Cambodia
| ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រ កម្ពុជា | |||||
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Preăh Réachéanachâk Kâmpŭchéa |
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| Kingdom of Cambodia | |||||
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Motto : ជាតិ សាសនា ព្រះមហាក្សត្រ "Nation, Religion, King" |
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| Official language | Khmer | ||||
| Capital | Phnom Penh | ||||
| Form of government | electoral parliamentary monarchy | ||||
| Government system | Parliamentary government system | ||||
| Head of state | King Norodom Sihamoni | ||||
| Head of government | Prime Minister Hun Sen | ||||
| surface | 181,040 km² | ||||
| population | 16,005,000 (2017) | ||||
| Population density | 78 inhabitants per km² | ||||
| Population development | +1.54% per year | ||||
gross domestic product
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2016 | ||||
| Human Development Index | 0.563 ( 143rd ) (2016) | ||||
| currency | Riel (CHR) | ||||
| independence | November 9, 1953 (by France ) |
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| National anthem |
Nokoreach |
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| National holiday | November 9th | ||||
| Time zone | UTC + 7 | ||||
| License Plate | K | ||||
| ISO 3166 | KH , KHM, 116 | ||||
| Internet TLD | .kh | ||||
| Telephone code | + 855 | ||||
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The Kingdom of Cambodia ( Khmer : ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រ កម្ពុជា , Preăh Réachéanachâk Kâmpŭchéa ) is a state in Southeast Asia . The country is located on the Gulf of Thailand between Thailand , Laos and Vietnam . The capital Phnom Penh is located in the south of the country. The landscape is characterized by a central plain that is partially surrounded by mountains. In it lies the Tonle Sap lake in the west of Cambodia , and the Mekong , one of the ten longest rivers in the world, flows through the east .
Cambodia emerged from the kingdom of Kambuja , which flourished from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Its ruins in Angkor , Roluos , Banteay Srei and Preah Vihear and the even older ones in Sambor Prei Kuk have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List . In 1863 Cambodia came under French rule and later became part of French Indochina . After independence in 1953, Cambodia was initially spared the military conflicts in Indochina , but was drawn into the Second Indochina War after a military coup in 1970 . After years of civil war , the Khmer Rouge established a reign of terror in 1975 which , according to various estimates, claimed 1.7 to well over 2 million lives until the Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnamese troops in 1979. Cambodia remained occupied by Vietnam for ten years, and the disempowered Khmer Rouge put up resistance with guerrilla tactics. After 1989 a peace agreement followed with the participation of the UN and the rebuilding of state structures, which ended in 1993 with a new constitution and the restoration of the monarchy. Cambodia, at that time one of the poorest countries in the world after two decades of war, reign of terror and occupation, has since made significant strides in the fight against poverty and underdevelopment and is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
geography
Cambodia is located on the Indochinese Peninsula , on the northeastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand. The coast has a length of 443 kilometers. Cambodia is bordered by Thailand for 803 kilometers to the west and northwest, Laos to the north (541 km) and Vietnam to the east and south-east (1,228 km). The total area is 181,040 km², of which 176,520 km² are land. Cambodia is about half the size of Germany .
Landscape image
Two thirds of Cambodia is occupied by the Cambodian Basin, which is 5 to 30 m above sea level and in the western center of which is the Tonle Sap . The alluvial plain and the first foothills of the Mekong Delta , which is otherwise in Vietnam and drains the central basin, connect to the east .
Mountains and plateaus adjoin the basin on three sides. To the southwest of Tonle Sap are the cardamom and elephant mountains , followed by a narrow coastal plain. The Dongrek Mountains are located on the northern border with Thailand . The Annamite Cordillera, which runs mainly in Laos and Vietnam, extends with its foothills as far as northeast Cambodia.
Waters
In the middle of the Cambodian Basin is the Tonle Sap , which is connected to the Mekong by the Tonle Sap River . During the rainy season from July to October, the Mekong floods so much that the water is pushed against its direction of flow up the Tonle Sap River and feeds the lake, which swells from 2,500 km² to 20,000 km². This makes it the largest lake in Southeast Asia. The Mekong, the largest river in Southeast Asia, flows through Cambodia in a north-south direction for 500 kilometers. It is mostly over 1.6 kilometers wide. In Cambodia, the Bassac splits off from the Mekong.
Other rivers are the Sreng and the Sangke (Sangker) , which arise in the western border mountains and flow together on the way to the north end of the Tonle Sap. The Pursat flows into the lake on the southern bank, the Sen and Chinit into the Tonle Sap River. From the eastern highlands the Mekong is fed by the Kong (Sekong) , the San and the Srepok .
Mountains
The Cardamom Mountains run in an east-west direction. In the eastern part is the Phnom Aural ( 1813 m ), the highest mountain in the country. The second southern mountain range, the Elephant Mountains, connects to the southeast of the Cardamom Mountains and from there runs south to the shores of the Gulf of Thailand . It reaches its highest point with the Phnom Popok ( 1079 m ).
The northern massif Chuǒr Phnom Dângrêk is made up of sandstone , drops steeply to the south and does not exceed 756 m . The eastern Chlong plateau (up to 942 m ) and a strip of mountainous land in the northeast that rises to 1500 m form the foothills of the Annamite Cordillera . Little known mountain tribes still live there .
Islands
Cambodia has 64 islands. The largest is Kaôh Kŏng near the Thai border, followed by Koh Rong off the coast of Sihanoukville , which forms an archipelago with Koh Rong Sanloem . Other larger islands are Koh Thmei on the border with Vietnam and Koh Samit , Koh Tang and Koh Tonsay .
climate
In general, the monsoon climate in Cambodia has consistently high temperatures. In December they drop to a low of 26 ° C and reach their maximum of 30 ° C in April. The rainfall is determined by the monsoons; From May to September / October the humid southwest monsoon blows and brings rain, in the rest of the year northeast winds bring dry continental air. The lowest rainfall is measured on the Tonle Sap with an average of 1,000 mm per year; in the rest of the lowlands they are 1,300–2,000 mm annually. On the western slopes of the mountains the rainfall increases to 4,000 mm and more, the maximum values are reached in the Elephant Mountains with 5,300 mm.
Flora and fauna
Depending on the source, between 30 and 76% of Cambodia is forested. An evergreen mountain forest grows at heights of over 700 m with a damp, cool climate, the trees of which reach heights of up to 20 meters. The vegetation on the western slopes of the mountains, which is rich in precipitation, is characterized by tropical rainforests that are 40 to 50 meters high. In the undergrowth there are lower plants such as smaller trees, bushes or palms. When not used for agriculture, the lowlands are covered by monsoons and dry forests, which lose their foliage in the dry season. In regions where flood forest and swampy savannahs dominate, the soils are poor in nutrients and dry. Mangrove forests can be found on the coast . Tree species that have become rare, such as the blackwood tree, the ebony tree and the rosewood tree ( Dalbergia cochinchinensis ) are also widespread .
The fauna of Cambodia is rich in species, a total of 630 protected species live in Cambodia. The north-eastern provinces in particular are said to still have large wild populations. For example, Indian elephants , tigers , leopards , fruit bats and various bear species live in the sparsely populated forest and mountain areas . There are also many snakes here such as the king cobra and the highly poisonous krait . The Kouprey , a type of wild cattle, discovered in 1937 may already have died out .
The Tonle Sap is rich in water birds and aquatic animals, including more than 850 species of fish. In the lower section of the Mekong are the last refuge areas of the Irrawaddy dolphin . In May 2007, adults, young animals and clutches of the Cantor's giant softshell turtle , believed to be extinct, were also discovered here .
By a royal decree in 2005 were the Kouprey ( Bos sauveli ), the giant ibis ( Pseudibis gigantea ), the Batagur ( Batagur baska ), the giant barb ( Catlocarpio siamensis ), the Palmyra palm ( Borassus flabellifer ) that Rumdrul -Blume ( Mitrella mesnyi ) and the banana variety Musa aromatica declared national symbols and placed under special protection.
environment
Problems
The biggest environmental problem Cambodia has been facing since the 1980s has been logging . In 1995, the Hun Sen government passed a new environmental law, which was seen as a first step towards more sustainable use of Cambodia's forests and other resources; At the end of 1996 the export of whole logs was banned. However, the government continued to grant extensive concessions ; At its peak in late 1997, 35% of all Cambodian territory had been cleared for deforestation, which was almost all of the forest area outside the protected areas. According to a World Bank report from 1998, the forest cover in Cambodia decreased from 73% to 58% between 1969 and 1997.
Since the late 1990s, foreign donors became increasingly aware of the problem and put pressure on the Cambodian government. For this reason, action against illegal loggers has been tougher since 1999: since January 2002, all logging concessions have been frozen. This measure is bypassed by one hand, illegal logging went to a small extent and also concessions for cash crop - plantations are requested to remain unused, and only as a pretext for cutbacks are needed. Corruption and self-enrichment by influential officials or members of the military leadership are part of the problem. Some organizations also operate from neighboring countries. The felled wood is smuggled across the border to Thailand from the provinces of Oddar Meanchey , Battambang , Pursat and Koh Kong , and from Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri to Vietnam. It also happens that critics are intimidated and forest rangers are murdered.
The consequence of extensive logging is erosion , for example in the mangrove forests on the coast, which are falling victim to charcoal extraction and shrimp farms . Inland waters silt up due to the washed-in soil. The Tonle Sap is particularly hard hit, the average depth of which fell during the dry season from 50 cm in 1960 to 30 cm in 1993, while the annual deposition doubled over the same period. The Mekong also transports large amounts of sediment , which it takes with it from the deforested areas, especially during monsoons. Dam projects on the Chinese tributaries of the Mekong also endanger the abundance of fish and impair the renewed deposition of fertile soil on the banks. Those residents who earn their living from the forest, for example by collecting tree sap, are also affected .
On the other hand, environmental pollution is limited. River and lake water are largely clean and the only city affected by air pollution is Phnom Penh. Tourism is not yet a major problem either, although the inadequate disposal of plastic waste and bottles is problematic across the country.
Nature reserves
Cambodia was the first country in Southeast Asia to set up a nature reserve . In 1925 the land around the temple complex of Angkor was declared a national park. In 1969 there were six sanctuaries for wildlife, mostly large mammals. They took up a total of 2.2 million hectares or 12% of the land area. The system, which fell into disrepair during the Civil War , was renewed in 1993 by a royal decree that resulted in the creation of 23 protected areas, which now cover over 21% of the total area of Cambodia at 3,402,203 hectares. However, they were to a large extent in areas controlled by the Khmer Rouge and were therefore neither controllable nor affordable. Since 1993 some protected forests have been added, so that today 43,000 km² or 25% of the country are under protection. Even today, after the end of the Khmer Rouge, there are access problems in many protected areas. They are endangered by the development of settlement areas, illegal logging and the demand for animal organs for traditional medicine. In addition, there is a lack of resources and, in some cases, the will to provide effective protection.
population
Demographics
Cambodia has around 16.0 million inhabitants. The average age is 24.9 years, life expectancy is 69.5 years (2000: 54 years). The birth rate of 23.4 per 1,000 inhabitants contrasts with a death rate of 7.6 per 1,000, with a child mortality rate of 31 per 1,000 live births. A woman has an average of 2.6 children. The population growth is 1.6%. The literacy rate is 77.2% (2015 estimate), with men with 84.5% being significantly better literate than women with 70.5%. The population density is 78 inhabitants per square kilometer. According to UNICEF estimates, there are around 670,000 orphans in Cambodia.
| year | population | year | population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 4,433,000 | 1985 | 7,713,000 |
| 1955 | 5,045,000 | 1990 | 8,973,000 |
| 1960 | 5,722,000 | 1995 | 10,654,000 |
| 1965 | 6,467,000 | 2000 | 12,152,000 |
| 1970 | 6,995,000 | 2005 | 13,270,000 |
| 1975 | 7,523,000 | 2010 | 14,309,000 |
| 1980 | 6,692,000 | 2017 | 16,005,000 |
ethnicities
The main population group of Cambodia are the Khmer , who officially make up 85–90% of the total population. This makes Cambodia the most ethnically homogeneous country in Southeast Asia. The largest minorities are the Vietnamese (5%), the Cham (up to 3%) and the Chinese (around 1%). There are smaller minorities of Thais , Laotians and a number of mountain peoples who were formerly called Moi and are now grouped under the name Khmer Loeu ("highland Khmer"). The official figures published by the government on the proportion of minorities in the population are estimated to be a little too low.
The Khmer have lived in their current settlement areas since the 2nd century AD; where they came from is not fully understood. The Vietnamese have been living as rice farmers in Cambodia since the end of the 17th century, and more came into the country in the 19th and early 20th centuries because the French colonial rulers gave them preferential positions. During the Vietnamese occupation after the fall of Pol Pot from 1979 to 1989, a second wave of immigration followed. For historical reasons, there are still conflicts between the Vietnamese and the Khmer, which repeatedly reached their climax in pogroms, most recently in the 1990s; Anti-Vietnamese slogans are also considered normal in politics, for example by the Sam Rainsy party or FUNCINPEC . Today many Vietnamese live as fishermen in floating villages on the Tonle Sap.
