Cambodia in 1991: An Uncertain Peace

Abstract

Cambodia's once and future king, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, returned to Phnom Penh on November 14, 1991, 21 years and eight months after being overthrown by a military coup during the Second Indochina War. He was escorted from Beijing by Hun Sen, prime minister of the State of Cambodia (SOC), against whom Sihanouk had led a guerrilla insurgency for more than a decade. The United Nations Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC), numbering 268 members, was already in Phnom Penh, to be followed in early 1992 by a multinational contingent of U.N. military peacekeepers and civil administrators. Ready to greet Sihanouk in his capacity as president of the Supreme National Council of Cambodia (SNC) were representatives of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and diplomatic missions from a score of countries. After decades of war, civil strife, and multitiered diplomacy, a compromise political settlement had finally come to Cambodia. How comprehensive the settlement actually was and how durable it would be remained in doubt. But clearly, Cambodia's best hope for peace had been realized during 1991. Sihanouk's return-arm in arm with his former enemy-to the royal palace overlooking the Tonle Sap River symbolized at once the rebirth of Cambodia and the uncertainties of a peace fraught with ambiguity and palpable dangers. The genesis of the peace settlement could be found in the decision of the external factors in the Cambodia conflictVietnam, China, and the Soviet Union-to remove Cambodia as a central irritant in their bilateral relations. For a number of reasons, these powers had concluded that the game was no longer worth the candle. The Soviet Union, in the throes of national disintegration, had neither the resources nor political inclination