War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

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War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

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By: Sek Sophal
September 7, 2019


To commemorate the peace settlement that millions of the Cambodians had waited for since the 1970s, October 23 has remained a public holiday. Unfortunately, the Cambodians are about to forget October 23.

October 23 marks an important date in contemporary Cambodian politics. The collapse of the Soviet Union dried up its long-running military support for Vietnam’s military operations and without Soviet support, Vietnam had no choice but to completely and unconditionally withdraw from Cambodia

The value of peace is recognized only after it is lost. October 23 means different things to different people from different generations. To the young generations born in the post-Cold War era, October 23 might be nothing but one of the annual public holidays listed on the national calendar. However, to the older generations who experienced bloodshed and atrocities during the protracted civil war, the date represented the promise of peace and spirit of national reconciliation and unity

In early 1991, just months before the Paris Peace Agreement was signed, my village came under heavy artillery bombardment by the Khmer Rouge soldiers during a night-time offensive. Almost the entire village was burned down. Dozens of people were killed and seriously injured. We abandoned the village and did not come back for several months for fears of refreshed bombardments.

With her close family relations with late King Sihanouk (then Prince Sihanouk), the Galarbru family started playing a low-profile, but very critical role of going between Prince Sihanouk and HE to arrange their meeting. Yet, the channel of communication, as Galabru re-called during the exclusive interview with The Phnom Penh Post, was never easy.

As Johan Galtung, a Norwegian professor of peace and conflicts studies and a founder of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, argues, peace should be associated with freedom, equality, justice, pluralism, and dynamism. Those are things Cambodia has never fully achieved since the conclusion of the Paris Peace Agreement 28 years ago. Now, the Paris Peace Agreement will soon be a forgotten history for the younger generations in Cambodia.

full https://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/c ... agreement/
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Re: War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement

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Today is the 28th anniversary of the Paris Peace Agreement, signed on October 23, 1991.

October 22, 2019
Do the Paris Peace Agreements still matter?
Taing Rinith / Khmer Times Share:
CPP spokesman Sok Eysan. KT/Tep Sony

This week, Cambodia will celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Paris Peace Agreements, signed on October 23, 1991 by 19 countries. The agreements marked the end of the Cambodian conflict and led to the arrival of UNTAC, the first post-Cold War peacekeeping mission and the first-ever takeover of Cambodia by the United Nations as a government. To mark this occasion, Khmer Times COO and Cross-Talk host Kay Kimsong moderated a debate between CPP spokesperson Sok Eysan and Lao Mong Hay,a well-known political analyst, over the significance of the agreements.


KT: After 28 years, what do both of you see as the legacy of the Paris Peace Agreements?

Mr Eysan:
After 28 years, there have been many legacies, under the great leadership of the Cambodia People’s Party. First of all, Cambodia was able to reach complete peace and national unity in 1998, despite the withdrawal of UNTAC and the battles along the border, thanks to Samdach Techo HE’s Win-Win policy. Based on complete peace and national unity, we achieved a fruitful democracy for the Cambodian people. Then we implemented the first, second, third and fourth phases of the Triangle Strategy, which gives Cambodia development in all sectors.

Mr Mong Hay:
The Paris Peace Agreements came with three conditions. First, it was an agreement to cease all forms of war and conflict in Cambodia. Yet, the requirement of all parties to reduce the number of troops to 30 percent was not satisfied, leading to the continuation of the dispute and eventually the armed conflict between the two parties in 1997. Another condition was the respect of sovereignty, meaning that the other signatory countries promised to respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Cambodia, as well as its neutrality and unity. They were aimed at guaranteeing Cambodian people’s lives, which had been threatened repeatedly due to violations. Another condition was to build peace through multiparty democracy, rules of law and the respect of human rights. The Paris Peace Agreements still have to be honoured as an international accord backed by the United Nations and 18 other countries, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, all of whom are superpowers.
More: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50653188/d ... ll-matter/

The discussion in Khmer:


Details on the agreement here, including PDF :
1991 Paris Peace Agreements
Framework for a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict
http://cambodia.org/facts/?page=1991+Pa ... Agreements
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Re: War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

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Hey is that you on the left @Kung-fu Hillbilly

Looks like your avatar.

You kept that under wraps well.

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Re: War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

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It had been a really bad rainy season that year. Many of the main routes out of the city were cut by being utterly washed away. It seemed surreal and symbolic of everything up until the 23rd.