Since the early modern era, the Chinese have mainly lived in the cities where they work as traders and craftsmen. They controlled the country's economy and transport system until 1975, but under the rule of the Khmer Rouge many of them, as well as members of other ethnic groups, were killed or fled. They have been slowly returning since the early 1990s, and thanks to Chinese investment from other countries, they have become an important economic force again.
The Muslim Cham are a Malay people. They live mainly on the coastal areas and the lower reaches of the Mekong, since their empire was destroyed and annexed by Vietnam in 1471 and many of them fled. Their spiritual center is in Chur-Changvra near Phnom Penh. The Cham are traditionally cattle traders, silk weavers and butchers, as the latter is traditionally not allowed by the Buddhist Khmer.
The hill tribes who are now known as Khmer Loeu (highland Khmer) are Austro-Asian and Malayo-Polynesian-speaking peoples (including Bunong, Kuy, Jarai) who live in the mountainous border areas with Thailand and Vietnam. The 21 tribes traditionally live as semi-nomads, grow rice and vegetables , slash and burn , keep cows, chickens and pigs as farm animals and are animistic beliefs. This traditional way of life is being replaced more and more by the settlements and customs of the Khmer. Small minorities of the Shan , Thai and Lao live in the Battambang area . They are descendants of miners and jewelers who were employed in the ruby mines of Pailin during colonial times .
At only 0.5%, the proportion of foreigners in the country is very low.
languages
The official language of Cambodia is Khmer , an Austro-Asian language spoken by 95% of the country's residents. Other languages are Vietnamese , Chinese , Cham and various other minority languages: Brao , Chong , Jarai , Kaco , Kraol , Kravet , Kr'ung , Lamam , Mnong , Pear , Samre , Sa'och , Somray , Stieng , Suoy and Tampuan .
Because of the French colonial past, French was the most popular foreign language for over a century and was also spoken in educated circles until 1975. Today it is increasingly being replaced by English due to the increased tourism from English-speaking countries . Since 1990, when the teaching of English was legalized again, it has outstripped French in popularity. Tensions developed between followers of the two languages as the French continue to try to spread their culture and language in Cambodia, both to preserve the cultural heritage and to minimize the loss of influence. These efforts are also financially supported by the French government; Although it is one of the largest foreign donors, the success remained low: For example, students at the Technical University of Phnom Penh burned their French textbooks in 1995 in protest against the language of instruction.
Religions
In Cambodia, around 96.3% of the population are followers of Theravada Buddhism , which, in addition to Cambodia, is also widespread in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Sri Lanka . Other denominations represented are Islam with around 1.9% (especially Sunnis among the Cham) and Christianity with 0.4 to one percent, of which the New Apostolic Church is the largest denomination represented. The Catholic Church in Cambodia is particularly widespread among the Vietnamese minority. Some mountain peoples have also kept ethnic religions , the Chinese are mainly Confucians , Taoists or Mahayana Buddhists.
Theravada Buddhism, which superseded Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism from the 14th century , was the state religion until 1975 and again from the late 1980s. Today it is enshrined in law in the constitution. About 25,000 Buddhist monks were killed under the Khmer Rouge. Some of the monks were forced to take off their robes. Almost all wats and mosques were destroyed. Most of the religious sites were rebuilt in the 1990s - today there are again 59,500 monks and 3,980 wats. An international mosque was built in Phnom Penh with Saudi Arabian money.
Cities and Population Distribution
The biggest cities in Cambodia are:
| city | Residents (urban) |
Inhabitants (rural) |
Population (total) |
was standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phnom Penh | 1,501,725 | 2010 | ||
| Sihanoukville | 89,846 | 110.056 | 199.902 | 2008 |
| Battambang | 180.318 | 844.345 | 1,024,663 | 2008 |
| Siem Reap | 172.843 | 723.466 | 896.309 | 2008 |
| Kampong Chhnang | 42,809 | 428,807 | 471.616 | 2008 |
| Kampong Cham | 118.154 | 1,562,540 | 1,680,694 | 2008 |
| Pursat | 25,583 | 371,524 | 397.107 | 2008 |
70% of the population of Cambodia lives in the central plain, the mountain regions are only sparsely populated. Only about 20% of the population live in the cities today, which is partly due to the policy of the Khmer Rouge, which evacuated the cities. In 1978 there were only 20,000 people in Phnom Penh, compared with 2.5 million in 1974.
history
Early states and the Khmer empire
The lower course of the Mekong was already in the 4th century BC. Settled by Khmer, Cham and Funanese . In the 1st century AD, the kingdoms of Funan and Chenla emerged in Indochina , the latter being a vassal state of Funan. In the 6th century, Chenla took over the Hindu -influenced Funan, and a great empire emerged that was the most important power in the region for 250 years and fell into two parts again after unrest. In the 9th century a new Khmer empire emerged, the capital of which had been Angkor since 889 and which reached its peak in power in the 12th century: It ruled Southeast Asia from Malacca to the isthmus of Kra as well as Laos and parts of Vietnam. The cultural bloom also falls during this period; the Angkor Wat temple complex built at that time still stands today. Around 1200 Angkor had around a million inhabitants, making it the largest city in the world at the time.
Jayavarman VII was the first king to replace the Hindu-oriented Linga cult with Buddhism, which had come to Cambodia as early as the 9th century through the kingdom of Srivijaya . As a result, the kings lost their godlike status, which led to domestic political weakness. In the 13th century the Sukhothai Empire emerged in the west and developed into a strong regional competitor. His successor kingdom Ayutthaya conquered Angkor in 1353. The Thai occupiers soon withdrew, but wars with Cham and Shan prevented the Angkor Empire from stabilizing. In 1431 Angkor was conquered again, after which the capital was moved to Phnom Penh. In the following centuries there was constant war with the Thai and Vietnamese; the only exception was the 16th century, when pressure from the west was eased by a strengthening of Burma and the Khmer empire experienced a late bloom. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Vietnam conquered large parts of the Mekong Delta, while Thailand occupied the northern regions of the empire.
French colonial rule and the Vietnam War
To prevent a complete takeover of the empire by Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia turned to France, which had taken southern Vietnam in 1859. In 1863 the country became a protectorate of France under King Norodom I , and in 1887 it joined Vietnam and later also Laos in the Indochinese Union . From 1884 Cambodia was practically a colony of France, although the monarchy remained. Under French leadership, rubber plantations were planted and railways built, apart from that France made little effort to modernize the country. In 1884 slavery was abolished and in 1913 a consultative council was created to control the king. Local administrations, which were supposed to lead the communities on behalf of the colonial power, were founded. The posts to be given to locals were mostly filled by Vietnamese. Since the French also demanded high taxes and introduced unpaid labor service, resistance movements such as the Khmer Issarak (Free Khmer) formed .
During World War II , France had to allow the Japanese Empire to station troops in Cambodia. King Norodom Sihanouk , who was installed by the French in 1941, followed Japan's pan-Asian appeals , unilaterally terminated all treaties with France on March 12, 1945 under the protection of Japanese troops and declared independence. This had to be withdrawn after the surrender of Japan . The Khmer Issarak allied themselves with the Vietnamese Vietminh and waged a guerrilla war against the French with them . Cambodia got a constitution in 1947 and independence in 1949 as part of the French Union . In 1953 it received full state sovereignty.
In the first years after independence, Sihanouk ruled the country as an autocrat. Both the bourgeois and communist opposition were suppressed. Although he tried to be neutral in the Vietnam War , he tolerated the activities of South Vietnam and the Viet Minh in the east of the country. In 1970, Cambodian officers under General Lon Nol overthrew the government with American help. Lon Nol's reign was chaotic: Sihanouk allied with the communists and fought the Lon Nol government in the Cambodian civil war . The government lost control of large parts of the country. In April 1975 the communist troops, now known as the Khmer Rouge , conquered the capital Phnom Penh , while the Việt cộng conquered the South Vietnamese capital Saigon . Khieu Samphan became the new head of state and Pol Pot was the new prime minister .
Khmer Rouge to Paris Peace Agreement
The Khmer Rouge established an extremely repressive regime with the aim of creating an egalitarian society based on the Maoist model. There were forced relocations from the city to the countryside, as well as forced labor, collectivization and mass killings. Violence was directed against officials and representatives of previous governments, against intellectuals and teachers and people believed to be, and against ethnic minorities. Several waves of political purges were also directed against the regime itself. This and the blatant mismanagement led to the regime's rapid disintegration. The figures for the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime vary considerably, depending on the source, and range from 740,800 victims to 2.2 million killed. The Khmer Rouge Tribunal names 1.7 to 2.2 million victims.
The violence of the xenophobic Khmer Rouge was directed particularly against the ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia and, increasingly, against the neighboring state of Vietnam . This led to the invasion of the Vietnamese army in December 1978 and the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime a few weeks later. This began the rule of the socialist Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party , which relied on the support of the Vietnamese military and Soviet economic and financial aid. In 1985, Hun Sen took over the post of Prime Minister. The Khmer Rouge had withdrawn to northwestern Cambodia, from where they fought the government of the People's Party and formed a government in exile with royalists and bourgeois groups called the coalition government of the Democratic Kampuchea . This government-in-exile was supported by the People's Republic of China, the USA, Thailand and parts of the ASEAN countries. The end of the Cold War opened up the possibility of resolving this conflict. The Indonesian government brokered talks between the two warring parties, which in 1991 resulted in the Paris Peace Treaty and a political reorganization with the help of the United Nations .
Today's Cambodia
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The peace treaty concluded on October 23, 1991 stipulated that a transitional government under the leadership of the UN ( UNTAC ) would enforce a ceasefire for a period of 18 months and guarantee security, that elections to a constituent assembly would be held and that all warring parties would demobilize their troops would. On the Cambodian side, a Supreme National Council was founded, to which all relevant parties belonged and which had to implement the UNTAC directives. However, UNTAC was only partially able to place the authorities dominated by the Cambodian People's Party under neutral supervision. The Khmer Rouge withdrew from the peace process as early as 1992 and only a quarter of the soldiers were demobilized. In the 1993 constituent assembly elections, the People's Party emerged as the loser. Hun Sen announced not to recognize the result and threatened war. Some provinces controlled by the People's Party declared themselves independent from Cambodia. Against this background, a grand coalition of the royalist FUNCINPEC under Sihanouk's son Norodom Ranariddh was negotiated with Hun Sens's People's Party. The Constituent Assembly adopted a constitution , defined the Cambodia as a parliamentary monarchy and democratic constitutional state. Norodom Sihanouk became king, the UN mission ended.
The Khmer Rouge, who had signed the treaty, boycotted the elections in the northern provinces they occupied and did not allow themselves to be disarmed. The UN reacted in 1992 with economic sanctions, which mainly affected the sale of tropical timber and oil , the former being an important source of income for the Khmer Rouge. In addition, the seizure of foreign assets was threatened. The Khmer Rouge responded by kidnapping UN troops and continuing their guerrilla warfare. Thousands fled for fear of new mass murders. After a final intensification of the fighting, the group began to break up in 1996. Ieng Sary , the governor of Pailin, went over to the government. That same year, Pol Pot was sentenced to life imprisonment by the group in a show trial. Regarded as a traitor by the retreating Khmer Rouge, he died as their prisoner in April 1998 under house arrest under circumstances that were not fully understood. At the end of 1998 the last units of the Khmer Rouge surrendered in the Cambodian-Thai border area.
At the end of the 1990s tensions between the two prime ministers grew; the compromise that had been found on power-sharing proved too weak. Open armed conflicts broke out in 1997, from which Hun Sen emerged victorious. This marked the beginning of the establishment of a regime in which Hun Sen's People's Party rules in an authoritarian manner and manipulates political competition in its favor in such a way that it retains control over parliament and local councils. The regime buys the allegiance of civil servants, the military, entrepreneurs and also from opposition politicians by assigning posts that can serve personal enrichment. Repression is being used against civil society, journalists and critical opposition politicians, while at the same time the People's Party presents itself - especially towards donors of development aid - as the only force that is able to advance Cambodia economically and socially and to ensure peace.
politics
Political system
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The Constitution of Cambodia defines Cambodia as an electoral parliamentary monarchy in which the executive consists of the king and a council of ministers led by the prime minister and the legislature consists of a directly elected National Assembly and an indirectly elected Senate. Despite the formal separation of powers, Cambodia's political system contains authoritarian elements that lead to the prime minister being overly dominated. The Prime Minister 's People's Party manages to secure its supremacy by manipulating political life and granting opportunities for personal enrichment to the co-opting of civil servants, entrepreneurs and members of the opposition.
In the 2019 Democracy Index of the British magazine The Economist, Cambodia ranks 124th out of 167 countries and is therefore considered an "authoritarian regime". In the country report Freedom in the World 2017 by the US non-governmental organization Freedom House , the country's political system is rated as “not free”. The scope for pluralism is shrinking significantly and continuously, citizens have below-average confidence in political institutions, and the fruits of economic development only benefit a small group of political favorites of the ruling party.
executive
The head of state of Cambodia is the king elected by the Throne Council, since October 29, 2004 this has been King Norodom Sihamoni . The heir to the throne must be at least 30 years of age and belong to the royal family, while the council of the throne includes the presidents and vice-presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, the prime ministers and the heads of Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism. The king symbolizes the unity and eternity of the Cambodian nation and, moreover, only has ceremonial and representative functions. He mediates constitutional conflicts, appoints the government, high officials and ambassadors, signs laws and international treaties and is chairman of the Defense Council. However, he is not allowed to govern, dismiss the government, he has no examination or selection powers and no political discretion. The king's influence on political events is therefore low, with a downward trend. He is independent only in exercising the power of the word and in pardons.
