Word: khmer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...decades, Kampuchea has been torn by one of the 20th century's goriest conflicts. During its 3 1/2-year reign, the sternly Communist Khmer Rouge killed anywhere from 1 million to 2 million Kampucheans in a genocidal resettlement program. Up to another million fled, swarming into refugee camps across the border in Thailand. In 1979 invading Vietnamese troops overthrew the murderous Pol Pot. Since then, the Hanoi-backed government in Phnom Penh has been at war with a coalition of three rebel factions that includes as many as 35,000 fighters of the ousted Khmer Rouge...
...involves a dizzyingly complex array of parties: the Soviets support the Vietnamese puppet regime; the U.S., China, Thailand and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), determined to keep Hanoi from overrunning the region, want to oust the invaders, even if that means risking a return of the Khmer Rouge killers. Suddenly, however, a rare convergence of interests among all parties has made the prospect appear bright that a political settlement may finally end the fighting in Kampuchea. The new optimism has been triggered by a "peace blitz" in Asian capitals. Kampuchean President Heng Samrin began raising hopes earlier...
...questions bedeviling the diplomats is the role the Khmer Rouge would play in a Kampuchean government after the Vietnamese withdraw. As a U.S. official said, "A return of the Khmer Rouge would be unacceptable in the eyes of the world." Its political comeback would be acutely embarrassing to Washington. In supporting the non-Communist members of the rebel coalition, the U.S. has at least indirectly backed the Khmer Rouge as well. But Washington hopes to undercut the Khmer Rouge by boosting aid to Sihanouk. Diplomats in Beijing believe that China is ready to accept the "decapitation" of the Khmer Rouge...
Fear of the Khmer Rouge still rules much of the Kampuchean countryside, where the rebel fighters battle the improving army of the People's Republic. Around Chhun Kiri, 65 miles southwest of Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge has stepped up its "war of the villages." At a nearby hospital lay Pen Kea, 40, his leg injured in a guerrilla attack. "The Khmer Rouge comes every three nights," he said. "You have got to be afraid of them...
...Khmer Rouge seems to be using the refugees as pawns to seize land in Kampuchea as Vietnamese troops carry out their phased withdrawal from the country, due to be complete by 1990. Last week, responding to international pressure, Thailand promised to boost security around the permanent Khmer Rouge camps to halt the forced relocations and general thuggery...