Things were not perfect, and still are not, but it began the slow crawl back from the abyss.
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Re: War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

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So young-looking here. :shock:
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Re: War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

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:beer2:
War is so much bad for my country. It distroy the culture and smash the pretty things .
:stir: Be seeing you this weekend & doing some photo display ,c\o Jun Jun guesthouse .
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Re: War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Happy 29th Anniversary of Paris Peace Agreement, 23 October 2020
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Re: War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

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Cambodian Ambassador to the U.S. Gives Remarks at Public Event on 30th Anniversary of Paris Agreements
AKP Phnom Penh, October 15, 2021 --

At the invitation of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), H.E. Chum Sounry, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Cambodia to the United States of America, participated in a public event that was held virtually on October 14, 2021, on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of Paris Agreements. Ambassador Chum Sounry delivered the following remarks during this event:

"Let me start by recalling some key historical events leading to the signing of the Paris Accords on Cambodia.

1. The journey towards reaching an agreement was indeed long and started by the first meeting between PM HE and then Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Fere-en-Tardenois, from 2 to 4 December 1987 that paved the way for subsequent negotiations and the signing of the Paris Agreements.

2. The Paris Accords offered a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodian Conflict. This led to the first general elections in Cambodia in 1993 organised and supervised by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). After the elections, the new Constitution – the achievement of the Paris Agreement – came into being. As a result, Cambodia became a Constitutional monarchy and adhered to liberal pluralist democracy political system.

3. However, the nation had not yet achieved full peace since the Khmer Rouge withdrew from the Paris Agreements and continued to wage war. As a matter of fact, UNTAC did not fulfill what the Paris Agreement was supposed to do. After spending over two billion USD and using a great number of force for the operation in Cambodia, UNTAC withdrew and left Cambodia with two control areas and Governments. War did not end.

4. To settle national problem, PM HE developed “win-win policy” initiative to ensure peace and national reconciliation. Implementation of the win-win policy ended protracted war in Cambodia and brought about full peace, national and territorial unity at the end of 1998.

Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen,

5. Political opponents of the Royal Government of Cambodia, regularly invoke the Paris Agreements to criticise and attack Cambodia. Therefore, I would like to share my Government's views on the question "Why quoting the Paris Agreements is irrelevant since the UN mission in Cambodia ended on Sep. 24,1993?". These views, I believe, will shed light on the questions to be raised for discussions later concerning free political environment, commitments made under the PA, the signatories' current obligations towards these commitments, etc.

With regard to the free political environment,

6. What do we understand by "free political environment"? No doubt that it means, in one word, democracy. Democracy requests a free and fair political debate, a peaceful confrontation on different ideas based on mutual respects. In Cambodia, since 1993, we have tried to comply with these principles, but the government's will for what we called "a culture of dialog" was betrayed. Because there are people who confuse freedom of expression with freedom to defame and slander, with freedom to call for racial hate, with freedom to publish fake news and fake documents, with freedom to provoke divisions among the nation by exacerbating the very sensitive issues like the legacy of the colonial time about the national territory boundary, with freedom to call the armed forces and the police to make sedition. The government has refused to confuse freedom of expression with freedom of insult or falsification. Like in most of democratic countries we have laws - most of them similar to those in the developed countries that prohibit and punish such crimes.

7. So, the answer to the question is, yes, the space for a free political environment remains in Cambodia for citizens who do respect the law.

Concerning the commitments under the PA,

8. The purpose of the Paris Agreements is the comprehensive political settlement of the Cambodian conflict. This objective appears in the title and the preamble of the Agreements. According to the reports on the negotiations leading to the Agreements, the word "comprehensive" means the participation of the four Parties of the conflict and in particular the inclusion of the Democratic Kampuchea DK – the Khmer Rouge faction – in the settlement.

9. The DK, one of the four signatory Cambodian factions, has defaulted. The failure of one of the signatories to comply with their commitments had dramatic consequences for the objectives pursued by these Agreements: during a transition period, disarmament of the factions, creation of a neutral political environment, promotion of human rights, repatriation of refugees and displaced people, organisation of election, rehabilitation and reconstruction. This withdrawal radically changed the purpose of the Paris Agreements and put an end to the comprehensive character of these political settlement and changed fundamentally the long-negotiated balances and the resulting obligations.

10. The UN mission ended on September 24, 1993. With the end of that mission, it was the end of the commitments provided for by the Agreements. Everyone has his own evaluation of the way these commitments have been implemented.

11. A report of the UN Secretary General S/25289 adopted by the UN Security Council said: "as signatories to the Paris Agreements, the Cambodian parties have the primary responsibility for their implementation and that the future stability and well-being of Cambodia depends on Cambodians themselves. However, it is clear that once the UN mission was over, it was up to the Cambodians to decide how to implement the Paris Agreements?

For the question on the signatories' current obligations towards the commitments made in the PA,

12. There are no more current obligations under the Paris Agreements. The Agreement on Sovereignty, Independence, Territorial Integrity and Inviolability, Neutrality and National Unity of Cambodia clearly states that Cambodia will maintain its sovereignty and independence once these principles are enshrined in the Constitution.

