Khmer People's National Liberation Front - Life After The Paris Peace Accords

Life After The Paris Peace Accords

In 1991, France and Indonesia called for a peace conference about the civil war in Cambodia. All four factions inside of Cambodia attended, as well as the UN and many prominent foreign nations (e.g., United States, the Soviet Union, China, and the United Kingdom). The goal of the conference was to establish a united, peaceful, and neutral democracy in Cambodia. In October 1991, all attending parties signed the Paris Peace Agreement.

The agreement called for UN sanctioned elections in 1993 to determine the future government of Cambodia. During the time span in between the signing of the peace agreement and the election, Cambodia would be watched over by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). The peace agreement stipulated that all four factions must cooperate with UNTAC to slowly disarm their fighting forces. All of the factions did so except for the Khmer Rouge, who then protested and did not partake in the election.

The necessity to change from a military faction to a political party facilitated a name change. The Khmer People’s National Liberation Front became the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party. The name change did not result from a deviation in the platform or structure of the KPNLF, with the exception of the loss of the KPNLAF and the previously mentioned Sutsakhan breakaway party. The BLDP was still led by Son Sann, and in the UN sanctioned elections of 1993 the BLDP won 10 out of 120 seats in the National Assembly.

Due to the inability of any one party to win an absolute majority, the BLDP became a junior member of a coalition government with the Cambodian People’s Party (formerly the PRK) and FUNCINPEC. Being a part of the coalition entitled the party to a position in the power-sharing cabinet and an important chair on a commission for the National Assembly (e.g., Ieng Mouly was the Minister of Information, and Kem Sokha was chairman on the National Assembly’s Human Rights Commission.)