Khmer Issarak
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Khmer Issarak ខ្មែរឥស្សរៈ | |
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Leader | Poc Khun Dap Chhuon Sieu Heng Long Bunruot Son Ngoc Minh Tou Samouth |
Founded | 1945 |
Ideology | Khmer nationalism Anti-colonialism Socialism Communism(factions) |
Political position | Left-wingtoFar-left |
This article is part of a series on the |
Politics of Cambodia |
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TheKhmer Issarak(Khmer:ខ្មែរឥស្សរៈ,lit. 'FreeKhmer'or 'Independent Khmer') was a "loosely structured" anti-Frenchand anti-colonial independence movement.[1]The movement has been labelled as “amorphous”.[2]The Issarak was formed around 1945 and composed of several factions, each with its own leader.[3]Most of the Issarak factions fought actively between the end of the Second World War in 1945 and Cambodia’s independence in 1953. The initial objective of the Khmer Issarak was to fight against the French in order to gain independence, before later focusing on overthrowing theCambodian government.[1][4]The term Issarak originally referred to non-communist, but in the early 1950s theViệt Minh-guidedguerrillasbranded themselves Issaraks for the sake of unifying other non-communistforces.[4]
The Issarak
[edit]Poc Khun, a highborn Khmer, founded a movement in Bangkok in 1944, and called it the Khmer Issarak for the first time on record.[1]Some of the early Issarak members were backed by the Thai authoritative government. From the end ofthe Second World Warthrough to 1948, the Thai government had a policy of supporting large number of guerrilla forces, which operated along the Thai frontier and in the two Thai ruled provinces,BattambangandSiem Reap.Among those groups, which were aided byThailand,some of the members later established right-wing and left-wing bands, includingSon Ngoc Minh,Sieu HengandTou Samouth.[5]These guerrillas formed a government in exile inBangkokin 1945.[6]After 1948, several of the Thai sponsored Issaraks dissolved or cooperated with thePhnom Penhgovernment, led byPrince Sihanouk.[7][8]
Soon afterwards, theVietnameseguided-Issaraks formed the Khmer Issarak Association, continuing armed struggles against the Khmer and French authorities. In the 1950s, the Viet Minh controlled-Issarak groups eventually transformed into communist organizations: for instance, theKhmer People’s Revolution Party (KPRP).Several significant figures in theKhmer RougeandDemocratic Kampucheawho participated in theCambodian Civil War,were closely related to the Viet Minh influenced-Issaraks.
During the first decade of armed struggles, there was some coordination between factions, however in most cases, different bands fought independently. Even in 1953, the year Cambodia gained independence, the anti-French war was still led by disparate leaders, who were divided geographically and ideologically.[9]
After theGeneva Conferencein 1954, due to terms of the "Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam", most Viet Minh guided-Issaraks were either exiled to theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)or turned underground and formed communist organizations.[10]At the same time, as Cambodia had already gained independence from the French, most nationalist Issaraks and some communist groups disarmed themselves.[11]Several powerful Issarak leaders such asDap ChhuonandPrince Norodom Chantaraingseyallied with the Sihanouk government in different periods of time. The Khmer Issarak movement then faded into history.
Non-Communist Issarak Groups
[edit]During the independence movement, non-communist Issaraks that were based in the northwest dominated the anti-French war which lasted for around 10 years. Those Issarak groups fought throughout the entire state. The non-communist guerrillas often coordinated battles with the Viet Minh-led Issarak forces. Among the non-communist bands,Poc Khun,Dap Chhuon, Prince Chantaraingsey’s were the most prominent.
