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Powersharing Transitional Government – 1991

The informal meeting of the parties to the conflict took place in Jakarta on September 10, 1990. In this meeting the composition of the Supreme National Council (SNC) was finalized. The Cambodian parties present in the informal meeting agreed that the 12 member SNC would be comprised in the following way: Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk as President; six members from the State of Cambodia; 2 members from the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front (KPNLF); 1 member from the National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia (FUNCINPEC); and 2 members from the Democratic Kampuchea or Khmer Rouge. ¹ Throughout the transitional period, the SNC was the legitimate body and source of authority in which the sovereignty, independence, and unity of Cambodia were enshrined.

On 20 November 1991, Hun Sen — leader of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and Chairman of the State of Cambodia’s Council of Ministers — and Prince Norodom Ranariddh — Secretary-General of FUNCINPEC — signed a memorandum establishing an alliance between the CPP and FUNCINPEC, as did members of the Supreme National Council of Cambodia.²

1. Nady Tan, “National Conference on Peace, National reconciliation and Democracy Building: Ten Years after the Paris Peace Agreement,” 2001, accessed July 14, 2010, http://www.camnet.com.kh/ocm/government102.htm.
2. “Alliance between CPP and FUNCINPEC,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, November 22, 1991.