The Royal Government is formed by the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister. The Council of Ministers and the Prime Minister are appointed by the National Assembly and appointed by the King. The Prime Minister plays the central role in governance, the law gives him unrestricted organizational and management functions. Apart from that, the government apparatus is oversized, numerous posts with highly fragmented responsibilities have been created to provide members or friends of the ruling party with posts and to ensure that the Prime Minister retains power.
legislative branch
The legislature consists of two chambers. The first is the National Assembly with at least 120 deputies. The MPs are elected for a legislative period of five years directly by proportional representation with closed party lists. The National Assembly elects the Prime Minister and the members of the Council of Ministers by an absolute majority. Its job is to control the government; it has the right to cast suspicion on the prime minister or other members of the government. It decides to approve international treaties and confirms the appointment of high-ranking officials or officers.
The Senate, which is no more than half the size of the National Assembly, is elected for a six-year legislative period. Two of the senators are appointed by the king and two more by the national assembly; the rest are elected by the local councils. The President of the Senate represents the King in his absence or illness. The role of the Senate in Cambodia's political life is negligible. Since its members are usually elected by the ruling party that rules the municipalities, it exercises no parliamentary control over the government. It is therefore regarded as an instrument with which the ruling party provides people with posts, status and access to monetary benefits.
Laws are passed with an absolute majority in the National Assembly (constitutional laws with a two-thirds majority), with the prime minister, senators or members of parliament having the right to initiate legislation. The Senate has the right to object to laws, if the law in this case is passed again by the National Assembly and signed by the King, it becomes valid. In practice, only the Prime Minister exercises the right to initiate legislation. The government denies the opposition - insofar as they are represented in parliament - their rights by not including them in committees and failing to comply with their reporting obligations to parliament, or only to a limited extent.
Following the controversial parliamentary elections in Cambodia in 2018 , the Cambodian People's Party has all 125 members of the National Assembly after the largest opposition party, the Cambodian National Rescue Party , was dissolved.
Parties
The first Cambodian parties emerged in the 1950s, but none of the parties survived the political upheavals of the past few decades. Today Cambodia is an asymmetrical two-party system in which the hegemony of the People's Party is structurally anchored. Political competitors are not given equal opportunities.
The ruling Cambodian People's Party is by far the most important party in Cambodia. It emerged from the Vietnamese wing of the Marxist Cambodian Workers' Party and was renamed in 1989. Although it professes the monarchy and private property, it is still structured according to the Leninist model, in which the Politburo is the actual leadership center. It plays the role of a dominant party, controls the military, state officials and state-affiliated media. Its leading members are Hun Sen , who has been head of government since 1985 and, thanks to a system of patronage and cooptation, has become the undisputed leader of the party. As a ruling party, the People's Party has the advantage of being able to fall back on state structures where the party's own structures are too weak or non-existent. As a result, it is particularly strongly anchored in rural regions. Its general secretary is Chea Sim . After the elections to the National Assembly on July 29, 2018 and the Senate elections on February 25, 2018, it occupies all seats in both chambers.
The opposition has never been able to build solid structures since 1993 and has suffered from frequent secessionists. The FUNCINPEC went back to the 1980s when it took part in the fight against the Vietnamese occupation under King Sihanouk. It was in a coalition with Hun Sen's People's Party in the 1990s and has since steadily lost power in favor of the People's Party. The Sam Rainsy Party was a split from the Cambodian National Party, which in turn split from FUNCINPEC in 1995. She was a member of the Liberal International and merged with the Human Rights Party to form the National Rescue Party of Cambodia in 2013 . The rescue party pursued a less than constructive opposition policy and mainly served anti-Vietnamese reservations. The voters of the opposition parties were mainly from the educated middle class of the capital and neighboring provinces. In mid-November 2017, the party was banned by the Cambodian Supreme Court for inciting supporters to demonstrations after the last elections in 2013 in order to bring about the overthrow of the government.
The numerous small parties do not play a significant role in Cambodia's political life.
elections
The first elections in Cambodia took place in 1946, after which ten parliamentary and one presidential elections were held by 1992. Most of these elections did not have any real political competition.
Active and passive women's suffrage was introduced on September 25, 1956. In March 1958 a woman sat in the national parliament for the first time. No woman was elected to the House of Commons before the unicameral system was introduced in 1976.
Elections to the National Assembly have been held every five years since 1993, and municipal council elections have been held since 2003. All citizens are active from the age of 18 and have passive voting rights from the age of 25. In the elections to the National Assembly, the cantonal proportional representation system uses rigid party lists. The level of violence accompanying the ballot has fallen sharply since the 1990s.
In practice, all ballots are manipulated by the regime. The right to vote favors large parties by creating a relatively high natural barrier. Before the elections, voter lists are falsified, voters or opposition members are intimidated, and votes are bought. In the 2013 parliamentary elections, 1.5 million out of 9.6 million eligible voters were unable to cast their votes due to incorrect electoral rolls. For the ruling People's Party, elections serve to consolidate power, in the course of which it determines approval of its rule and represents external legitimation. In addition, potential opposition parties are denied access to the media. Because party funding is unregulated, the opposition parties are financially weak, while the ruling party can draw on state resources.
Judiciary and Law
The basic principles of a judicial system established during French rule were completely destroyed during the rule of the Khmer Rouge; From 1979 onwards, a formally Marxist-socialist legal system was established, which, however, was never enforced in large parts of the country.
Since 1991 legislation consisting of the constitution, a criminal law based on the French model, a civil law based on the Japanese model, royal decrees and ordinances of the Council of Ministers and the Prime Minister has been created. Customary law and informal mediation are also widespread in the countryside. The judiciary has three levels, with the district and provincial courts representing the lowest level. The level above is the court of appeal, the Supreme Court is the highest instance. A constitutional council with nine members checks the constitutional conformity of all laws, while the Supreme Magistrate ensures the functioning of the courts and oversees the judges.
In practice, the functioning of the Cambodian judiciary is weak: there is a lack of trained staff and the infrastructure is poor. Investments in an efficient judiciary are deliberately neglected by the government. The separation between the executive and judicial branches largely only exists on paper, in reality most judges are members of the ruling Cambodian People's Party, which means that the judiciary is part of the system of rule. Corruption is an integral part not only of the political system but also of the legal system.
The Khmer Rouge Tribunal has a special status within the Cambodian judiciary . Due to resistance from the Cambodian government, there have been few charges or convictions. It is questionable whether this tribunal can ever provide the impetus for social reappraisal of the Khmer Rouge era.
Land rights
For years, international observers have been reporting of systematic forced evictions and illegal land grabbing by government agencies and private land developers. The UN special envoy Yash Ghai reported to the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2008
“Forcible and illegal evictions continue unabated. […] [P] rior to or during forced evictions, threats, intimidations, and physical violence are used by local authorities and private developers, sometimes in the presence of military and police forces. Land rights are regularly violated with impunity by influential individuals, companies and government entities. Owners are often compelled to accept paltry sums, despite evidence of legitimate tenure or land titles, or to move to alternative sites. These sites are usually devoid of alternative housing, sanitation facilities and medical services, and are usually far from where residents worked, adding much to their survival costs. "
“Violent and illegal displacement continues unabated. […] Prior to or during [these] evictions, local authorities or private real estate companies, sometimes in the presence of military or police forces, use threats, intimidation and physical violence. Land rights are regularly violated with impunity by influential people, companies or state organs. Despite demonstrably legitimate lease or ownership claims, owners are often forced to accept extremely low sales prices or move to other properties. These properties usually do not have adequate accommodation, access to sanitary facilities or medical care and are usually far from the place of work of the residents, which greatly increases their cost of living. "
According to LICADHO, in the 13 provinces monitored by the organization - around half of the country - more than a quarter of a million people have been directly affected by state land grabbing and forced displacement since 2003. In 2008 alone, Amnesty International received reports of 27 forced evictions in the country, affecting around 23,000 people. In 2009, the expulsions in Phnom Penh around Lake Boeng Kak in the north of the city and at Tonle Sap met with a great deal of media coverage.
The German federal government has already dealt with the issue. In response to a small request from members of the Green Party , she said she shared the concerns of UN Special Envoy Yash Ghai and, by supporting the establishment of the land registry, was helping to bring households with legal claims to land back into legally secure land titles.
Adoption system
Because of the comparatively strong cross-border adoption traffic between Cambodia and western countries in the past , the Cambodian adoption system has been closely monitored. National and international human rights organizations have identified serious grievances.
Although Cambodian law allows interstate adoption only for orphaned children, children who have merely been neglected by their parents or only given up for national adoption often end up in interstate adoption. Sometimes children are abducted from hospitals and given up for adoption. It is common practice to issue documents that are incorrect in content and simulate the orphan status of the children. In order to disguise the origin of the children and thus make it more difficult to uncover grievances, they are moved between the provinces and given new identities.
The decision as to which children are accepted for international adoption and which children are offered to foreign parents in which specific cases is made by the Cambodian Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSAY). The majority of its employees sit on the supervisory boards of the state orphanages and thus control every adoption process at all levels involved. Facilitation payments from adoptive parents are a necessary means of initiating, advancing and completing the process in almost every adoption case.
Due to the grievances, the USA (since December 2001), the United Kingdom (since June 2004), the Netherlands (since 2003) and Australia have suspended adoption traffic with Cambodia, so that recognition of Cambodian adoption in these countries is currently not possible and so that no legal effects unfold there either. The adoption of her Cambodian son, later renamed Maddox, by Angelina Jolie and her then-husband Billy Bob Thornton in 2002 was only possible because the papers for initiating the recognition process were submitted to the US embassy in Phnom Penh shortly before the adoption traffic was suspended were. Germany is currently still maintaining adoption traffic with Cambodia, so that German parents can still have a Cambodian adoption recognized in Germany. This is based on the Adoption Effectiveness Act , according to which the decision on recognition is incumbent on the guardianship courts.
With effect from August 1, 2007, Cambodia acceded to the Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in the Field of Intercountry Adoption of May 29, 1993. According to Art. 23 Para. 1 of this Convention, adoptions in one contracting state automatically take effect in all other contracting states without the need for additional recognition. Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have made a reservation against the entry into force for Cambodia, so this automatism does not apply in this regard. The Cambodian authorities are currently (September 2018) not accepting any new adoption applications until the implementation of the Hague Convention on Adoption has been completed.
Domestic politics
In domestic politics, the situation under Hun Sen has stabilized since 1997. Crime has decreased, tourists are returning, inflation is at an all-time low, and foreign development aid is flowing. However, corruption remains a major problem. Foreign investment has also declined due to a lack of confidence in the government. There is also an authoritarian trend among Hun Sen: he implements his will into laws through edicts . On July 7, 2002, over 50 newspapers and magazines were banned in this way.
Poor working conditions in textile companies based in Hong Kong and Taiwan lead to political tension and strikes. Here Sam Rainsy has declared himself an advocate for workers. Political violence also remains an issue, as opposition politicians have been the target of assassinations on several occasions.
A major domestic political success was the end of the Khmer Rouge, which finally laid down their arms in 1998. Now we have to come to terms with the past and come to terms with it, but this is not easy because almost every political power has made a pact with the Khmer Rouge in the past and almost the entire parliament would have to be indicted on closer investigations. Tensions could also arise internationally, as China, Thailand and the USA have temporarily supported the Khmer Rouge. On October 4, 2004, the National Assembly approved the treaty with the United Nations on the establishment of a special international court. A compromise was also found on the competencies and composition of the Khmer Rouge tribunal - Cambodian judges have a majority in the five-member court, but one of the foreign judges has to approve the verdict to prevent corruption. The tribunal, whose judges were sworn in in July 2006 after funding was secured, is subject to the Cambodian Code of Criminal Procedure.
Two of the main culprits , Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea , officially apologized for the mass murders under Pol Pot in the 1970s and were pardoned by the king at the request of Hun Sen. Ta Mok , the last commander of the Khmer Rouge, was arrested in 1999 and died in 2006 while awaiting prosecution. It was not until 2007 that the first accused were brought before the Khmer Rouge tribunal. Various high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials were arrested and charged during the year.
The former Toul Sleng prison in Phnom Phenh is now a memorial site mainly visited by tourists. On the outskirts of the capital there is also the former execution site Choeung Ek , where the skulls of several thousand victims are laid out in a tower. The private Documentation Center of Cambodia (DCCAM) primarily collects documents and supports educational work.
Freedom of the press and expression
During the UNTAC administration phase from 1993 onwards, the establishment of independent media was allowed without restriction. The media landscape in Cambodia was subsequently described as one of the freest in Southeast Asia: at the end of the 1990s, 80 press products, including numerous media critical of the government, were registered. By 2008 there were seven national television channels and a large number of radio stations. Since the beginning of the sole government of the Cambodian People's Party , the government has tried to restrict independent reporting and free journalism. It tries to do this by controlling the state media and by making sure that private media companies are owned by government-affiliated entrepreneurs. The only public television station in the country called Television of Kampuchea is operated by the Army, all the other stations are family members or business associates of Hun Sen .