Furthermore, short-term goal of the Thai-supported Issarak movement was to conduct propaganda against French colonialism in the ceded provinces, which under Thai control from 1941-1946. Nevertheless, the ultimate purpose of the movement was to gain full independence for the French Indochina colony.[12]However, in the rightist military coup in Thailand in November 1947 thePridi administrationwas overthrown, and the new Thai government reduced support its and forced the Issaraks to come back to Cambodia.[13]
There were two consequences of the return of Thai Prime MinisterPhibun.First of all, with Thailand cutting its assistance the Viet Minh became one of the few sources that the Issarak groups could rely on. Secondly, a permanent split in the Cambodian independent movement between communists and non-communists took place. Due to a large number of guerrilla groups being unwilling to work with the Viet Minh, some of them set up strong bases and became warlords, but the majority dissolved.[4]
Poc Khun
[edit]The first time that the term "Khmer Issarak" was employed was in 1944, after the new Thai Prime MinisterKhuang Aphaiwongwho took office under the guide of Pridi and his Free Thai movement.[1][14]Soon a movement called Khmer Issarak was founded by Poc Khun, who used to work in the Publicity Department in Bangkok. Poc Khun was born in a high-ranking aristocratic family in Phnom Penh and coincidentally was the uncle of Prince Monireth’s wife.[1][12][15]In August 1946, Poc Khun was the leader of the Khmer Issarak in Battambang province, and was elected as a representative to the House of Representatives from a district in Battambang. He continued to hold office until 1947, even after the province was returned to Cambodia.[1][16]
Dap Chhuon
[edit]Before the right wing coup in Bangkok in late 1947, a jointly Khmer Issarak-Viet Minh commanded guerrilla group was founded in the Thai capital in February. Dap (Sergeant) Chhuon became the commander of the group. Chhuon was a former Cambodian militia member and an active Issarak. With Thai support, he had organized anti-French guerrilla forces in the ceded provinces since 1943. Chhuon believed in supernatural power and often conducted "magical" ceremonies before his battles. By early 1948, Chhuon was the leader of Viet Minh-associatedKhmer People’s Liberation Committee.[17][18]
Although Dap Chhuon’s army was initially jointly run with the Viet Minh, and he was the president of KPLC, Chhuon himself was not a communist neither his soldiers received Viet Minh training. In 1949, Dap Chhuon rallied with Sihanouk, the negotiation taking a year to reach agreement. In exchange for the submission, Chhuon received administrative and military carte blanche over Siem Reap, which became his fief very soon. After rallying with the King, Chhuon had been appointed as director of security, for the sake of overseeing the1955 election,and minister of interior in 1957.[19][20][21]Ten years after his submission, Chhuon, who was the governor of Siem Reap and military commander of the northwest, was accused of attempting to overturn Sihanouk’s government, and later he was shot by a killer sent byLon Nolnear Siem Reap in February 1959.[22][23]
Communist Issarak Groups
[edit]UnlikeDap Chhuonand his army, who were not communist,Sieu Heng,Long Bunruot,Son Ngoc MinhandTou Samouth,were significant communist fighters in Cambodia and their guerrillas were heavily influenced by the Viet Minh. In provinces close to Vietnam, Vietnamese ideologies, organizations and units played critical roles in developing the anti-French resistance. Political schools were set up by theIndochina Communist Party (ICP)in those bordering provinces. Most of the students were Cambodian who were recruited by the Vietnamese, and they were taught aboutMarxism-Leninismand significance of cooperating with the Vietnamese.[24]However, as Khmer communist organizations had to subordinate to the victory ofthe First Indochina War,only at most 5700 soldiers fought the French with the Vietnamese in Cambodia.[25]
Sieu Heng
[edit]Sieu Hengwas commander of communist Khmer Issaraks, who became a communist in 1945. He led the military resistance against the French in the 1950s but dropped out of politics afterward. After Son Ngoc Minh left forHanoiin the mid-1950s, Heng was in charge of communist movements inside Cambodia.[26][27]Around 1955 election, Heng became a secret agent to Sihanouk and later openly defected to the government, with providing information about revolutionaries to Lon Nol. At the same time, he claimed that “making revolution was impossible”.[28][29][30]In 1975, Heng was killed by his wife’s nephew, Long Bunruot.[17]
Long Bunruot
[edit]Long Bunruot,joined the Thai Communist Party in 1946, when he was a student atThammasat Universityin Bangkok. After the independence in 1953, Long Bunruot remained revolutionary and continuously fought against the Sihanouk government as an Issarak leader. At the end of the civil war, he became the second vital figure of theCommunist Party of Kampuchea (CPK),and better known asNuon Chea.[17][31]
