Party of Democratic Kampuchea

Party of Democratic Kampuchea
គណបក្សកម្ពុជាប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ
AbbreviationPDK
General Secretary
SpokespersonKhieu Samphan
FoundedDecember 1981
BannedJuly 1994
Preceded byCommunist Party of Kampuchea
Succeeded byCambodian National Unity Party
HeadquartersPhnom Penh (de jure)
Military wingNational Army of Democratic Kampuchea
Ideology
National affiliationPatriotic and Democratic Front of the Great National Union of Kampuchea
Slogan"National Independence, Democracy, and Socialism"
Party flag

The Party of Democratic Kampuchea was a political party in Cambodia, formed as a continuation of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in December 1981.[10] In the mid-1980s, it publicly claimed that its ideology was "a new form of democratic socialism",[11] having ostensibly renounced Marxism–Leninism.[12]

History

According to the party, the Communist Party of Kampuchea's dissolution and the Party of Democratic Kampuchea's formation were prompted by the need for broader unity against Vietnam, a unity that an explicit communist line would hamper. The National Army of Democratic Kampuchea was the armed wing of the party, while the Patriotic and Democratic Front of the Great National Union of Kampuchea was a mass organization controlled by it.

At the time of the formation of the Party of Democratic Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge forces had been pushed back by the Vietnamese-backed KPRP government to an area near the Thai border. The Party of Democratic Kampuchea began cooperating with other anti-Vietnamese factions and formed the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea in 1982.

The party's General Secretary at the time was Pol Pot. The party led the deposed Democratic Kampuchea government. Its followers were generally called Khmer Rouge. Although Pol Pot relinquished party leadership to Khieu Samphan in 1985, he continued to wield considerable influence over the movement.

Ahead of the 1992–1993 elections, the Party of Democratic Kampuchea was largely succeeded by the Cambodian National Unity Party (CNUP),[13] which publicly stated its wish to participate in the elections but eventually did not register and vowed to sabotage the election. Subsequently, UNTAC decided not to conduct elections in areas under Party of Democratic Kampuchea control.[14] At the time, it was estimated that approximately six per cent of the population in Cambodia lived in areas under Party of Democratic Kampuchea control.[15]

The Party of Democratic Kampuchea was declared illegal in July 1994, after which its activities continued under the Cambodian National Unity Party and the self-proclaimed Provisional Government of National Union and National Salvation of Cambodia.[16]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chandler, David P. (1991). Cambodia: The History of a Genocide. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. pp. 130–135.
  2. ↑ Summers, Laura (1988). "Vietnam's Kampuchea". Third World Quarterly. 10 (4): 1643–1649. doi:10.1080/01436598808420131. JSTOR 3992516.
  3. ↑ "The 202425 Budget". gsp.yale.edu.
  4. ↑ Shivakumar, M. S. (1998). "Pol Pot: Death Deprives Justice". Economic and Political Weekly. 33 (17): 952–954. JSTOR 4406690.
  5. ↑ "The Original Cambodian | New Internationalist". newint.org. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Banks, Arthur S. (1999). Political Handbook of the World 1999. New York: CSA Publications. p. 154.
  7. ↑ Day, Alan John; German, Richard; Campbell, John (1996). Political Parties of the World. New York: Stockton. p. 109.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Kiernan, Ben (1996). The Pol Pot Regime. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 195–204.
  9. ↑ Defalco, Randle C. (2014). "Justice and Starvation in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge Famine". The Cambodia Law and Policy Journal. 3.
  10. ↑ "Glossary - Thai / Cambodia Border Refugee Camps Website". websitesrcg.com.
  11. ↑ Alan John Day, Richard German, and John Campbell (Ed.). Political Parties of the World. 1996. New York: Stockton. p. 109.
  12. ↑ Bogdan Szajkowski (Ed.). Revolutionary and Dissident Movements of the World. John Harper Publishing. 2004. p. 54.
  13. ↑ Arthur S. Banks, Thomas C. Muller, William Overstreet, Sean M. Phelan, Hal Smith (Ed.). Political Handbook of the World 1999. 2000. p. 154.
  14. ↑ "CAMBODIA (Radhsphea Ney Preah Recheanachakr Kampuchea – National Assembly)". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 19 June 2007.
  15. ↑ "CPSR - document_view". cpsr.org.
  16. ↑ The Europa World Year Book Volume I. Europa Publications Limited. 1997. p. 775.
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