormous and bloated (and deeply underpaid) military.
It is an undeniable fact that some current soldiers were at one point fighting for ‘khmer rouge’ groups (though it would be nice to see more precision on this, since Khmer Rouge is a term of deep imprecision when talking about the armed conflicts of the last four decades).
Further, given the location, and the existence of the Anlong Veng area as one of the Khmer Rouge’s last holdouts (Ta Mok remains a feared and respected name in the area, years after his death), it merely makes sense to assume that a fair number of the most local soldiers fought for the Khmer Rouge at one point.
It’s the sort of reporting on Cambodia that infuriates a lot of us - there could very well be important news in there, but it has been subordinated to the stereotypes of Cambodian trauma - “Khmer Rouge,” skulls, child sex workers - that are most appreciated by a Western audience.
2 Steven // Jul 21, 2008 at 4:27 pm
This is a good summary of the events at Preah Vihear.
http://nyherald.com/preah-vihear-troops/306.html
3 “I am ready to fight the Thais…” // Jul 28, 2008 at 7:06 pm
[...] Erik Davis helpfully pointed out last time I mentioned “Khmer Rouge” fighters along the border — “it would [...]
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