Khmer National Solidarity Party
크메르 민족연대당
A Cambodian party founded in May 1997 by the senior Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan as he denounced Pol Pot and began distancing himself from the Khmer Rouge. It was meant to back the National United Front that Prince Norodom Ranariddh proposed for the 1998 parliamentary election, but opposition from Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party prevented this.
In depth
Khieu Samphan had previously led the Cambodian National Unity Party, which the Khmer Rouge set up on 30 November 1992, during the United Nations transitional administration, to contest that year's elections, and which he led together with Son Sen. When Ieng Sary broke away with his followers in August 1996 to form the Democratic National Union Movement, further defections from the Khmer Rouge followed, and in May 1997 Khieu Samphan left the Khmer Rouge and founded this party. In mid-June 1997 he denounced Pol Pot and began discussing demobilisation and a return to civilian life.
Khieu Samphan announced the new party in order to back Prince Ranariddh's National United Front in the 1998 election, but opposition from the ruling Cambodian People's Party prevented this. In 1998 he said that if the elections did not go ahead under the iron rule of the Vietnamese communists and their puppet, his side would be very happy to take part as a democratic, pluralistic and free force. In December of that year he surrendered to the government together with Nuon Chea.