Article 41 of the Cambodian Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, of the press, of publication and of assembly. The press law confirms these freedoms and explicitly forbids any censorship. In practice, statutory provisions apply such as the criminal liability of information that could impair the stability of the country, the criminal liability of insulting officials or disseminating false information. But intimidation, violent assault, murder or enforced disappearance also lead to self-censorship among journalists and the media. From 1993 to 2009 - depending on how they were counted - ten journalists were killed as a result of government-instigated measures against unpleasant reports and in none of these cases the perpetrators were held responsible. Furthermore, there is no economic basis for journalism to thrive in Cambodia, so political influence over journalists and the media is ubiquitous.
In the 2017 press freedom list published by Reporters Without Borders , Cambodia was ranked 142nd out of 180 countries.
Human rights situation
Legal actions and other legal steps initiated by the Cambodian government represent a form of influencing the political opposition as well as critical persons and organizations that has recently occurred on a massive scale. Since mid-2009 in particular, national and international non-governmental organizations, numerous international media and the human rights commissioner have seen the United Nations confirms the decline in the country's democratic culture that has been observed for several years. The proceedings are a concerted attack on the press and freedom of expression, on the independence of the courts and the legal profession, on the political opposition and on the work of non-governmental organizations. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Leandro Despouy expressed concern about the restriction on the free exercise of mandate of lawyers in Cambodia and urged the government, United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers to observe.
The immediate trigger for the criticism was a lawsuit against Mu Sochua , a member of the Cambodian National Assembly, who had sued Prime Minister Hun Sen and was therefore sued for it. On the occasion of this procedure, members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament wrote two written questions to the Council of the European Union and the European Commission with the request that they publicly position themselves with the Cambodian government on the procedure Aim to drop the lawsuits.
In view of the latest developments, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights assesses the democratic situation with the words: Cambodian democracy is in a downward spiral.
Foreign policy
The Constitution of Cambodia defines the country as neutral and non-aligned and thus enters into the tradition of foreign policy of the first years after independence. After Lon Nol's coup in 1970, the country initially focused on the USA and capitalist South Vietnam. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge, the country was heavily isolationist and bilateral foreign policy relations existed only with the People's Republic of China. After Vietnam's offensive to end the terrorist regime of the Khmer Rouge, orientation in the 1980s was based on Vietnam and thus on the Soviet Union and the people's democracies of Eastern Europe. Since the government is now recognized again by the United Nations, there are now better relations with the United States, Europe and the other ASEAN countries. Since a not insignificant part of government spending is covered by development aid, the government under Hun Sen has to weigh domestic policy decisions against external perception. In recent years, however, the People's Republic of China has developed into the main donor, so that criticism from individual countries or organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF no longer has to be paid so much attention to.
Cambodia is a member of a number of international organizations, including the FAO , the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement , the International Monetary Fund , Interpol , the IOC , the Movement of Non-Aligned States , since 1955 the UN , UNESCO , WHO and the WTO . In May 1999, ASEAN accession was also achieved, a goal that had been worked towards for a long time and which had initially become a long way off after the Hun Sens coup in 1997. Thanks to the advocacy of Vietnam, accession finally succeeded. Cambodia has thus found its firm place in the community of states in the region and ended its political isolation. The opportunity this creates to take part in meetings and initiatives on regional topics is also used extensively, for example by hosting conferences.
Foreign policy problems arise from corruption in connection with drug trafficking, which allegedly extends to government, police and military circles. In addition, Cambodia is prone to money laundering because of its cash-based economy and porous borders .
Relations with neighboring countries, burdened by historical tensions, are gradually improving. After a visit by officials of the Communist Party of Vietnam in July 1999, it was decided once and for all to settle the border disputes over areas in the Mekong Delta and islands off the coast which had caused minor military conflicts under Norodom Ranariddh as Prime Minister. There are also border disputes with Thailand, which a bilateral border commission founded in 1997 began to work on in 2000. Sections in which border markings are missing lead to problems. Cambodia has also accused Thai soldiers of having crazy landmarks in the northern area in favor of Thailand. A serious crisis broke out in early 2003 when, on January 29, the Thai embassy burned down and Thai businesses devastated. The reason for this was the alleged statement by a Thai television actress that the temples of Angkor Wat had been stolen from Thailand or that Angkor Wat belongs to Thailand. The Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra accused his colleague Hun Sen of reacting too slowly to the riots and of verbally fueling them. As a result, Thai citizens were flown out on military aircraft. Despite the negotiations about the national border, there are still skirmishes between the armed forces of both countries.
Thailand and Cambodia are working together on the fight against drugs, Cambodian economic refugees and the return of stolen works of art from Cambodian temples. Very friendly relations exist with the People's Republic of China, which supported the Khmer Rouge until 1992, but now provides fireworks for festivities in addition to aid money and medical support.
Military and security
Cambodia maintains one of the largest security apparatuses in Southeast Asia. It not only serves to defend against attacks from the outside, but also involves potentially violent groups and suppresses groups that are politically in opposition to the ruling elite.
The Cambodian Royal Armed Forces are constitutionally subordinate to the King, who presides over the Supreme Defense Council. The armed forces of the army , navy and air force have a total of around 124,000 soldiers under arms. With the political need to include groups that could potentially use violence against the government into the armed forces, the officer corps was inflated. In 2014 there were about 2200 generals. Many army officers earn money from private security companies or criminal business and cooperate with the regime in return for these sources of income. Since 2006 there has been a general conscription of 18 months for men between 18 and 30 years of age. The Prime Minister's bodyguard stands outside the regular armed forces and is designed to counterbalance them. It comprises between 4,000 and 15,000 men who are equipped with heavy equipment. Not least of all, it is used to monitor and contain protests and demonstrations and is held responsible for numerous human rights violations. The Pagoda Boys are a group of thugs who are loyal to the Prime Minister and are used to intimidate unpopular people.
The National Police is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior, comprises around 60,000 men and is led by a police general. The military police, on the other hand, are part of the armed forces, but also take on civilian functions. The gendarmerie with around 7,000 men serves primarily to secure the regime by fighting riots and terrorism, enforcing orders from the courts and supporting the law enforcement authorities. It reports to the General Staff of the Army and the Ministry of Defense, but reports directly to the Prime Minister.
Art. 53 of the constitution prescribes permanent neutrality for the country and prohibits accession to military alliances insofar as this would contradict neutrality. The armed forces are also not allowed to maintain bases abroad. The only exception to this is the participation of Cambodia in United Nations operations. This option has been used repeatedly in the past. From 2006 to 2011 Cambodia was involved with mine clearance specialists at UNMIS ; more than 400 soldiers were sent to Sudan for this purpose .
Administrative division
Cambodia is divided into 21 provinces (Khaet) , three province-free cities and the Phnom Penh Special Administrative Region. The provinces are made up of districts (Srok) and municipalities / communities (Khum) and villages (phum ), the cities of urban districts (Khan) and districts (Sangkat) . As of 2015 there were 1633 municipalities or districts and 197 districts.
The governors of the provinces and non-provincial cities and the district chiefs are appointed by the government in Phnom Penh, whose administrations are under the Ministry of Interior. The responsibilities between central government and subordinate administrative units are highly fragmented, and governors and district heads are frequently exchanged. This is politically wanted in order to avoid the emergence of local power bases. The governor and district chief posts therefore tend to be pension posts.
Development aid donors are required to decentralize the state in Cambodia, which is tailored to the needs of the central government. However, there is no social consensus on this in the country itself.
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economy
Development and data
Before the civil war, Cambodia had the highest standard of living in Southeast Asia and was nicknamed “ Switzerland of Southeast Asia”, but the civil war, the terror regime of the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese occupation caused a drastic decline. Economic aid came only from the countries of the Eastern Bloc and almost completely dried up after the collapse of the Soviet Union . In addition, the Western economic embargo against Vietnam , which was in force until 1994, also hit Cambodia. The country was one of the least developed countries . After the withdrawal of the Vietnamese in 1989 and the introduction of the market economy in 1993, an economic boom began, which began with the supply of the 22,000 members of the UN mission and manifested itself in growth rates of 5.6% per year between 1995 and 1997. The 1997 coup was a turning point that completely prevented economic growth that year. However, growth rates recovered quickly and, thanks to development aid and a free trade agreement with the USA, averaged 6.8% between 1999 and 2002 and double-digit between 2005 and 2007. Cambodia is one of the fastest growing economies in the world , but remains one of the poorest countries in Asia.
In 2016, GDP was $ 19.4 billion, of which 26.7% was agriculture , 29.8% industry and 43.5% services . In 2013, 48.7% of Cambodians worked in agriculture, 19.9% in industry and 31.5% in services. According to official figures, unemployment was only 0.3% in 2016, although underemployment is considered common. The inflation rate was reduced from 34% before the 1993 elections to 4–5% in mid-1996 and remained stable until 2006. However, it has risen relatively steeply since 2007 and reached a high of 38% in August 2008 (22% according to official figures) before falling again in October. In 2007, US $ 4.089 billion in goods were exported, mainly clothing, wood, rubber, rice, fish, tobacco and footwear. The most important export partners are the USA (58.1%), Germany (7.3%), the United Kingdom (5.2%) and Vietnam (4.5%). It imported goods worth $ 5.424 billion, primarily petroleum products , cigarettes, gold, building materials, machinery, motorized vehicles and pharmaceutical products. The most important countries of origin are Thailand (23.1%), Vietnam (16.9%), China (15%), Hong Kong (10.4%), Singapore (7.5%), Taiwan (7.2%) and South Korea (4.8%).
Cambodia has had a securities exchange, the Cambodia Securities Exchange, since July 2011 . Before it was founded, it was doubted that the basic requirements for securities trading could be created in time. So far, there has been a lack of suitably qualified staff, technical requirements and the guarantee of effective control mechanisms by a stock exchange regulator and courts. With the help of the Korea Exchange from South Korea , which was won as a cooperation partner in March 2009, these obstacles could be overcome. The exchange began trading in April 2012.
In the Global Competitiveness Index , which measures a country's competitiveness, Cambodia was ranked 94th out of 137 countries (2017-2018). In 2018, the country was ranked 101st out of 180 countries in the index for economic freedom .
Economic strengths and weaknesses
Foreign investment flows mainly into the service industry, apparel, property speculation and numerous hotel openings in and around Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. The industry with the highest growth figures is the textile industry , which also has a share of over 70% in exports. More than 350,000 people work here, but the poor working conditions create social explosives. Rice cultivation and export are of great importance. Cambodia has been self-sufficient here since 1999; The ecological-geographical conditions in the central lowlands make three harvests per year possible. In the primeval forests there are hardwood deposits that are used by investors. This can lead to environmental problems. Off the coast, Cambodia grants concessions for oil production. In the north, the country has so far little explored deposits of various mineral resources such as gold, coal, precious stones (especially sapphires ), bauxite , iron and phosphates , which may be worth mining. The rubber production , which was among the French still of primary importance today is less important, but still carries on for export. Other important agricultural products are corn , cassava , bananas, tobacco , soybeans , mangoes , cashew nuts , tapioca and pineapple . The construction industry and its suppliers experienced an upswing, as did the craft areas, including souvenir production. Cambodia is also benefiting from the economic growth of its neighbors Thailand and Vietnam.
Another driving force behind the industry is tourism, which is growing at around 50%. Especially the old Khmer culture with Angkor Wat as a figurehead and its traditional dance attracts tourists to the country. After opening in 1992, around 200,000 tourists a year came to Cambodia in the mid-1990s. In 1997 that number fell sharply because of a grenade attack on a political event in Phnom Penh and domestic political instability. Then there was the economic crisis in Asia . In 1998, 150,000 foreigners came again. With the opening of the Thai border and the start of international flights to Siem Reap, 300,000 tourists came in 1999 and two million in 2007. Most of the tourists come from the USA or France as well as from East Asian countries such as China, Japan and Taiwan.
Environmental disasters such as the floods in 2000/2001 or the droughts in 2004 and 2005 have a negative impact on the economy. Tax collection, especially from the rich, is always difficult, which leads to a loss of income for the state. Corruption does the same . Other obstacles to economic development are land tenure disputes and dependence on economic aid and investments from abroad. Investor confidence, mainly from Malaysia , Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, is currently on the decline. The government wants to attract large companies with labor-intensive processes, for example through the decision of the National Assembly in 1994 that foreign companies did not have to pay taxes for eight years and were allowed to be 100% foreign-owned, but corruption, insecure legal situations, bureaucracy and domestic political instability have a deterrent effect. Even so, foreign investment still represented 19.2% of GDP in 2007. Over the next ten years, Cambodia faces the challenge of creating enough jobs in the service sector to take account of the demographic imbalance. Over 50% of the population is under the age of 21. There is a lack of adequate infrastructure in the countryside . In addition, the local population is insufficiently educated and lacks the necessary production skills.
corruption
Corruption shapes the country like no other and permeates almost every area of government action. Cambodia was both in 2017 and 2018 rated among the 180 countries ranked 161 of the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International . US Ambassador Carol Rodley said in 2009 that corruption is causing Cambodia to lose up to $ 500 million in taxpayers' money every year. At the international level, it is known that corruption is one of the phenomena with the greatest impact on the Cambodian state. It is also regularly criticized that an anti-corruption law (loi contre la corruption) has been in the legislative process since 1994.
