Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK)

Background

Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea in December 1978 and entered Phnom Penh on 6 January 1979; some 200,000 Vietnamese troops and Khmer Rouge defectors overthrew the Pol Pot regime. Many Cambodians initially welcomed them as liberators, while others objected, recalling the long history of hostility with Vietnam.

The Vietnamese-installed People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) was not internationally recognized. After the Khmer Rouge were driven out, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, dissatisfied with Vietnamese influence over the PRK government, proposed that Sihanouk cooperate with the Khmer Rouge to overthrow it; Sihanouk refused, opposing the genocidal policies the Khmer Rouge had pursued in power. Sihanouk founded the resistance movement FUNCINPEC in March 1981, and after repeated negotiations mediated by Deng Xiaoping and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, FUNCINPEC, the KPNLF and the Khmer Rouge agreed in June 1982 to form the CGDK.

The Party of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK) was founded in December 1981 as the successor to the Communist Party of Kampuchea, and in 1981 the Khmer Rouge formally abandoned communism in order to obtain foreign support. When the CGDK was formed in 1982, Khmer Rouge forces had been pushed back to near the Thai border by the Vietnamese-backed government. The KPNLF was a right-wing, pro-Western, anti-communist political front founded in 1979 in opposition to the PRK.

Formation and composition

The signing ceremony took place in Kuala Lumpur on 22 June 1982. The president of the coalition was Sihanouk, the prime minister was KPNLF leader Son Sann and the foreign secretary was PDK leader Khieu Samphan. At the Singapore summit of 2–4 September 1981 the three leaders reached a four-point agreement that included creating the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, which most observers assessed as a breakthrough allowing the Khmer Rouge regime to retain its UN seat. Despite serious internal discord, the formation of the three-party coalition in June 1982 was a significant achievement for the resistance, and the CGDK served as the centre of the anti-Vietnamese struggle and as Cambodia's legitimate representative in international forums.

The two non-communist members (KPNLF and FUNCINPEC) did not agree with the Khmer Rouge's ideology and methods but joined the CGDK to gain international legitimacy and recognition. This made it appear that Cambodians had set aside their differences to unite in expelling a foreign occupier. After the 1978 Vietnamese invasion many Cambodians longed for national unity, yet wished to be dominated by neither the Khmer Rouge nor Vietnam, and regarded opposition to the Khmer Rouge as an essential condition of a movement to restore national freedom.

The UN seat and international support

The CGDK retained Cambodia's seat in the United Nations on the premise that it was a legitimate Cambodian government in contrast to the pro-Vietnamese, pro-Soviet People's Republic of Kampuchea; Western states opposed Eastern Bloc proposals to replace it with the Vietnamese-installed government. On 14 November 1979 the UN General Assembly voted on a proposal to expel Democratic Kampuchea: 91 states voted against (rejecting the proposal), 29 in favour and 26 abstained. On 18 September 1981 the vote was 77 to 37 with 31 abstentions. The coalition held Cambodia's UN seat until the signing of the Paris Agreement and was supported by China, the United States and ASEAN. The effective government was the Vietnamese- and Soviet-backed people's republic in Phnom Penh.

The CGDK was also recognized by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea: Kim Il Sung provided Sihanouk with a place of exile alongside China. At the Pyongyang talks of 10 April 1986 Kim Il Sung reaffirmed that he would continue to recognize Sihanouk as Cambodia's legitimate head of state. Before the coalition was formed, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the KPNLF and FUNCINPEC received some US military and financial support as part of the Reagan Doctrine's response to Soviet and Vietnamese involvement in Cambodia.

Armed forces and the weakening of 1984–1985

The Khmer Rouge were largely isolated diplomatically, but its National Army of Democratic Kampuchea was the largest and most effective armed force in the CGDK. The Vietnamese offensives of 1984–1985 severely weakened the CGDK's forces: the two non-communist factions were effectively eliminated as military actors, leaving the Khmer Rouge as the coalition's only significant military force.

Renaming and dissolution

Ahead of the 1991 Paris Agreement the CGDK was renamed the National Government of Cambodia in 1990, and it was dissolved in 1993. In the same year the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) transferred authority to the restored Kingdom of Cambodia. Ahead of the 1992–1993 elections the Party of Democratic Kampuchea was largely succeeded by the Cambodian National Unity Party and was outlawed in July 1994.