Aftermath
Peace and Monarchy Return
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Soldiers of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, a non-Communist resistance group, pray for peace after surrendering their weapons as part of the demobilization of Cambodian factions in 1991. —UN photo/Pernaca Sudhakaran
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Shortly after the signing of the peace agreement in 1991, Norodom Sihanouk (with palms together) returned to Cambodia. He was later restored to the throne. To his left is Yasushi Akashi, special representative of the UN secretary-general for Cambodia. —UN photo/Pernaca Sudhakaran
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Pol Pot’s grave, in a small town in northwestern Cambodia. —John Burgess
In 1989, with Soviet power crumbling and resistance forces undefeated, Vietnamese troops withdrew from Cambodia. In 1991, the warring Cambodian factions reached a peace agreement in Paris by which the United Nations would send peacekeepers to supervise the disarming of the factions and the revival of Cambodia’s constitutional monarchy.
Hun Sen, at center in this 2009 political poster, is Cambodia’s preeminent political figure. —John Burgess
In 1993, Cambodians voted in UN–supervised elections. In a new government, Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who had long headed the pro-Vietnamese government in Phnom Penh, shared the office of prime minister with Sihanouk’s son, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Almost 40 years after his abdication as a young man, Sihanouk himself again became king.
But still peace did not take hold. The Khmer Rouge renounced the peace agreement and began waging war again, this time against the newly elected government in Phnom Penh. It was not until 1999 that lasting peace set in, following the death of Pol Pot and the surrender of the last Khmer Rouge soldiers and final disbandment of their movement.
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