One aspect of corruption is the ability to buy almost any official document. The obvious inaccuracy of both the documents submitted and the documents to be issued is completely irrelevant. The German embassy in Phnom Penh (as of 2017) no longer recognizes Cambodian documents for legal transactions within Germany ; their legal effects must be determined individually by the German authorities or courts involved.
Another example is a massive sell-off of natural resources to investors, all of whom are said to have personal connections with government executives. In addition, their activities would generate little or no tax income. The army (as of 2009) is also accused of unofficial, but tolerated or sponsored participation in the overexploitation , especially in connection with the illegal felling of valuable tropical timber.
In 2009, accusations of corruption against the Khmer Rouge Tribunal , according to which court staff had to agree to transfer part of their salaries to senior management, received widespread international attention . In August 2009, in agreement with the United Nations, the position of an advisor was created to investigate the allegations. Previously, numerous international donors had frozen their payments to the tribunal, which brought it to the brink of insolvency for a short time.
Building collapses
Construction activities are hardly regulated, workers are often day laborers without appropriate training, hardly wear protective equipment and often spend the night on construction sites.
There are repeated reports about the collapse of buildings. At least 28 people were killed in the collapse of a construction site in Sihanoukville Province in June 2019, leading to the provincial governor's resignation.
In early January 2020 (at least) 36 people, including children , died in the collapse of a seven-story building under construction in Kep province .
State budget
| heading | Billion dollars | % of GDP | year | source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State spending | 3.56 | 2016 | ||
| State revenue | 3.38 | 2016 | ||
| Budget deficit | 0.17 | 0.9% | 2016 | |
| Government spending on health | 5.9% | 2006 | ||
| Government spending on education | 1.7% | 2004 | ||
| Government spending on the military | 3.0% | 2005 | ||
| National debt | 6.37 | 32.9% | 2008 |
The state budget included expenditures in 2016 of the equivalent of 3.56 billion US dollars , which were income equivalent to 3.38 billion US dollar against. This results in a budget deficit of 0.9% of GDP . The national debt was $ 6.37 billion in 2016, 32.9% of GDP.
Infrastructure
Communication and media
There are over 300 newspapers in total in Cambodia, but fewer than twenty can be considered serious papers with paid employees and regular publications. The daily newspaper circulation per 1,000 inhabitants is two copies. Only a few newspapers have a circle of subscribers, so that most papers have to recruit their readers every day with their headlines and the pictures on the front page. Koh Santepheap ("Island of Peace"), Rasmei Kampuchea ("Light of Cambodia") and Kampuchea Thmei are the daily newspapers with the highest circulation, each with around 20,000 to 25,000 copies daily. Other important daily newspapers are Moneaksear Khmer (“Khmer Conscience”), the leisure magazine Pracheaprey and Samleng Yuvachhun Khmer (“Voice of the Khmer Youth”). There are also seven foreign-language newspapers, including the English-language The Cambodia Daily (only online since September 2017), The Phnom Penh Post and Khmer Times . The French-language weekly newspaper Cambodge Soir was discontinued in 2010. The Chinese-language newspapers Cambodia Sin Chew Daily and Jian Hua Daily have a combined circulation of around 10,000. The official state press agency is Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP). Since February 2013, the first German-language news magazine has appeared for a short time under the name Kambodschanische Allgemeine Zeitung (KAZ).
There have been radio broadcasts in Cambodia since the mid-1950s. There are around 40 radio stations nationwide, 25 of which broadcast from Phnom Penh, including foreign stations such as RFI , BBC and ABC . The national radio station has been Radio National of Kampuchea (RNK) since 1978 . Other important stations are Bayon Radio , Royal Cambodia Armed Forces Radio , Apsara Radio , Radio FM 90 , Radio FM 99 , Radio Khmer , Radio Beehive , Radio Sweet and Radio Love . Numerous stations from the provinces are linked to stations from the capital and at least partially take over their program content.
Television broadcasting began in Cambodia in 1966. Since 1986, the Cambodian national television National Television of Kampuchea (TVK) has also broadcast in color. There are also the channels Apsara Television , Bayon Television (TV27), Cambodian Television Network (CTN), MyTV , Phnom Penh Municipal Television (TV3), Royal Cambodia Armed Forces Television (TV5) and Cambodian Television (CTV9). All channels are broadcast in Phnom Penh; their range is up to 200 km outside the capital. Some broadcasters have relay stations in different parts of the country and thus also reach viewers in the provinces. Apsara , Bayon , CTN and TVK can also be received via satellite. Due to the low prevalence of satellite dishes, even in Phnom Penh, it is estimated that only ten percent of households have access to television content; televisions are hardly widespread in rural areas.
The Internet was introduced in Cambodia under the administration of UNTAC in 1992/93. The development was hindered by the Khmer script, for which there was a large number of scripts for a long time that were incompatible with one another. Recently, however, a Unicode font was developed that makes over 20 writing systems usable. Today (2018) there are 4.1 million users (25.6% of the population), in 2016 it was 1,756,824 (11.1%). The country's top-level domain is .kh.
Cell phones are much more common in Cambodia than landlines . The latter are mainly used in cities. There are only 1.5 landline connections for every hundred inhabitants, but 123 cell phones. There are a total of around 230,000 main telephone lines and around 20 million cell phones (as of 2016). The international code for Cambodia is 855.
The freedom of the press was restricted more and more until 2018, with 32 radio stations closed in 2017 alone. Only the English-language media had dared to criticize the government; one of them, the Cambodia Daily , ceased operations in 2017 after a horrific tax bill, the other was sold by the Australian owners to a pro-government Malaysian entrepreneur in 2018.
traffic
Air traffic
Cambodia has 17 airports , six of which have paved runways, and a heliport . Of the airports, however, only Phnom Penh and Siem Reap , and recently also Sihanoukville Airport, are used regularly. Regular international direct flights to Cambodia practically only take place within the region; Bangkok , for example, is an important hub and transfer point for national flights . Qatar Airways offers a direct intercontinental connection to Doha (via Ho Chi Minh City) and Emirates to Dubai (via Bangkok). Local airlines are often short-lived; for example, Siem Reap Airways suspended operations on December 1, 2008. The PMTair has its home base in Siem Reap. Other Cambodian airlines are Angkor Airways , Imtrec Aviation and Royal Khmer Airlines . In addition, many other East Asian airlines have offices in Cambodia and offer flights. A national airline is planned in collaboration with an Indonesian consortium .
Road traffic
The Cambodian road network covers 28,257 kilometers, of which 2,406 kilometers are asphalt (2004). In recent years, extensive improvement work has been carried out with Japanese development funds. The central junction is Phnom Penh, from where six of eight national roads start in a star shape. They are numbered from one to eight with a single digit. Streets leading away from these main axes are given two-digit numbers, the first digit of which corresponds to that of the associated main street. Right-hand traffic and a driver's license are mandatory in Cambodia.
railroad
The Cambodian rail network comprised 602 km of single-track lines, the gauge of which is the meter gauge . The northern route connected Phnom Penh with Poipet on the border with Thailand, it is currently (2016) under reconstruction. The southern route , completed in 1969, runs from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville. This connection is used by several freight trains every day (2015). Passenger trains have been running again since April 2016. The rolling stock of the state railway company is old and is being modernized. There are plans for the Trans-Asian Railway project .
During the civil war of the 1980s and 1990s, a machine gun car accompanied every train, the first two carriages were used for mine clearance.
Public bus transport
Common forms of public transport are buses, shared taxis and pick-ups . There are now regular bus connections between the larger cities. Pick-ups, taxis and minibuses cover both regular connections and individual orders. There are hardly any urban transport systems; in Phnom Penh there are 13 public bus routes that also include suburbs.
Waterways
Cambodia has roughly 2,000 to 3,500 kilometers of waterways . The Mekong, which is navigable as far as Kratie without any problems, plays the greatest role, and in the rainy season even as far as Stung Treng and on to the Laotian border. The overseas port is located in Sihanoukville by the sea. As the main mode of transport, boats are gradually being replaced by vehicles in most regions, but there are still regular ships between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, as well as between Battambang and Siem Reap . The route between Koh Kong and Sihanoukville has since been discontinued as the road between the two places has been completed and the bus connections are faster and cheaper. There is also a border crossing on the Tonle Bassac river to Châu Đốc (Vietnam) that can be crossed by ship.
energy
The Cambodian energy sector is administered by two institutions: on the one hand, the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy , which sets the state framework for the energy sector and defines the corresponding technical standards, and on the other hand, the Electricity Authority of Cambodia , which issues licenses ensures the country's supply of electricity to more than 240 electricity companies.
In total, Cambodia produced 1,235 GWh of electricity in 2009. 93.36% of this was due to the combustion of diesel , 3.84% to the utilization of hydropower , 2.27% to coal-fired power stations and 0.53% to the combustion of biomass . To supply places near the border, an additional 324.2 GWh were imported from Thailand and 842.4 GWh from Vietnam.
The average annual consumption is 100.68 kWh per inhabitant, although only 16.41% of households are connected to the power supply (as of 2007). The supply is provided by numerous power grids that work independently of one another ; only the largest network, the Phnom Penh System , and the North-West Grid System (Banteay Meanchey - Siem Reap - Battambang System) are interconnected.
Most of the technical installations are in a dilapidated condition. Large parts of the country are therefore affected by regular power outages . In 2007, 11.05% of energy was lost nationwide during transit; in rural areas the loss was up to a quarter. Another problem is the rapidly growing energy demand. In Phnom Penh this was still 30 MW in 1995 and rose to the current (July 2009) 230 MW, which is more than sevenfold within 14 years. At the same time, the Phnom Penh system allows a maximum throughput of only around 190 MW. This difference is offset by coordinated interruptions in the supply between the electricity companies in different parts of the city. In the national average, a supply of only 75% of the demand is achieved.
Due to the country's almost complete dependence on diesel imports, the cost of electricity in Cambodia is the highest in Southeast Asia. A kilowatt hour currently (July 2009) costs 0.18 USD, in Vietnam, however, only 0.05 USD. A coal-fired power plant near Sihanoukville and four hydropower plants on the Mekong are currently planned to reduce dependency on imports.
education
From at least the 13th century boys were trained by Buddhist monks in wats in religion, the basics of reading, and other skills essential to life in rural Cambodia. A first education law was passed by the French in 1917 and comprised primary and secondary training in a system based on the French model , which was, however, very elitist and mainly served to train civil servants for French Indochina . The first college opened in the late 1930s. After independence, a general education system was set up, which was completed in the 1950s by higher technical schools and in the 1960s by the possibility of tertiary education. The primary, low secondary and high secondary schools lasted six, four and three years, respectively, following the approximate French model.
After they came to power in 1975, the Khmer Rouge suspended the old education system, systematically destroyed teaching materials and converted most of the schools for other purposes. Some primary schools remained open, and political and technical courses were held irregularly for older students. While there was a ministry of education and some textbooks were published, all in all the years 1975-1979 had a devastating effect on the average education in the population; also, since intellectuals were systematically persecuted. For example, 75 to 80% of the educators were killed or fled. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, the old facilities were gradually put back into operation, initially pre-primary, primary and secondary schools, and later also tertiary education and adult education. The loss of teaching staff was compensated by employing people with all kinds of education as teachers. Some of the lessons took place outdoors. There were also rates for students allowed to attend upper secondary school and universities, creating corruption , favoritism, and nepotism, a problem that persists today. By the end of the 1980s, the educational consequences of the Khmer Rouge regime had largely been overcome.
The situation improved from 1990 when new schools were built and the portion of the budget used for education increased. Today, the Constitution guarantees every Cambodian free schooling for at least nine years, “but the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport admits that it is very unlikely that any child will have the opportunity to attend nine years of education in the near future enable". Since 1996, the training is to consist of a pre-school only regionally enforced and six years of primary school and three years of lower secondary school. After the ninth grade, you can take an examination to enter the higher secondary school, which lasts three years and ends with a further exam that entitles you to study at a university. The exams as well as the scarce, sought-after study places in turn lead to corruption.