Son Ngoc Minh
[edit]Achar Mean, a Khmer monk took his name later asSon Ngoc Minh,in order to link with the former Cambodian Prime MinisterSon Ngoc Thanhand the Viet Minh leaderHo Chi Minh.[32][18][33]Son joined the ICP in 1945. He was the first Cambodian who joined the Vietnamese dominated organization.[34][33]After commanding the Cambodian communist to fight the French in the First Indochina War, Son moved to northern Vietnam in 1955 and died in 1972.[32][35]
In 1950, as a representative of the Cambodia communist, Son Ngoc Minh met Viet Minh’s representatives with Sieu Heng, Tou Samouth and others at Hatien, southern Vietnam, which near Cambodian border. He analysed the revolutionary situation in Cambodia and stated due to the weak “principle force”, Cambodia could hardly have a revolution.[36][37]Later, the “First National Congress of Khmer Resistance” was held in Cambodia, on the meeting, Khmer Issarak Association and People’s Liberation Central Committee (PLCC) was founded. Minh was the president of the PLCC, which consisted of all former ICP members. Two months later, as the Viet Minh guided-Issarak controlled one third of the Cambodian territory, Minh declared Cambodia’s independence, three years before Sihanouk’s government gained independence from France.[38][4][39]
Tou Samouth
[edit]Achar Sok was an outstanding Buddhist scholar and active communist, who took a revolutionary name ofTou Samouthin 1948. At the time of his assassination, he was the secretary of the CPK’s central committee, interior minister of the Committee of Liberation of the Southeast.[32][40]Years before his assassination in 1962, Tou Samouth was a patron of a young French educated Khmer, who work as Tou Samouth’s secretary.[41][42]The young man wasSaloth Sar,better known asPol Potafter the establishment ofDemocratic Kampuchea.[39]
Legacy of the Issarak movement
[edit]The KPLC
[edit]On 1 February 1948, the Issarak movement formed theKhmer People's Liberation Committeewith Chhuon as its president. Five of its eleven leaders were sympathetic to the Vietnamese, which eliminated certain elements of the Issarak movement. Though Chhuon was nominally anti-communist, the organisation also had two important Viet Minh supporters:Sieu Heng,who was the head of the ICP North-Western branch, and his nephewLong Bunruot.
By this time the Viet Minh was leading a concerted attempt to foster Issarak's anti-colonialism and to turn it into support for communism in general, and Vietnamese communism in particular. This was especially the case on the eastern side of the country, where guerrilla cells were often commanded by Vietnamese. On the other side of the country, Son Ngoc Minh returned from Thailand with enough weapons to equip a fairly large company.[43]In 1947 he established the Liberation Committee of South-West Kampuchea (this is particularly of note, because by the end of the civil war of 1970-75 the south-west had one of the most powerful and well organised communist armies in Cambodia, and which would form the main core of Pol Pot's support). By late 1948 many areas of the country were under the effective control of powerful Issarak organisations.
By 1949, however, the Issarak movement in this form was coming to an end: the French began to exploit the greed of some Issarak leaders by giving them colonial positions, while others went off to join more radical organisations. Chhuon's KPLC expelled Sieu Heng and the majority of the other leftists, and remodelled itself as theKhmer National Liberation Committee,with Prince Chantaraingsey as its military commander. Tou Samouth and the other leftist Issaraks formed theUnited Issarak Front,which had heavy Vietnamese involvement. Chhuon went over to the French, while Chantaraingsey eventually left the KNLC and aligned with the right-wing, anti-monarchical Khmer nationalists, theKhmer Serai,under Son Ngoc Thanh.[44]The Khmer Issarak were notorious for their violence during this period, known for torture, banditry andsummary executions.[45]
Foundation of Democratic Kampuchea
[edit]Not only would the guerrilla tactics and organisation of the Issarak forces be mimicked by the communist forces during the Cambodian Civil War, but many later communists were first introduced to the concepts of Marxist-Leninism whilst involved with the Issaraks.[46]In the eastern area of Cambodia, the leaders of those Viet Minh-influenced forces remained largely unchanged up to and beyond the establishment ofDemocratic Kampuchea.Until purged by Pol Pot in 1976, their forces not only wore differing uniforms to those of Pol Pot loyalists, but were noted to be exemplary in theirtreatmentof the civilian population and to retain a certain degree of loyalty to Sihanouk.[47]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^abcdefMurashima, Eiji (November 1, 2005). "Opposing French colonialism Thailand and the independence movements in Indo-China in the early 1940s".South East Asia Research.13(3): 333–383.doi:10.5367/000000005775179702.S2CID147391206.
- ^Becker 1998,p. 51.
