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Cease Fire – 1998

On February 27, Cambodia’s warring factions agreed to a ceasefire, ending months of fighting between Phnom Penh’s troops and the deposed co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh’s resistance army. This ceasefire agreement completed the first of a four step Japanese peace plan aimed at enabling the exiled prince to return to Cambodia and participate in July’s scheduled elections.¹

The Khmer Rouge guerrilla movement broke the ceasefire agreement between Cambodia’s two main warring political factions on Sunday, March 1, 1998, and vowed to keep fighting the Phnom Penh government.² Many KR fighters that had come over to the government with the KR leadership, including Khiev Samphan, defected in December 1998. The last armed resistance ended with the capture of the last remaining KR soldiers, led by Ta Mok in December 1999.

1. “Ceasefire puts exiled prince back in poll picture,” The Weekend Australia, February 28, 1998.
2. “Khmer Rouge blast Cambodian ceasefire, vow to keep fighting Hun Sen,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 1, 1998.