Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

KHMER ROUGE • 351munist Party in December 1991 and to become a coalition partner ina civilian government. In fact, throughout 1992 and 1993 the KhmerRouge continued its activities as an armed, revolutionary party andattacked the militias belonging to other coalition partners as well asfiring upon members of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia.In 1993 the Khmer Rouge boycotted the UN-sponsored elections andresumed guerrilla warfare.By 1995 Khmer Rouge forces were estimated at between 5,000and 10,000 troops. Government forces continued to battle the KhmerRouge in western regions of Cambodia, seizing the Khmer strongholdof Pailin along the Thai border in 1994, only to lose it again in1995. During this time, when China had ceased to support the KhmerRouge, the remnant Khmer Rouge maintained itself by allowing Thailoggers access to Cambodian timber for a price, through sales ofprecious gems mined in the region, and through extortionary taxeslevied on local peasant communities.In August 1996 high-ranking Khmer Rouge commanders defected tothe Cambodian regime, leading to reports of factional infighting in thegroup. On 16 August 1996 Ieng Sary, a former chief lieutenant of PolPot, denounced him on Cambodian radio as the “chief of the cruel murderers,”blaming him for the genocide against Cambodia’s people. Negotiationsstarted between his breakaway faction of the Khmer Rougeand the army that would allow the Khmer soldiers to be integrated intothe Cambodian armed forces without reprisal. Khmer Rouge units loyalto Pol Pot started to attack those units that were defecting.On 18 June 1997 the clandestine Khmer radio station announcedthat Pol Pot had been arrested by his former comrades and top lieutenants.During July 1997 the Khmer Rouge attempted to negotiatesome sort of alliance with coalition government leader Prince Ranariddhand held a carefully staged show trial of Pol Pot that manyobservers believed to be have been organized by Pol Pot himself as asurvival ploy. It became known later that one of Pol Pot’s aides, TaMok, had seized power from Pol Pot, who had been ailing for severalyears. Prince Ranariddh’s contacts with the remaining Khmer Rougesucceeded only in provoking coleader Hun Sen to oust Ranariddhaltogether by means of a military coup and to settle the civil war onhis own terms once he had secured total power.As government troops and defecting Khmer Rouge fighters beganclosing in on Anlong Veng, Thai military officers in contact with