Anlong Veng: From Khmer Rouge Stronghold to Peace Center


Formal integration ceremony in Anlong Veng in February 1999 (Source: Photo by Khun Ly/ Documentation Center of Cambodia Archive)

Located on the Thai-Cambodian border, Anlong Veng was one of the main redoubts of the Khmer Rouge after their regime was toppled in January 1979.

PHNOM PENH — The Anlong Veng Peace Center was launched in early May, in a joint initiative between the Sleuk Rith Institute and the Ministry of Tourism that it is hoped will foster peace building and reconciliation in the district that was the last Khmer Rouge stronghold.

Located on the Thai-Cambodian border, Anlong Veng was one of the main redoubts of the Khmer Rouge after their regime was toppled in January 1979.

Vietnamese forces, with the help of the United Front for National Salvation of Cambodia—a group of Cambodian defectors—had occupied most of country. But with the protection of thick forests and the Dangrek mountain range, the Khmer Rouge were able to regroup and stage a guerrilla war for almost two decades.

That came to end in 1998, when the remnants of the Khmer Rouge agreed to be integrated into the Cambodia state. The mass defection was the result of political concessions and compromise by the government, as well as the desire for national reconciliation among the district’s population of cadres and their families, said Dr. Ly Sok-Kheng, the inaugural director of the Anglong Veng Peace Center, who appeared on the Hello VOA program on May 18.

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