13. It was never written in the Paris Agreements that Cambodia, after the transition period, that is to say once the United Nations mission ended. would remain under international supervision.
More: https://www.akp.gov.kh/post/detail/240941
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Re: War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Opinion
Cambodia, and the unsung legacy of UNTAC
Too few in the West see Cambodia for the success story that it is, or understand the history that made it so
by Tony Kevin October 29, 2021

The Paris Peace Accords of 1991 were a necessary step on the road to peace in Cambodia. They resolved the international dimension of the long-running Cambodian conflict.

But they did not yet bring peace to Cambodia, because internal forces still remained in conflict. Through the years 1991-97, Cambodia remained a “leopard’s skin” of urban and agricultural areas controlled by the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) government led by HE, and inaccessible forest and mountain areas controlled by still formidable Khmer Rouge forces led by Pol Pot and, after his death, by Ta Mok.

After the ouster with Vietnamese military help of the infamous Khmer Rouge regime from Phnom Penh in 1978, Cambodia remained for the next 13 years a poor international pariah state, supported only by the Soviet bloc and Vietnam, boycotted by the West and with no UN recognition, and under attack from insurgent Khmer Rouge forces secretly supported by outside parties.

To begin the peace process in Cambodia required the agreement of all the external parties: all five UN Security Council permanent members, and Vietnam. The 1991 Paris Accords broke the deadlock of 13 years in which the Western powers and China (as King Sihanouk’s patron and protector) had ostracized the CPP government.

The arrival of a United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) saved everybody’s face. HE accepted it and stood aside, allowing his army to be disarmed, though he suspected Western trickery.

The Khmer Rouge refused to be disarmed by UNTAC. The Khmer Rouge made territorial gains when UNTAC declined to confront them militarily.

UNTAC exercised power in Cambodia for 18 months, 1992-93. It supervised free elections. The West had hoped and expected the royalist party FUNCINPEC, mostly returned refugees from Western countries, to prevail, as the self-proclaimed party of democracy. But in fact FUNCINPEC only narrowly won, gaining 58 seats versus 51 for the CPP in the 120-seat assembly.
In full: https://asiatimes.com/2021/10/cambodia- ... -of-untac/
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Re: War and Peace: the Paris Peace Agreement (Update: Anniversary)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Looking Back: How the Paris Peace Agreements are Remembered
The Paris Peace Agreements helped end conflict in Cambodia, and their contribution to peace and development should be recognized on the national calendar.
Part of the Southeast Asia Forum Project
By Courtney Weatherby Author
January 31, 2022

October 23, 2021, marked the 30th anniversary of the signing of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, a comprehensive political framework that helped to end decades of conflict in Cambodia. The Agreements were complex and drew together more than 19 state actors along with many domestic constituents to negotiate a pathway to national reconciliation, establish a clear vision for a democratic Cambodia respecting human rights and freedoms, and reestablish Cambodia’s national sovereignty. The anniversary of the Agreements was a national holiday in Cambodia until it was removed in 2019. However, in early 2022 there was a new addition of Win-Win Policy Day—the anniversary of the day that the Khmer Rouge surrendered in 1998, ending fighting—on Cambodia’s national calendar. This reflects a shift in public dialogue about the role that the Agreements played in Cambodia’s fraught journey to peace.

Although there is an ongoing debate about how well the Paris Peace Agreements were implemented and their relevance to Cambodia today, the economic development and relative peace that has been enjoyed over the last 30 years would not have been possible without them. The Agreements provided a clear vision for ending the fighting and laid out a template for a liberal democracy with regular and genuine elections, an independent judiciary, and protection of key human rights and freedoms. These principles were enshrined in the Cambodian constitution and established an opportunity for Cambodians to rebuild an independent and sovereign nation-state. It should be recognized that the implementation of the Agreements was imperfect: the Khmer Rouge reneged on the Agreements, and there have been recurring instances of inter-party political conflict which raise questions about the competitiveness of future elections. But even with those considerations, Cambodia is considerably more stable and peaceful thirty years after the Agreements.

Peace and democracy are processes and not static states, and it is worth revisiting the role that the Paris Peace Agreements played in setting Cambodia on the path to democracy thirty years down the road. It is particularly timely to look back today because Cambodia is a young country: the average age is approximately 26, and most Cambodians were either not yet alive or were very young when the Paris Peace Agreements were negotiated and implemented. Notably, a survey done by the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace in 2021 revealed widespread uncertainty among students in Phnom Penh about what the Paris Peace Agreements were or how they contributed to Cambodia’s peace.
Full article: https://www.stimson.org/2022/looking-ba ... remembered
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