Case study: peace operations in Cambodia

As a neighbouring country of Vietnam, Cambodia was also involved in the Vietnam war during the 1960s, followed by its own protracted civil war. In 1970, with the help of the United States, the Cambodian General Lon Sol overthrew the Head of State Prince Sihanouk who pursued political neutrality of the country with Vietnam. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge communist regime under the leadership of Pol Pot won the civil war. From 1975 to 1979, between one and two million Cambodians lost their lives due to famine, forced resettlements, death camps and terror caused by the regime—12 to 15 per cent of the population.

After the Pol Pot regime repeatedly violated its border with Vietnam, Vietnamese troops invaded Phnom Penh, ousted the Khmer Rouge and established a new puppet regime. Troops of the Khmer Rouge, of Prince Sihanouk and conservative Lon-Son followers rallied against this new government and formed a Pol Pot-dominated exile government. According to the prevailing Cold War logic of that time, the United States and their allies attempted to isolate the government installed by Vietnam to prevent a spread of communism. This is why they supported the guerrilla movement even though the Khmer Rouge, which was guilty of mass murder, was part of it. Mass murder—some call it a genocide—perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge was not taken seriously by Western governments.

At the time of the East–West antagonism, the United States attempted to mediate between the parties to the civil war. When the Cold War neared its end and Vietnam withdrew its troops from Cambodia in 1989, the UN increased its diplomatic efforts and the five veto powers in the UN Security Council began to cooperate. In June 1991, the four Cambodian factions (Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces, Prince Norodom Sihanouk's Funcinpec Party, Party of Democratic Kampuchea, Khmer People's National Liberation Front) signed an armistice, followed by a peace agreement in October 1991 in Paris. It foresaw the establishment of a common government, although it was to pass on its political power to the United Nations for a transitory period. On 16 October 1991, the UN Security Council thus passed unanimously Resolution 717 which foresaw the establishment of the UN Advance Mission in Cambodia–UNAMIC. On 28 February 1992, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 745 which replaced UNAMIC by a UN-led peacekeeping mission. The UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia–UNTAC was in force from March 1992 to November 1993.

Goals and Duties of the Missions

The most important duty of UNTAC was to guarantee the implementation of the Paris peace agreement and to ensure that democratic general elections took place within nine months. This was intended to stop two simultaneous governments and the civil war in Cambodia once and for all and to replace it by a democratic constitutional monarchy. To achieve this, an independent state was subjected to the trusteeship of the United Nations—for the very first time in UN history. Formally, the rights to sovereignty of Cambodia were safeguarded by the fact that the Paris peace agreement foresaw a ‘Highest National Council” chaired by Prince Norodom Sihanouk that was to act as transitional government. It in turn granted the UN major rights for a maximum period of 18 months. To assure a neutral political environment for the elections, important ministries and public offices, such as the Foreign Office, the Ministries of Defence and Finance as well as those bodies dealing with internal security and information, were put under the direct control of the United Nations. Apart from the organisation of democratic elections, some of UNTAC’s duties were to secure the armistice, to disarm parties to the civil war, organise the return of refugees, support the elaboration of a democratic constitution and protect of human rights.

Who participated in the mission?

More than 100 countries participated in the UN mission. On top of the about 15,000 Blue Helmets from 32 states, there were more than 3,000 Blue Helmet Police and 2,000 civilians from various other countries. For the first time, the German Bundeswehr was also part of a larger UN mission, having deployed 150 medical orderlies as Blue Helmets to Cambodia.

The Mission was led by Yasushi Akashi (Japan) as Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General. The military part of the Mission was headed by General John Sandersonvor (Australia). Costs of the operation: US $1.6 billion.

Success of the Mission

UNTAC was able to organise democratic elections for the national parliament. More than 4.5 million Cambodian citizens, nearly 90 per cent of the registered voters, cast their vote. A total of 360,000 refugees returned. Disarmament took place to a large extent. Yet the Khmer Rouge turned against the Paris agreement—which they had signed—after a comparatively short period of time. They boycotted the elections in the northern parts of the country under their control and resisted disarmament efforts. The UN troops tolerated this because any military activity against the Khmer Rouge was not supported by the other Cambodian factions. If the United Nations had proceeded without their consent, it would have thwarted the entire peace process.

Following the elections, a coalition government was formed with two equal prime ministers. One represented the party of Prince Sihanouk, the National Unity Front for an independent, neutral, peaceful and co-operative Cambodia (Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Indépendant, Neutre, Pacifique, et Coopératif—FUNCINPEC) that received 45 per cent of the votes. The second represented the Cambodian People's Party—CPP that had governed at the time of Vietnamese occupation and received 38 per cent of the votes at the elections. They adopted a new constitution that foresaw a monarch as formal head of state, a multi-party system and a market economy.

In September 1993, UN troops as well as their police and civilian personnel left Cambodia after 18 months as planned. One can say that the UN peace mission was a success.

However, the following weaknesses of the missions can be ascertained:

• The civil war flared up again, as the Khmer Rouge was not disarmed. Only after the death of Pol Pot in 1998 did the civil war finally end.
• The absolute priority of the Mission (based on Western ideas about democracy) was to create democratically elected national institutions (parliament, government). Local elections only took place decades later. Amongst others, this course of action, which promoted centralism, has been made responsible for the fact that despite its formally democratic constitution, the country shows authoritarian characteristics still today.
• Cambodia today is still one of the poorest countries in the world. The liberalisation of the market, partly initiated by the United Nations, favoured a dog-eat-dog capitalism and the wide spread of corruption.
• The judicial follow-up of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge only began in 2003 with the support of the United Nations. By 2011, only one former high-ranking Khmer Rouge leader had been convicted; four more have been accused of mass killings.

Sources and further information:

• Bundeswehr (2012): Rückblick: Erster großer VN-Einsatz der Bundeswehr (German)
• Keller, L. (2005): UNTAC in Cambodia – from Occupation, Civil War and Genocide to Peace. In A. von Bogdandy & R. Wolfrum (Eds.), Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (pp. 127–78), Volume 9. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
• UN Information Technology Section/Department of Public Information (DPI). (2003): United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia UNTAC (February 1992 - September 1993).