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Yoshi
08-22-2005, 17:19
History: From the 9th century to the 15th century, Cambodia (or Prāteh Kampuchea) was the center of the mighty Khmer Empire, which was during this time based at Angkor. Angkor Wat, the empire's main religious temple, remains a symbol of Cambodia during its time as a world power, and is also the country's top tourist attraction to this day. Cambodia was a protectorate of France from 1863 until the country received independence in 1953. During this period, Cambodia was under Japanese occupation during World War II from 1941 to 1945. During the 1950s and 1960s the country was under the rule of King Norodom Sihanouk, where the country maintained a precarious neutrality in the wake of active aggression against South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese.

In 1969 the USA began B-52 carpet bombing operations in Cambodia. The US administration kept the bombing secret for a time, then claimed it was targeting Viet Cong guerrilla bases, but the raids resulted in the deaths of between 150,000 and 500,000 civilians and the dropping of over half a million tons of explosives. In 1970 the Nixon administration secretly and briefly invaded, and the bombing continued until 1973. During the 1970s and 1980s, the country was plagued with a brutal civil war, a hated military monarchist regime, as well as an even worse genocidal, agro-communist regime led by the Khmer Rouge. During the Khmer Rouge period, autogenocide was committed against millions of people who were perceived intellectuals, detractors of Marxism, and some just innocent civilians. Millions fled across to neighbouring Thailand.

Vietnam invaded in 1978 and the USA instituted an embargo on the new Vietnamese-sponsored government. The Carter administration helped the Khmer Rouge to retain its seat at the UN, giving the impression that Pol Pot's regime was still the legitimate government of Cambodia. After United Nations intervention, however, Cambodia has gained stability and has begun to rebuild the country's infrastructure that was lost during the brutality that reigned in the 1970s and 1980s.

Map: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/maps/cb-map.gif

Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Oklahoma

Capital: Phnom Penh

Bordering Countries: Laos, Thailand, Vietnam.

Climate: tropical; rainy, monsoon season (May to November); dry season (December to April); little seasonal temperature variation

Land and Land Usage: Mostly low, flat plains, with some small mountains in the north and southwest. About three-fourths tropical forest; roughly one-fifth arable land. Bulk of remaining land is composed of sandy and infertile soil.

Wildlife: Animals found in Cambodia include monkeys, water buffalo, tigers, elephants, leopards, and crocodiles.

Environment - current issues: illegal logging activities throughout the country and strip mining for gems in the western region along the border with Thailand have resulted in habitat loss and declining biodiversity (in particular, destruction of mangrove swamps threatens natural fisheries); soil erosion; in rural areas, most of the population does not have access to potable water; declining fish stocks because of illegal fishing and overfishing

Natural hazards: monsoonal rains (June to November); flooding; occasional droughts

Population: 13,607,069 Population growth rate: 1.81% (2005 est.) Birth rate: 27.08 births/1,000 population (2005 est.) Death rate: 8.97 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.) Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 2.6% (2003 est.) HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 170,000 (2003 est.) HIV/AIDS - deaths: 15,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases: degree of risk: very high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese encephalitis are high risks in some locations (2004)

Ethnic groups: Khmer 90%, Vietnamese 5%, Chinese 1%, other 4% Religions: Theravada Buddhist 95%, other 5% Languages: Khmer (official) 95%, French, English Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 69.4% male: 80.8% female: 59.3% (2002)

Disputes - international: Southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to check the spread of avian flu; Cambodia and Thailand dispute sections of boundary with missing boundary markers and Thai encroachments into Cambodian territory; maritime boundary with Vietnam is hampered by unresolved dispute over offshore islands; Cambodia accuses Thailand of obstructing access to Preah Vihear temple ruins awarded to Cambodia by ICJ decision in 1962; in 2004 Cambodian-Laotian and Laotian-Vietnamese boundary commissions reerect missing markers completing most of their demarcations

Illicit drugs: narcotics-related corruption reportedly involving some in the government, military, and police; possible small-scale opium, heroin, and amphetamine production; large producer of cannabis for the international market; vulnerable to money laundering due to its cash-based economy and porous borders

Politics: Cambodia underwent turbulent events from the 1970s until the early 1990s, when elections, administered by the United Nations, were held. Ever since then, Cambodia has enjoyed greater stability and peace. One effect of this was the smooth transition when King Sihanouk abdicated in favor of his son Norodom Sihamoni on October 14, 2004.

Type: Cambodia is a Constitutional Monarchy. The government is headed by democratically elected Prime Minister; a National Assembly is composed of 120 representatives. The voting age is 18. The reigning monarch is King Norodom Sihamoni, but his duties are mainly ceremonial. The current Prime Minister is Hun Sen. The first democratically elected leader in recent times, Norodom Ranariddh, was overthrown in a coup staged by Hun Sen in July 1997. Hun Sen was subsequently elected Prime Minister in elections in July 1998, but the elections were severely flawed by a climate of violence and intimidation. Recently, the political situation has stabilized, but serious problems of corruption and impunity remain. Elections in 2003, though still far from perfect, were less violent than earlier polls. Hun Sen once again emerged victorious

Side note: Cambodia was home to one of the most ruthless figures in history, Pol Pot. Between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot (real name Saloth Sar) presided over a communist regime known as Democratic Kampuchea. His harsh, utopian policies, derived in part from Maoist China, drove an estimated 1.5 million Cambodians--or one in five--to their deaths from malnutrition, illness or overwork. At least 200,000 more were executed as enemies of the state. The ratio of deaths to population made the Cambodian revolution the most murderous in a century of revolutions.

Sources:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cb.html
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/maps/cb-map.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodia
http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/facts.htm
http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/pol_pot1.html