- ^Grant, Jonathan S.; Moss, Laurence A. G.; Unger, Jonathan, eds. (1971).Cambodia: the Widening War in Indochina.New York: Washington Square Press. p. 314.ISBN0671481142.
- ^abcdBecker 1998,p. 70.
- ^Chandler 2008,p. 221.
- ^Chandler 2008,p. 212.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 28.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 43.
- ^Becker 1998,p. 73.
- ^Becker 1998,p. 78.
- ^Becker 1998,p. 76.
- ^abChandler 1991,p. 24.
- ^Becker 1998,p. 69.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 30-32.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 29.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 53-54.
- ^abcChandler 1991,p. 33.
- ^abKiernan 2004,p. 101.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 80.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 101.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 58-61.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 101-107.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 156.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 34.
- ^Becker 1998,p. 72.
- ^Becker 1998,p. 79.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 48.
- ^Becker 1998,p. 81.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 111.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 82-84.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 97.
- ^abcChandler 1991,p. 35.
- ^abKiernan 2004,p. 59.
- ^Becker 1998,p. 47.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 66.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 48.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 100.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 49-50.
- ^abKiernan 2004,p. 127.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 74.
- ^Chandler 1991,p. 66.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 83-85.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 297.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 155-157.
- ^Vickery 1984.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 178.
- ^Kiernan 2004,p. 255-258.
Sources
[edit]- Becker, Elizabeth (1998).When The War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution.New York: PublicAffairs.
- Chandler, David Porter (1991).The Tragedy of Cambodian history: Politics, War, and Revolution since 1945.New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Chandler, David Porter (2008).A History of Cambodia.Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
- Dommen, A. J. (2001). The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Grant, J. S., Moss, L. A. G., & Unger, J. (1971). Cambodia; the widening war in Indochina. New York: Washington Square Press.
- Kiernan, B. (2004).How Pol Pot Came to Power.New Haven, London: Yale University Press.
- McHale, Shawn (2013)."Ethnicity, Violence, and Khmer-Vietnamese Relations: The Significance of the Lower Mekong Delta, 1757–1954"(PDF).The Journal of Asian Studies.72(2): 367.doi:10.1017/s0021911813000016.S2CID162830836.
- Murashima, E. (2005). Opposing French Colonialism: Thailand and the Independence Movements in Indo-china in the early 1940s. South East Asia Research, 13(3), 333-383. doi:10.5367/000000005775179702
- Tully, J. A. (2002). France on the Mekong: A history of the protectorate in Cambodia, 1863-1953. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
- Vickery, Michael (1984).Cambodia, 1975-1982.Hemel Hempstead; North Sydney: Allen and Unwin in association with South End.
Further reading
[edit]- Chandler, D. (1997). From `Cambodge' to `Kampuchea': State and revolution in Cambodia 1863-1979. Thesis Eleven, 50(1), 35-49. doi:10.1177/0725513697050000004
- Chandler, D. P. (2000). A history of Cambodia. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press.
- Cambodia: Kampuchea. Gerrand, J., Littlemore, S., Jane Balfour Films Ltd and James Gerrand & investors (Directors). (1988).[Video/DVD] London: Jane Balfour Films Ltd.
- Eanes, J. (2002). The rise and fall of the khmer rouge. ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing).
- Fretter, J., & Bercovitch, J. (2004). France-indochina: Independence struggle December 1945-July 1954. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
- Jackson, K. D. (1989). Cambodia, 1975-1978: Rendezvous with death. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
- Keyes, C. (1990). Buddhism and revolution in Cambodia. Cambridge: Cultural Survival, Inc.
- Kiernan, B., & Boua, C. (1982). Peasants and politics in kampuchea, 1942-1981. Armonk, N.Y; London: Zed Press.
- Kissi, E. (2006). Revolutions and genocides in Ethiopia and Cambodia. Lanham, MD: Le xing ton Books.
- Nguyen-Vo, T. (1992). Khmer-viet relations and the third indochina conflict. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland.
- Peou, S. (2001). Cambodia: Change and continuity in contemporary politics. Aldershot, Hants; Burlington, Vt: Ashgate.
- Shinde, B. E. (1982). Outline history of kampuchean communism 1930-78. China Report, 18(1), 11-47. doi:10.1177/000944558201800102
- Thion, S. (1993). Watching Cambodia: Ten paths to enter the Cambodian tangle. Bangkok: Cheney.