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Paramilitary Groups – 1999

At a donor conference in March 1999, the government of Cambodia stated that at the end of September 1999, the number of illegal weapons confiscated consisted of 16,412 rifles, 11 land mines, and 345 hand grenades. It was reported that people had voluntarily turned in 5,655 rifles, 190 hand grenades, and 332 land mines, and that the government had destroyed 20,112 rifles.¹

More than 5,000 royalist fighters who had broken away from the Cambodian armed forces following a bloody 1997 coup officially rejoined the armed forces during a ceremony held on Friday, February 26, 1999. The troops had rebelled after their leader, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, was effectively ousted as co-prime minister by rival Cambodian leader Hun Sen. The ceremony marked the final integration of rebel forces into the army. Thousands of Khmer Rouge fighters were integrated into the army in the months following the collapse of the guerrilla movement, brought about by mass defections.²

Both of these incidents were considered as initiatives to deal with the militia or paramilitary forces. However, they were not considered as concrete steps taken beyond the scope of the military reform.

1. “Cambodia: Army Officers Promoted as Part of Restructuring Programme,” BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific — Political, March 3, 1999.
2. “Royalist resistance forces rejoin Cambodian army,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur, February 26, 1999.