TNAG-1066-FCO40-1316-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 204

E/CN.4/1503

Annex II page 21

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59. The three decades in which Prince Norodom Sihanouk led his country were all too eventful. While striving to preserve Kampuchea's neutrality from the time of independence in

in 1953, he saw it drawn increasingly into the Viet Nam conflict. With its eastern flank used by Vietnamese from the North as a supply route and the port at Kompong Som (then Sihanoukville) used for the importation of military supplies, Kampuchea became increas- ingly a target for the combined South Vietnamese and US air strength. Meanwhile, a polarization of political attitudes had led to certain leftist deputies going underground and establishing links with Hanoi.

60. It was while Sihanouk was travelling to Moscow and Peking in March 1970 in an effort to save Kampuchea from being increas- ingly drawn into the war that he was deposed by Marshall Lon Nol and left in exile. Within weeks, he formed a Royal Govern- ment of National Union, in collaboration with the Khmer Rouge. Five years later what had become a disciplined driving force of 70 000 or more, supported by the People's Republic of China, took over the whole country, virtually devastated from end to end by the years of violent conflict.

61. As in Viet Nam and Laos, whole areas had been evacuated during the war, towns and cities had become swollen out of all proportion and economic survival had become virtually dependent upon US airlifts. There had been a heavy toll of lives and the majority of the population had become alienated from the régime in power.

62. The remaining Vietnamese and Chinese who had constituted the commercial backbone of the former society were driven out of the

the country or forced into agricultural co-operatives being established as

the declared first priority of restoring the national economy. From the cities people were moved at gunpoint to rural areas.

Collectivization became the government's second most important policy priority after national security. With the abolition of

of a currency or banking system, the co- operatives were designed to be as self-sufficient as possible. All property - even personal possessions - was deemed to be held When a constitution was ratified in January 1976, it abolished the monarchy, terminated Buddhism as the official state religion, expropriated all private economic enterprises and established peasants, workers and members of the army as the ruling proletariat.

in common.