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport is responsible for national guidelines; at the lower level, the education system is highly decentralized . It faces many difficulties, including a lack of qualified teachers and teaching materials and a lack of work ethic or educational ethos due to low wages. This can go so far that teachers demand money from students so that they can attend classes, or that classes are partially canceled due to secondary occupations of the teacher. School attendance in rural areas remains limited as children are expected to help in the fields. This results in differences in quality between education in urban and rural areas. Overall, parents pay six times as much for their children's education compared to the state, which means that sometimes not all children in a family can go to school. This explains the surplus of male students, especially in secondary schools, and the generally poorer educational level of women. There are also private schools at all levels, for example for children of ethnic minorities or western foreigners. Buddhist schools are to receive state funding.
health
| Period | Life expectancy | Period | Life expectancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950-1955 | 40.3 | 1985-1990 | 54.3 |
| 1955-1960 | 41.1 | 1990-1995 | 56.4 |
| 1960-1965 | 42.0 | 1995-2000 | 60.8 |
| 1965-1970 | 37.8 | 2000-2005 | 65.1 |
| 1970-1975 | 14.5 | 2005-2010 | 67.6 |
| 1975-1980 | 45.1 | 2010-2015 | 69.5 |
| 1980-1985 | 52.0 |
The Cambodian health system has to deal with problems similar to those of the education system to a large extent. State health care and technical equipment are missing; the low wages in state hospitals encourage employees to corrupt , falsify statistics to get more money and medicines, and sell medicine on the black market. The system of administering many expensive syringes is widespread, which in turn contributes to the spread of HIV due to the multiple use of needles . The most widespread description of the introduction of the HI virus says that it was brought in by soldiers participating in the 1993 UN mission. Today around 2.6% of the population suffer from immunodeficiency. Post-treatment and care rarely take place in state hospitals; rather, the families of the sick are responsible for providing food, clothing and medication. Phnom Penh also has a number of west-facing private clinics that are of a higher standard; in the provincial capitals, the facilities are often managed and operated by western development companies such as the Médecins sans frontières . Kantha Bopha runs five hospitals that care for children free of charge.
The most common causes of death are circulatory and infectious diseases as well as cancer . The malaria is a problem because the pathogen in some areas on the border with Thailand almost completely resistant to antibiotics are. There is a total of one doctor for every 3,333 inhabitants, only 50 survived the regime of the Khmer Rouge.
Traditional medicine (thnam boran) is still popular in the country. Medicine men and shamans are common and sometimes more trusted than doctors. Various rituals for driving out evil spirits, such as cupping, are still popular in cities . Other alternatives to conventional medicine are the traditional medicine of the wats with herbs, blessings and ceremonies as well as traditional Chinese medicine .
After the health system had completely collapsed under the Khmer Rouge, significant progress has been made in the fight against child and maternal mortality and in increasing life expectancy in recent years. In 1975, 31% of children died before their 5th birthday, compared to 3% in 2016. The proportion of the undernourished population has also decreased (from 31% in 1991 to 14% in 2015).
Culture
The culture of Cambodia is largely based on that of the ancient Khmer Empire. Architecture and iconography , but also dance and literature show the strong Indian influence of that time. For the modern Khmer it serves the national identification and as a figurehead for the tourism. The maintenance of the traditional culture in Cambodia is of great importance and is mainly aimed at the temple complexes of Angkor . Music, traditional dances and shadow plays also bear witness to the early development of an independent culture, which is still partially cultivated in its original form and also serves as the basis for new developments. Since 1979 there has been a revival in art. Monuments and stupas are restored with government funds, rural Buddhist temples ( wat ) also with local donations. The two art schools in Phnom Penh are open again and are well attended. The National Museum displays many works of art that escaped destruction by the Khmer Rouge.
public holidays
Independence Day on November 9th is Cambodia's national holiday . If a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it will be made up on the next working day. Occasions marked with an asterisk (*) vary according to the Buddhist lunar calendar. The dates are set annually by decrees of the Prime Minister.
| date | occasion | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| January 1st | New Year | International New Year Holiday |
| January 7th | day of the victory | Victory Day over the Khmer Rouge regime |
| February* | Meak Bochea day | Reminiscent of a spontaneous gathering of monks to listen to Buddha |
| 8th of March | International Women's Day | International holiday |
| April 13th to 15th | Cambodian New Year | |
| 1st of May | Labor Day | International holiday |
| May 13th to 15th | King Sihamoni's birthday | The king's birthday is on the 13th and the festivities continue until the 15th. |
| May* | Royal plowing ceremony | Beginning of the planting season |
| May* | Visa day | Buddha's birthday |
| 18th of June | Birthday of the Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk | |
| September 24th | Constitution Day | |
| September October* | Pchum Ben Day | Day of ancestor worship |
| October 29th | Coronation day | |
| October 31 | Birthday of the former King Sihanouk | |
| November* | Waterproof | Celebration of the day when the water of the Tonle Sap changes its direction of flow |
| November 9th | Independence day | National holiday |
| 10th of December | Human Rights Day | International holiday |
kitchen
Cambodian cuisine is heavily influenced by influences from other countries, such as Vietnam, China (because of the business connections), Malaysia, France (this is where the French bread eaten in Cambodia comes from ), Laos and Thailand. The dishes are usually not particularly spicy and are refined with herbs such as lemongrass or coriander . Palm oil is used for frying . Cooking and roasting is traditionally done in a wok on a charcoal stove ; Gas burners are becoming more and more popular in cities. The staple food is white rice , which often comes from Battambang Province ; and noodles are popular. Sweet and sour dishes made from fish, chicken or vegetables with pineapple, onions and green or red tomatoes are popular. Steamed dishes are based on a light broth with beef, fish or vegetables and often a hard-boiled egg. Curries usually consist of beef and are only slightly spicy. The most important source of protein is fish. It is fried, grilled, cured, eaten as a soup or steamed. Pork and beef are the most common meats.
Cambodian specialties are, for example, a fondue-like dish in which meatballs are dipped into a broth heated from below and eaten with other ingredients, or a chicken that is dressed in its juice with sugar and spices and eaten as a feast. Beetles and crickets are popular as fried snacks or soup additions, as are tarantulas and water bugs in the region . In upscale restaurants you can eat snakes, turtles, lizards, ant eggs, sparrows and other smaller birds. The ubiquitous prahok paste, which has a whitish shimmer and a pungent odor, is made from small dried and fermented fish .
The most popular drink is green tea , which is heavily sugared. Red tea is mixed with lime juice and sugar. From morning to afternoon, coffee is drunk either black or with a lot of condensed milk . Local fruit juices are made from sugar cane or coconut , for example , and soybean milk is also common . In terms of alcoholic beverages, there are several local types of beer, such as Angkor beer, Anchor and ABC stout. Sweet, strong wines are made from rice. Rapidly fermenting sugar palm juice is also served.
- Rats
In the rainy season the rats leave their underground tunnels, take refuge in bushes and trees and eat a vegetarian diet there. At this stage they are considered “clean” and are hunted. They are used as animal feed on crocodile farms and also for human consumption.
dress
The traditional universal garment of the Cambodians is the krama . Almost every inhabitant of the country owns one of the cotton towels. They can be used in a variety of ways: they offer protection from the sun or dust, are used as babywraps, nasal or sweat towels, or used as a privacy screen when bathing. In the time of the Khmer Rouge they were even part of the military uniform. The sarong is a colorful cotton cloth that reaches down to the ankle and that women wrap around their hips as everyday clothing. For men there is the corresponding sarong sot , which is made of silk and is worn less often than the krama. At festivals, women wear a houl or a phamung , which is shaped like a sarong but made of silk. The houl is colorful and flowered, the phamung monochrome. For women, single-colored skirts in green, blue or gray are common as work clothes, with white blouses. Men wear gray slacks and light-colored shirts.
architecture
- Classic Khmer architecture
The roots of classical Khmer architecture can be found in the realms of Funan and Chenla. They showed a strong Indian influence. In Funan the buildings were mainly made of wood, which is why there are hardly any remains. Chenla took over the Indianized art and architecture of Funan and developed it further. From the 7th century, brick and stone buildings were built. Typical relics from this period are prasats , four- or octagonal brick towers with cantilever vaults and a shrine on a pedestal, which consisted of floors that became smaller as they rose.
Under Jayavarman II , the transition from the Chenla style to the Angkorian period took place in the 9th century. Compared to earlier epochs, the independent, Cambodian style developed. Jayavarman II introduced the worship of the Indian deity Shiva , which is why almost every god-king built a state temple for his linga up to the year 1219 . The linga, often interpreted as a phallus, was the symbol of Shiva and the symbol of the cult. In him the soul of the God-King was kept. The temples functioned as the source and center of power as well as the spiritual backbone of the empire. Other temples were used to worship ancestors or as monasteries, especially abandoned state temples.
Due to their Indian roots, the temples from the Angkorian era also represent Mount Meru , the home of the Indian gods, through their architecture . Five-tiered pyramids were built in the 9th century, and over time the main towers were joined by the four typical side towers, which are held in a quincunx arrangement and take the shape of a cross through connections. This innermost sanctuary is oriented on an east-west axis for astrological reasons and usually has only one opening facing east and false doors on the other sides. Other buildings include reception and meditation halls and scripture libraries , which are often arranged in pairs and open towards the sanctuary. There are causeways and ditches around the central buildings. The whole area is mostly surrounded by unadorned, concentric enclosing walls, usually one to three, in rare cases more. At cardinal points there are gates that became more and more splendid over time and in the later phase took the form of gates (gopuram) with antechambers and towers.
In the sanctuaries there were icons of those Hindu deities to whom the temples were dedicated. After the adoption of Buddhism, the God-King was symbolized by Buddha statues. While the first temples were very simple, doors and galleries were added over time. There were fake windows and doors on the sides and back walls of the buildings. Consoles were used for apartments , as no arches were known, which only allowed small spaces. The inner walls, unlike the outer ones, are not decorated, which has led to speculation about former murals.
The material used until the end of the 10th century was wood and later mainly bricks, which were partially covered with stucco and bonded with a kind of natural adhesive. Sandstone has been used for lintels and pillars since Funanes times , for example from Phnom Kulen, which, with better construction techniques, was also used for towers and later entire temples. The sandstone architecture also contains references to earlier wooden structures - gallery roofs have false roof panels while wooden windows are imitated. Laterite , a readily available and cutable surface product, was used for foundations , basins and trenches, enclosing walls and wall cores . Copper and bronze sheets served as decoration, clay tiles were used to cover the roofs along with imitation sandstone shingles . The stones were often arranged so that the vertical intersections were not staggered. Since no mortar was used and only the weight and the precise arrangement of the stones held the temples together, they quickly collapsed if they were not cared for.
Due to the excessive temple construction with which every god-king tried to outdo his predecessor, the deposits of the high-quality sandstone were exhausted by 1219. Together with falling prosperity, this led to poorly built temples. As the buildings became generally simpler with the adoption of Buddhism as the state religion, there was finally an extensive cessation of construction activities. Finally, the post-Angkorian period followed, in which wood was increasingly used again.
- Modern non-religious traditional architecture
In the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese entrepreneurs built three- to five-story concrete apartment blocks in the city centers, which were abandoned under the Khmer Rouge and are now inhabited again - so dense that slum-like settlements are forming on the roofs. The building structure and the electrical and sanitary facilities are in very poor condition, and there are often toilets and running water only on the ground floor. The French influence is still visible in the outer city centers; There are villas from the late phase of colonial rule, which are kept in the French colonial style, which is related to Art Deco . In the countryside, simple houses made of bamboo and wood on wooden or concrete pillars are common against flooding. Under the houses there is open storage space, which is also used as a pet pen and work space. An outside staircase provides access to the residential building. Inside there is usually a large common room as well as the master bedroom and kitchen. The outer walls are formed by woven grass or palm mats. Roofs are made of reed or grass, rarely also of tiles.
literature
- Khmer literature
Traditional Khmer literature combines entertainment with educational content. The best known work of early Cambodian literature is the Reamker , a local adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana . The Reamker still has a formative effect on new musical, choreographic and theatrical developments. Another text from the time of the Khmer Empire is the poem from Angkor Wat , which was written on the walls of the temple. Religious literature, which is derived from the scriptures of the rules of Theravada Buddhism, which is predominant in Southeast Asia and guides the faithful, also plays a historical role. Buddhist "birth stories" ( Jataka ) , which mainly tell the life of Buddha , are still widespread today ; they too have inspired modern works. Fables and fairy tales that have been handed down for centuries have passed on norms and values to the next generation. The most important traditional virtues are helpfulness, a sense of community and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. The history of the country and geographical names are also passed on in this way.
Inscriptions on monuments date back to the 6th century, but some palm leaves, on which most of the historical works were written, have survived in Paris . Most of the specimens in Cambodia fell victim to the destruction of the Khmer Rouge. Important remaining documents are, for example, the Royal Chronicles.
Modern Cambodian literature, the first novel of which “Sophat” (1938) was published a few years before Norodom Sihanouk's coronation, is considered a break with the past as it was the first to use prose and focused on ordinary people. The predominantly older authors live mainly abroad, since writers were considered enemies of the state under the Khmer Rouge, so that there is no longer any real literary scene. They were influenced by the French literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Fiction is common, such as the Ipaen folk tales.
