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Cambodia

Population:14494293    Capital:Phnom Penh     Official URL:http://www.cambodia.gov.kh/unisql1/egov/english/home.view.html
About: Cambodia was governed from Hanoi as part of French Indo-China from 1864 until 1954 when King Norodom Sihanouk, who had been placed on the throne by the French in 1941, achieved full independence.... read more Cambodia was governed from Hanoi as part of French Indo-China from 1864 until 1954 when King Norodom Sihanouk, who had been placed on the throne by the French in 1941, achieved full independence. He ruled Cambodia until 1970, when Marshal Lon Nol ousted him in a coup. Prince Sihanouk, as he was known from 1955 to 1993, then linked up with the Khmer Rouge, an extreme left-wing party, led by Pol Pot which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 when it is estimated around 1.7m Cambodians (over 20% of the population) died from starvation, disease or execution. At the end of 1978 Vietnam invaded Cambodia and established the People’s Republic of Kampuchea, later renamed the State of Cambodia (SOC). The Khmer Rouge regrouped their forces along the Thai border and waged a war against the Phnom Penh government. The Vietnamese eventually withdrew their forces from Cambodia in 1989, paving the way for the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991 and the establishment of UNTAC (the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia – the largest ever UN peacekeeping operation). FUNCINPEC (Royalists) won a narrow victory in the UNTAC organised democratic elections in 1993 and formed a coalition government with the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) but heavy fighting broke out between the two coalition partners in 1997 in advance of the 1998 elections, won by CPP. A new coalition government between CPP and FUNCINPEC was formed in November 1998 with Hun Sen as Prime Minister. A Senate was established in 1998