Battle of Pailin
The Battle of Pailin also known as the Siege of Pailin is an armed conflict which extended from 1989 to 1997 as the last military act of the Khmer Rouge insurgency which took place in the Northwest of Cambodia in the last military stronghold of the Khmer Rouge.
Context
After the Khmer Rouge exterminated thousands of their own people during the Cambodian genocide, they were overthrown by the invasion of the Vietnamese Communists on Christmas Day, 1978. During ten years, the Khmer Rouge led a guerilla against the occupation army. While some Khmer Rouge found refuge in the Site 8 refugee camp on the Thai border, large regiments of insurgents lived in hiding in the large forests of the Northwest of Cambodia.As their resistance went on, their resources became scarce. The nearby town of Pailin, which had been bombarded since 1979 chasing all its population presented itself as a strategic hotspot. More than its old sandstone and wooden houses, the city was famous for its ruby and sapphire fields, said to be some of the richest in the world.
The Khmer Rouge were not the only forces opposing the Vietnamese army; monarchist regiments under Prince Norodom Ranariddh and nationalist troops led by resistance leader Son Sann also attacked the Viatnamese forces.
As the Vietnamese retreated, the vacuum created an opportunity for the Khmer Rouge to seize the city and turn Pailin into their ultimate stronghold in the Northwest.
Overview
The fall of Pailin
While the Vietnamese ended their 10-year occupation of Cambodia and retreated for the Northwest of Cambodia with their 26,000 soldiers, the Khmer Rouge launched their takeover of Pailin on September 17, 1989. While they shelled a deserted town, the new transitional government of the State of Cambodia organized a "hero's farewell for the Vietnamese troops on their way out of the country".According to Khieu Kanharith, the Khmer Rouge guerillas committed two divisions to the Pailin campaign, the 320th and the 412th divisions. The government army led by General Ke Kim Yan was outnumbered with only one troop division, or about 6,000 men involved in the defense of Pailin. The departure of the Vietnamese had created high expectations but in the end it brought no denouement to the conflict. On October 24, 1989, the Khmer Rouge claimed victory over the city of Pailin capturing tanks and artillery in what was perceived as "a major victory for the Khmer Rouge in its 11-year battle to topple the Vietnamese-installed government of Cambodia."
From then until August 1996, the Khmer Rouge kept three main headquarters in Pailin, Anlong Veng and Phnom Malai.
The capture and loss of Pailin in 1993-1994
The departure of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
In May 1993, Khmer rouge guerrillas operating in Banteay Meanchey set an ambush that killed Haruyuki Takata, a Japanese policeman working for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia. His death accelerated the withdrawal of the Japanese contingent from high risk areas in Cambodia, and later, the total withdrawal of any military presence of the United Nations in Cambodia. Japanese administrator Yasushi Akashi and the UNTAC Force Commander Lieutenant General John Sanderson tried to reach Pailin in a final attempt to reach a truce. This proved unsuccessful as the blue helmets were forced to retreat, which was "a massive embarrassment for the United Nations" at the time.In July 1993, General Ke Kim Yan reunited the various divided military factions of Cambodian guerrillas under his leadership thus creating the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. While the army payroll was momentarily provided by the United Nations for only three months, the latter also received most of their arms and landmines from the United Nations' unused stocks.
The last UNTAC forces left the country on November 15, 1993.
Failed peace talks over a failed assault
While King Norodom Sihanouk and the royalists led by Norodom Ranariddh favoured negotiations with the Khmer Rouge in Pailin, the Cambodian People's Party considered a strong military intervention to be necessary. In May 1993, it was reported that Un Sun suspected the military officers close to the royalist FUNCINPEC were "undermining the recent efforts to capture the Khmer rouge base in Pailin".The Khmer rouge used the Cambodian general election in 1993 as a diversion to launch an offensive with both diplomatic and military implications in order to show that "it must be allowed to share power in the new government if there were to be any peace".
On July 7, 1993, the archeological site of Preah Vihear fell into the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Galvanised by their success, the Khmer Rouge went onto detaining twenty-one peacekeepers on Thail territory after overrunning a checkpoint of Chong Aan Ma.
As government troops prepared to retaliate and take back Pailin around January 1994, the Khmer Rouge multiplied the assaults on local villages of the province of Battamband and Bavel in a campaign of intimidation. In August 1993, General Ke Kim Yan launched a national counter-attack against the Khmer Rouge, who had enjoyed a relative tranquility during the years of the UNTAC. The first battles took place in Banteay Meanchey and Kampong Thom provinces.
The government took control over strategic areas and was able to open a road from Preah Vihear to Siem Reap and chase the Khmer Rouge from their stronghold in Phnom Chat on August 20, 1993. As the conflict escalated, King Sihanouk attempted to return to peace talks with his former Khmer rouge allies. On November 22, 1993, he suggested that some Khmer Rouge leaders could be "included in the government, even at ministerial levels, if were to acknowledge the government's legitimacy". Prince Ranariddh even had a meeting with Khmer rouge leader Khieu Samphan in Thailand on December 17, 1993. The peace talks were aborted on January 17, 1994, as the Khmer Rouge refused to demobilize.
Taking and losing Pailin
On February 2, 1994, General Ke Kim Yan launched the assault on Anlong Veng, and faced no resistance, as the Khmer rouge guerilla went into hiding once more in the tropical forest. The operation was bankrolled by powerful Khmer tycoons, namely Teng Bunma, Sok Kong and Kith Meng who received "lucrative states contracts and monopolies" as a reward for their support of the politics of the Cambodian People's Party.High casualties resulted not from fighting but from mines and booby-traps set up by the Khmer rouge guerillas. However, the disorganized government troops went out of funding and food in were forced to retreat from Anlong Veng on February 24. The following month, the government troops tried to capture Pailin with worn out troops. The offensive was launched on March 17 with 7,000 troops, tanks, heavy artillery and armed helicopters. After two days of intense fighting, the city was taken over by the government but the victory did not last long, while it created another humanitarian crisis as the Thai army refused to let more refugees in.
As the civilians escaped, the Khmer Rouge came back offensively on the April 19 and took back the city without much pain, as the government soldiers were forced to escape through the minefields of Route 10 and the Khmer Rouge led by Ieng Sary advanced on Battambang, stopping around ten kilometers before the urban area. The burned land terror campaign led by the Khmer Rouge as they advanced resulted in another 60,000 civilians being displaced.