Sculptures
Few artefacts remain from the Funan period, only four inscriptions on steles, as well as some works of art from the 6th century, which mainly depict Vishnu with local faces. The style of the Indian influence can also be seen in the statues from Chenla. Stone and bronze were used as materials. The sculptures from early Angkor temples were relatively stiff and flat, but served as the basis for the later decorated bas-reliefs . Carving door lintels was an important art in that early phase. Like the base reliefs, elaborate pediment triangles tell from the Ramayana and other Indian epics, sometimes also from everyday life. Stone and bronze were also used as materials during this period. The post-Angkorian period is characterized by sophisticatedly designed and decorated wooden statues, of which little has been preserved for climatic reasons. Today's visual arts are still strongly oriented towards the heyday of the Khmer Empire.
theatre
The origin of the Cambodian theater goes back to the 6th century. Scenes from the Reamker, regional legends, Indian and epics from Theravada Buddhism are shown. The theaters use artistic masks and costumes and are divided into male and female theaters according to the actors. Actors speak and sing, plus a narrator and an orchestra for background music. Folk theater and shadow plays are popular entertainment in the country. The content of the shadow play Sbek thom is based on stories from the Reamker. The characters are cut from cowhide, attached to long bamboo poles and often painted. The royal theater is also based on the reamker. Only one modern play is played in the National Theater, namely "The History of the Country of Cambodia".
dance
There is a long dance tradition in Cambodia . The origins of the classical dance lie in the sacred dances of the Apsaras , the mythological seductresses of the ancient Khmer empire; possibly they go back to Funan. The climax of the classical dance in the Angkor period was based on interpretations of the Indian epics, especially the Ramayana - contents included princesses in need, war heroes, slaves, giants or mystical animals. The dance was considered a religious tradition to bring blessings to the king and his people and also as a form of entertainment; here the dancers mostly come from higher social classes and had a special position in the royal harem . With the decline of the Angkor Empire, there was also a decline in dance. However, under the Thai patronage it was continued as an art form. The French revived the Khmer ballet in the 20th century, with the first female dancers coming from Thailand. Today the Cambodian dance is one of the trademarks of Cambodia and a tourist magnet.
The dances are very symbolic and subject to a strict order. They are mostly performed by women, and gender differences are shown in different costumes. The dancers are accompanied by an orchestra and a narrative choir. The Lamthon , also known as the Apsara dance (Robam Tep Apsara) , a style developed in the middle of the 20th century and based on the classical Khmer tradition, is considered a national dance . The government and foreign donors are currently trying to revive dance traditions by interviewing and videotaping elderly Cambodians who survived the Khmer Rouge regime. By 1997, around 50% of the classical dance repertoire could be saved in this way.
Folk dance survived the 1970s, although it is gradually being replaced by television as a common entertainment in the country. In folk dance, which is much more individual than traditional dances and leaves more personal leeway, Cambodian folk tales are presented. There is also the folkloric dance, which arose from mysticism, belief in nature and everyday farming life and with which the farmers asked for a good harvest or rain. Despite its ritual and ceremonial acts, it is also livelier than the classical Khmertanz.
music
Cambodian music is part of the “glockenspiel” music culture (use of xylophones and humpback gongs ) that originated in Indonesia and includes Burma, Thailand, Laos, the western mountainous region of Vietnam and the Philippines to the east. Although some of the musical instruments depicted on Angkor Wat bas-reliefs are still played in folk music today, there is no longer an Indian influence on Cambodian music. Only the old one-string zither kse diev , which consists of a long stick and a calabash and is pressed against the chest to reinforce the resonance, is clearly of Indian origin. The Chinese influence is also essentially limited to the design of some instruments. The trapezoidal dulcimer khim with 14 three-string strings is derived from the Chinese yangqin , and the long-necked lute chapey dang veng and its Thai equivalent krajappi are related to some East Asian lunar sounds because of their almost circular resonance body.
From the 16th century court rituals, dance performances and the music played by huge orchestras in Angkor were no longer maintained. The Cambodian musical tradition only survived at the popular level and under Thai influence. The first attempt to renew court music was made in the mid-19th century under King Ang Duong (ruled 1841–1869). Classical Cambodian culture was particularly promoted during the French protectorate by Queen Sisowath Kossamak in the 1940s. After independence in 1953, a national musical culture that had been cleansed of Thai stylistic elements could develop again with smaller orchestras than in the Angkor period. During the rule of the Khmer Rouge musicians were systematically murdered and all instruments that could be found were destroyed. What subsequently emerged again in the previously seldom noted musical culture is thanks to the memory of the few musicians who survived in the country and the communities in exile who fled abroad.
Comparable to the Indonesian gamelan , different orchestral formations can be distinguished according to playing style and social function. The official royal orchestra Pinpeat, which corresponds to the Thai pi phat and belongs to religious music, is most often played in a rural reduced cast. It consists of a metallophone ( roneat dek) made of 21 iron sticks, two boat-shaped xylophones with bamboo sticks: roneat ek and the lower pitched roneat thung; two different gongs; the quadruple reed instrument sralay (derived from Persian surnai ) or the bamboo flute khloy ; various drums and small cymbals. For concert light music at royal feasts, even at the annual water festival Bon Om Tuk at Tonle Sap , heard the gentle orchestral Mohori , the next xylophone and drums, singing and string instruments, including several with the Javanese rebab related sting fiddles tro khmer will start. The five-tone scale used in Mohori shows a Chinese influence. The arak ensemble required to invoke the spirits , with which the cause of illnesses is to be determined, sounds significantly louder and, like the Phleng Kar wedding orchestra, is determined by beaker drums, reed instruments and string instruments.
Under French rule, jazz was introduced which, along with Cambodian string instruments and pop music singing, became its own light entertainment genre. Still popular singers of this music from the 1950s and 1960s are the star Sinn Sisamouth, who was murdered by the Khmer Rouge in 1976, Em Yeng, Pov Vannary and Meas Samoun. Noy Vanneth and Menh Sothivan followed on from this tradition, while Thai rock bands have increasingly exerted their influence since the turn of the millennium.
Media reception
- Die Angkar (documentary, 1981, 89 minutes, directors: Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Scheumann).
- The Killing Fields (1984, directed by Roland Joffé).
- The Rice Field (1994, directed by Rithy Panh).
- A Post War Love (1998, directed by Rithy Panh).
- Cambodia: A cable divides the country (documentary, 2000, directed by Rithy Panh).
- City of Ghosts (2001, directed by Matt Dillon).
- S-21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine (2003, directed by Rithy Panh).
- Same same but different (2009, director: Detlev Buck).
literature
Books
- Soizick Crochet: Le Cambodge . Karthala, Paris 1997, ISBN 2-86537-722-9 .
- Sorpong Peou: Cambodia. Change and Continuity in Contemporary Politics. Ashgate, Burlington (VT) 2001, ISBN 978-0-7546-2119-5 .
- Karl-Heinz Golzio: History of Cambodia. The Khmer country from Angkor to the present day. CH Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-406-49435-2 .
- David P. Chandler : A History of Cambodia. Westview Press, Boulder (CO) / Sydney 2007, ISBN 978-0-8133-4363-1 .
- David P. Chandler: Brother Number One. A Political Biography of Pol Pot. Westview Press, Boulder (CO) / Sydney 1999, ISBN 978-0-8133-3510-0 .
- May Ebihara, Carol Mortland, Judy Ledgerwood : Cambodian Culture since 1975. Homeland and Exile. Cornell University Press, Ithaca (NY) 1994, ISBN 978-0-8014-8173-4 .
- John Amos Marston, Elizabeth Guthrie: History, Buddhism, and New Religious Movements in Cambodia. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 2004, ISBN 978-0-8248-2868-4 .
- Judith Jacob, David Smyth: Cambodian Linguistics, Literature and History. Collected Articles. University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, London 1993, ISBN 978-0-7286-0218-2 .
- Markus Karbaum: Cambodia under Hun Sen. Informal institutions, political culture and legitimacy to rule. LIT, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-1645-2 .
- Erich Follath : The children of the Killing Fields. Cambodia's path from a terror country to a tourist paradise. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-421-04387-0 .
- Denise Affonço, Judith Klein : The dike of the widows. A woman in Hell of the Khmer Rouge. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58077-2 .
- Chou Ta-kuan : Customs in Cambodia. About life in Angkor in the 13th century. Angkor, Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 978-3-936018-42-4 .
- Alexander Goeb: Cambodia. Traveling in a traumatized country. Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-86099-724-6 .
- Martin Ritter: Media and Democratization in Cambodia. Frank & Timme, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86596-178-5 .
- Milton Osborne: Phnom Penh. A cultural history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-534248-2 .
- Chau Kim Heng: My life without childhood. TKG e. V., Erfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3-9811860-4-8 .
- U Sam Oeur: Dreams in the Concentration Camp. Angkor, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-936018-49-3
- Alexander Goeb: The Cambodia Drama. God-Kings, Pol Pot, and the Late Atonement Process. Laika, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-944233-50-5 .
- François Ponchaud : Cambodge année zéro (= Civilizations et sociétés ). Juillard, Paris 1977, ISBN 978-2-260-00055-6 ; Kailash, Munich 1998, ISBN 978-2-84268-031-2 .
- François Ponchaud: Brève histoire du Cambodge (= Je est ailleurs ). Magellan & Cie, Paris 2014, ISBN 978-2-35074-292-2 .
- Bastian Bretthauer, Susanne Lenz, Jutta Werdes: Cambodia. A political reader. regiospectra, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-940132-99-4 .
Online publications
- John Tully: A short history of Cambodia. From Empire to Survival ( Memento from July 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Higher Intellect (PDF; 3.4 MB).
- Ralf Bönt : A visit in a faint. A trip to the Killing Fields in Cambodia ( Memento from October 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . July 24, 2010.
- Carl Grundy-Warr: Khmer Rouge territoriality in pre- and post-election Cambodia. University of Durham, October 1994 (Situation of the Khmer Rouge; PDF; 555 kB).
- John Pilger : The Long Secret Alliance: Uncle Sam and Pol Pot ( July 28, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive ). In: Covert Action Quarterly. Fall 1997 (PDF; 4 kB).
- Pich Sophoan: Educational destruction and reconstruction in Cambodia. In: Sobhi Tawil (Ed.): Final report and case studies on educational destruction in disrupted societies. Geneva 1997, pp. 43–49 (PDF; 98 kB).
- Dmitry Mosyakov: The Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communists: A history of their relations as told in the Soviet archives ( Memento of May 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). In: Susan E. Cook (Ed.): Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick / London 2009, ISBN 978-1-4128-0515-5 , pp. 54 ff. (DOC; 102 kB).
- Lucy Keller: UNTAC in Cambodia - from Occupation, Civil War and Genocide to Peace. Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (PDF; 271 kB).
- Sophal Ear: The Political Economy of Pro-Poor Livestock Policy in Cambodia. PPLPI Working Paper No. 26, FAO , August 2005 (politics and economy in general; DOC; 842 kB); Policy Brief (PDF; 34 kB).
- Eva L. Mysliwiec: Envisioning a New Paradigm of Development Cooperation in Cambodia. Cambodia Development Resource Institute, Phnom Penh, February 2004 (Development Policy; PDF; 123 kB).
- Cambodian General Newspaper (February 17, 2015 memento on the Internet Archive ). German-language news magazine about Cambodia (no longer published).
- Teri Shaffer Yamada: Writing from the margins of society. Literature in Cambodia. In: Southeast Asia. Journal for politics, culture, dialogue. Special issue Spaces of Imagination - Literature in (context). 3-2015, pp. 25-27 (PDF; 260 kB).
- Anne Taupitz: The book market in Cambodia. Difficulties of reconstruction. In: Southeast Asia. Journal for politics, culture, dialogue. Special issue Spaces of Imagination - Literature in (context). 3-2015 (PDF; 91 kB; additional article for the printed edition, online only).
Web links
- Royal Embassy of Cambodia in the Federal Republic of Germany
- Country overview Cambodia on the website of the Federal Foreign Office
- Database of indexed literature on the social, political and economic situation in Cambodia
- CIA World Factbook: Cambodia (English)
- Cambodia country profile on BBC News (English)
- Cambodia from UCB Libraries GovPubs (English)
- Cambodian Information Center CIC - news, art, culture, contacts, links from and around Cambodia (English, khmer)
- National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia - Statistics (English, khmer)
- Destatis Federal Statistical Office Cambodia - Facts
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Data Query. Total population. United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x CIA World Factbook: Cambodia (English)
- ^ 143 Cambodia. In: Human Development Report 2016. United Nations Development Program ( UNDP ).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Andreas Neuhauser: Cambodscha . Reise-Know-How-Verlag Rump, Bielefeld 2003, ISBN 978-3-8317-1106-2 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Gabriele Intemann, Annette Snoussi-Zehnter, Michael Venhoff, Dorothea Wiktorin: Diercke Länderlexikon . Westermann, Braunschweig 1999, ISBN 978-3-07-509420-4 .
- ↑ Nick Ray, Isabel Albiston, Greg Bloom: South-East Asia on a Shoestring by Lonely Planet indicates an increase from 3,000 km² to 7,500 km²; the difference is probably due to the fact that the surrounding river landscapes are excluded.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Andrew Spooner: Footprint Cambodia. Footprint, Bath 2008, ISBN 978-1-906098-15-5 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Die Welt 2005 . ADAC Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-89905-202-2 .
- ↑ Lucky find on the Mekong. WWF , May 22, 2007.
- ↑ Appendix 4 of the Royal Decree No. NS / RKT / 0305/149 dated March 21, 2005 on the Designation of Animals and Plants as National Symbols of the Kingdom of Cambodia. In: Scribd .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Nich Ray, Daniel Robinson: Cambodia. Lonely Planet, Melbourne 2008, ISBN 978-1-74104-317-4 .
- ^ Protected areas system in Cambodia. In: Review of Protected Areas and Development (map with the nature reserves).
