Searching for the truth Issues 21 - Documentation Center of Cambodia

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Number 21, September 2001
On March 11, 1976 the Democratic Kampuchea
government called a meeting of the Front Standing
Committee and its members Comrade Secretary,
Comrade Deputy Secretary, Comrade Von, Comrade
Khieu, Comrade Hem, Comrade Doeun, Comrade Tum
and Comrade Touch. The single agenda was Sihanouk’s
resignation.
The minutes of the meeting noted that Comrade
Hem (Khieu Samphan) reported to the Committee about
the King’s resignation. The King had already sent two
copies of his letter in French. One proposed resignation
and stated his main reasons for taking such an action, one
of which was his health. The other was a report to “the
people of Democratic Kampuchea confirming that he
would resign prior to March 20, 1976.”
The minutes recall the King’s complaint: “When
he met with the ambassadors from Mauritania and
Senegal, Sihanouk showed them his commitment to
resign. Indeed, when he met the Chinese economic and
commercial delegation, he complained about his health
conditions...” The King himself also told his patrons in
Belgrade before his return to Cambodia that, “The
government of my country asked me to go on a mission
to the United Nations and other ten countries. Today it
comes to an end. I will never fulfill any mission for the
sake of the new regime. I’m willing to resign. However, I
regard myself as a soldier who wishes to be dismissed
from military service. Thus, I must return to my fortress
where I would change my uniform to that of an ordinary
person’s.”
Based on Angkar’s comment, there are two
reasons for the King’s willingness to withdraw from his
position, and they are both long- and short-term reasons.
Angkar argued that the long-term cause was a class
contradiction between the revolution and the King and
his royal family. “He can never stay with us. But to date,
he has been unwilling to give up his title because he has
been seduced by thinking he has real power. Although he
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Searching for the truth ⎯ History
THE KHMER ROUGE VIEW ON CAUSES AND
EFFECTS OF SIHANOUK’S RESIGNATION
Bunsou Sour
has said since 1971 that he has been willing to resign,
Sihanouk will not resign.”
Angkar’s passage adds that the short-term cause
was a strategic contradiction, “We have given our
permission for diplomats to go abroad without his
knowledge. Even though it is a small thing, it means that
we don’t need him anymore. But he still appears to
pursue his position.”
The Khmer Rouge seemed to profit from the
King’s presence in terms of foreign relations. However,
they did not really need the king for domestic purposes.
As a Khmer Rouge notebook in the archives of the
Documentation Center of Cambodia states, “...for the
national and democratic struggle for socialism, the King
remains in the same position. Yet, the party practices its
power to curb subjective factors from the outside. And
absolutely, he must not be allowed to grasp power.”
This passage demonstrates that in the eyes of the
Khmer Rouge, the King was not an essential element of
the Khmer Rouge’s leading apparatus. “Following the
coup d’état, our revolutionary movement develops with a
great leap forward by our own sufficient subjective
factors. With Sihanouk’s and the world’s additional
factors, there must be sustainability and evolution with
this speed.” The King admitted to having presided over
only two meetings of the Council of Ministers under his
position as Head of State. The first meeting was held in
September 1975, when Khieu Samphan, Son Sen, Hou
Nim, Koy Thuon, and Tauch Phoeun reported to him
about the progress and accomplishments they had made
in their respective ranks during the period between April
17, 1975 and the King’s return to Cambodia in
September of that year.
The minutes describe the King’s life, surrounding
environment and his feelings about his position. “The
King has no job to do; he is bored and disrupted by the
surrounding environment, especially by his wife’s crying
all the time. He cannot stand any longer, in case he
Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)