Following a five-year struggle,
communist Khmer Rouge forces captured
Phnom Penh in 1975 and ordered the evacuation of all cities and towns; over 1 million displaced people died from execution or enforced hardships. A 1978
Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside and touched off 13 years of fighting.
UN-sponsored elections in 1993 helped restore some semblance of normality, as did the rapid diminishment of the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1990s. A coalition government, formed after national elections in 1998, brought renewed political stability and the surrender of remaining Khmer Rouge forces.
- Much of the material in these articles comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website.