- ↑ a b c Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births). Cambodia. In: World Bank Open Data.
- ↑ a b Fischer Weltalmanach 2009. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-596-72009-5 .
- ^ Cambodia Inter-Country Adoption (ICA) Assessment and Action Plan. In: Child Care Policy / Country Reports. Child Rights International Network, June 1, 2008.
- ↑ For the exact population distribution: “Khmer 90%, Vietnamese 5%, Chinese 1%, other 4%” (CIA World Factbook) ; "Khmer 90%, Vietnamese 4%, Chinese 1%, others 5%" (ADAC. Die Welt 2005) ; "Approx. 85% Khmer, 4% Vietnamese, 3% Cham, Chinese, Thai, Moi, Khmer Loeu and Lao "( Fischer Weltalmanach 2009 , status 1998)
- ^ A b c d Nick Ray, Isabel Albiston, Greg Bloom: South-East Asia on a Shoestring. Lonely Planet, Melbourne 2016, ISBN 978-1-78657-119-9 .
- ^ Beverley Palmer: Cambodia (= Stefan Loose Travel Handbooks ). DuMont, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 978-3-7701-6141-6 , p. 153.
- ↑ Migration Report 2017. UN, accessed on September 30, 2018 (English).
- ↑ Origins and Destinations of the World's Migrants, 1990-2017 . In: Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project . February 28, 2018 ( pewglobal.org [accessed September 30, 2018]).
- ↑ Cambodia. Languages. In: Ethnologue , Languages of the World.
- ↑ Cambodia. In: WCC member churches and councils: Profiles of ecumenical relations. World Council of Churches.
- ↑ Philip Shenon: Phnom Penh Journal; Lord Buddha Returns, With Artists His Soldiers. In: New York Times . 2nd January 1992.
- ^ Robert E. Buswell (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Cambodia. Macmillan, Basingstoke 2004, ISBN 978-0-02-865718-9 , p. 109.
- ↑ Cambodia. Largest Cities. In: GeoNames .
- ^ Phnom Penh City. Facts ( Memento from October 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Phnom Penh City website.
- ^ Phnom Penh Districts ( October 19, 2012 memento in the Internet Archive ). In: Phnom Penh City website.
- ↑ a b c d e f General Population Census of Cambodia 2008. National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, August 2008 (PDF; 1.8 MB).
- ↑ a b Carola hump, Christine Laue Bothen: Harenberg States lexicon. The history of all states of the 20th century. Harenberg, Dortmund 2000, ISBN 978-3-611-00894-8 .
- ↑ a b c Aurel Croissant: The political systems of Southeast Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 158 .
- ↑ a b c Aurel Croissant: The political systems of Southeast Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 159 .
- ↑ Michael Vickery: Cambodia. 1975-1982. South End Press, Boston 1984, ISBN 978-0-89608-189-5 , p. 187.
- ^ "The Number" - Quantifying Crimes Against Humanity in Cambodia. Documentation Center of Cambodia, 1999.
- ↑ Co-Investigating Judges indict Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith. Website of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), September 16, 2010.
- ↑ Aurel Croissant: The Political Systems of Southeast Asia: An Introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 160 .
- ^ John Gittings and Mark Tran: Pol Pot killed himself with drugs , The Guardian, January 21, 1999, accessed November 11, 2019
- ↑ Aurel Croissant: The Political Systems of Southeast Asia: An Introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 161-162 .
- ↑ Democracy-Index 2019 Overview chart with comparative values to previous years , on economist.com
- ↑ Cambodia. Profiles. Freedom House , accessed January 2, 2018 .
- ↑ Aurel Croissant: The Political Systems of Southeast Asia: An Introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 190-191 .
- ↑ Aurel Croissant: The Political Systems of Southeast Asia: An Introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 166-167 .
- ↑ Aurel Croissant: The Political Systems of Southeast Asia: An Introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 169-170 .
- ↑ a b c d Aurel Croissant: The political systems of Southeast Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 167-169 .
- ↑ Manfred Rist: The suspiciously high voter turnout in Cambodia is supposed to give the regime more legitimacy. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 29th July 2018.
- ↑ Manfred Rist: Cambodia's opposition in the trap. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 3rd September 2017.
- ^ A b Aurel Croissant: The political systems of Southeast Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 178-182 .
- ^ Supreme Court dissolves largest opposition party. In: Spiegel Online . 16th November 2017.
- ↑ a b c Aurel Croissant: The political systems of Southeast Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 175-178 .
- ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , p. 438.
- ^ Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 58.
- ^ Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 59.
- ↑ - New Parline: the IPU's Open Data Platform (beta). In: data.ipu.org. Retrieved September 30, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c Aurel Croissant: The political systems of Southeast Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 171-174 .
- ↑ Land Grabbing and Poverty in Cambodia: The Myth of Development. In: LICADHO Report. June 2009 (PDF; 2.2 MB).
- ↑ A further 160 families in Cambodia face forced eviction. Amnesty International , August 13, 2009.
- ↑ Development Partners Call for Halt to Evictions of Cambodia's Urban Poor. World Bank , July 16, 2009.
- ↑ Phnom Penh: Eviction of Group 78 families has begun ( Memento of July 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Amnesty International, July 17, 2009.
- ^ Forced evictions and illegal land grabbing in Cambodia. Small request from the Greens, Bundestag printed paper 16/100930, August 7, 2008 (PDF; 53 kB).
- ^ Forced evictions and illegal land grabbing in Cambodia. Answer of the Federal Government to the Minor Inquiry from the Greens, Bundestag printed paper 16/101430, August 19, 2008 (PDF; 63 kB).
-
↑ Abuses Related to the International Adoption Process in Cambodia. In: LICADHO Briefing Paper. January 2002 (PDF; 52 kB);
Cambodia Inter-Country Adoption (ICA) Assessment and Action Plan. In: Child Care Policy / Country Reports. Child Rights International Network, June 1, 2008;
Adoption: Cambodia. ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, November 25, 2008; Out of Cambodia ( Memento from December 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: The Washington Post . January 9, 2009.
- ↑ INS Announces Suspension of Cambodian Adoptions and Offer of Parole in Certain Pending Cases. US Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, December 21, 2001 (press release; PDF; 29 kB).
-
^ Temporary Suspension of Adoptions from Cambodia. Minister for Children ( Margaret Hodge ), June 22, 2004;
Adoptions from Cambodia. Department for Children, Schools and Families, August 1, 2008 (PDF; 13 kB). - ^ Report on Intercountry Adoption ( Memento of February 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Committee on Lesbian Parenthood and Intercountry Adoption, May 29, 2008 (PDF; 855 kB).
- ↑ Declaration / Reservation / Notification. Hague Conference on Private International Law , 2007.
- ↑ Adoption Cambodia. Federal Office of Justice in Switzerland.
- ^ A b Fischer Weltalmanach 2006. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-72006-4 .
- ^ Judges sworn in for Khmer Rouge. In: BBC News . July 3, 2006.
- ↑ The skulls of the Khmers Rouges. January 31, 2019, accessed on March 11, 2019 (German).
- ↑ a b c Aurel Croissant: The political systems of Southeast Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 192-193 .
- ↑ a b Cambodia. Reporters Without Borders , accessed January 23, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c Restrictions on the Freedom of Expression in Cambodia's Media. In: LICADHO Briefing Paper. May 2009 (PDF; 602 kB).
- ↑ No press freedom if impunity for crimes against journalists, says UN human rights office. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), May 4, 2009 (OHCHR Statement on Press Freedom; PDF; 57 kB).
- ↑ Freedom of Expression in Cambodia is deteriorating ( Memento from March 6, 2011 on WebCite ). CCHR / CLEC / IDEA / KKKHRA / LICADHO, June 11, 2009 (joint press release; PDF; 1 kB).
-
↑ Cambodia: Judicial independence is the key to reducing defamation lawsuits against critics and upholding freedom of expression. Asian Human Rights Commission, June 16, 2009;
Cambodia: End Assault on Opposition, Critics. Human Rights Watch , July 14, 2009;
Catherine A. Morris: Concerns about Independence of Lawyers and Judges in Cambodia: Trends from 2004–2009 ( Memento of November 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada, July 7, 2009. -
^ Seth Mydans: Cambodia Court Cases Mount Against Opposition. In: New York Times . July 20, 2009;
Tim Johnston: Government Crackdown on Detractors Prompts Concern About Cambodia's Legal System ( April 9, 2012 memento on the Internet Archive ). In: Washington Post . July 29, 2009;
Guardian Weekly of August 4, 2009 ( Memento of the original of November 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . - ↑ A briefing note on freedom of expression, defamation and disinformation ( Memento from January 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), May 4, 2009 (PDF; 4 kB).
- ↑ Cambodia: United Nations Expert concerned at restrictions on freedom of lawyers to represent their clients ( Memento of October 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), July 1, 2009 (PDF; 4 kB).
-
↑ Trials against and arrests of government critics in Cambodia for defamation. Written question by Niccolò Rinaldi ( ALDE ) to the Council. European Parliament , July 20, 2009;
Trials and arrests of government critics in Cambodia for defamation. Written question from Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck (ALDE) to the Commission. European Parliament, July 20, 2009. - ↑ Cambodian Democracy in Freefall ( Memento from March 6, 2011 on WebCite ). Cambodian Center for Human Rights, CCHR / CITA / CLEC / FTUWKC / IDEA / KKKHRA / LICADHO / SILAKA / GAD / C, June 22, 2009 (joint media release on the withdrawal of parliamentary immunity from Mu Sochua and Ho Vann).
- ↑ a b c Cambodia - Foreign policy. Encyclopedia of the Nations.
- ↑ a b Maria Harrison: China's growing importance as aid donor and development partner to enable Cambodia to pursue new authoritarian politics. ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: IHS Jane's Intelligence Weekly . 22nd January 2018.
- ↑ Bernd Rosenbusch: The importance of internal and international conflicts for the cooperation and integration of the ASEAN states. LIT, Berlin / Hamburg / Münster, 2003, ISBN 978-3-8258-6583-2 , p. 158.
- ↑ Cambodia. Exchange of fire in the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand ( memento of October 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). In: Euronews . October 15, 2008.
- ↑ a b c d Aurel Croissant: The political systems of Southeast Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 185-187 .
- ↑ Cambodia votes for conscription. In: BBC News. October 25, 2006.
- ↑ Meas Sokchea: Deminers to Africa: PM. In: Phnom Penh Post. March 25, 2009.
- ↑ a b c Aurel Croissant: The political systems of Southeast Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-14349-1 , p. 182-185 .
- ^ Food inflation hits Cambodia's poor, threatens hunger. In: TerraDaily. February 26, 2008.
- ↑ The beef of Cambodia. Rat dishes too expensive. In: n-tv.de . August 27, 2008.
- ↑ Cambodia's inflation rate declines in October. In: China Economic Net. November 18, 2008.
- ↑ Cambodia Will Start The First Stock Market In December, But Will Not Be Successful as Planned. In: The Mirror. January 21, 2009.
- ↑ Guy De Launey: Cambodia's long awaited stock exchange begins trading. In: BBC News. April 17, 2012.
- ↑ Global Competitiveness Index 2017–2018. Competitiveness Rankings. In: The Global Competitiveness Report 2017–2018. World Economic Forum .
- ↑ Country Rankings. In: 2018 Index of Economic Freedom. Heritage Foundation .
- ^ Journalists killed in 1997 ( Memento from January 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). Reporters Without Borders (report on journalists who died while doing their job, including one in the said attack).
- ↑ CPI Ranking 2018 Tabular ranking
- ↑ Bethany Lindsay: Corruption Costing Up to $ 500 Million a Year, Official Says. In: The Cambodia Daily . June 4, 2009.
- ↑ See in particular the aforementioned reports by the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Human Rights in Cambodia.
- ^ Anti-Corruption Law ( Memento of June 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: Radio Australia News. March 12, 2010.
- ↑ Leaflet on the discontinuation of the legalization of Cambodian documents and possible document verification by means of legal or administrative assistance. German Embassy Phnom Penh, March 2017 (PDF; 283 kB).
- ↑ Country for sale - how Cambodia's elite has captured the country's extractive industries. Global Witness , February 5, 2009 (PDF; 1.1 MB).
- ^ Lawrence Gist: Establishment of an Independent Counselor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. In: CAAI News Media. August 13, 2009.
- ↑ 36 dead after building collapse in Cambodia orf.at, January 5, 2020, accessed January 5, 2020.
- ^ Fischer Weltalmanach 2010. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-596-72910-4 .
- ↑ Cambodia. Joint IMF / World Bank Debt Sustainability Analysis 2008. International Monetary Fund and International Development Organization , December 23, 2008 (PDF; 421 kB).
- ^ Report for Selected Countries and Subjects. Cambodia. IMF.
- ↑ Om Chandra (President of the Cambodian Press Council): Promotion of Professionalism and Ethics. National Conference on Cambodian Media, Phnom Penh, June 17, 2009 (talk).
- ↑ Bad times for the media ( Memento from September 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). In: DLF24 . 4th September 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e Cambodia Cultural Profile ( Memento from May 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Cultural Profiles. February 26, 2008.
- ↑ Internet Users by Country (2016). In: Internet Live Stats.
- ↑ Cambodia's critical press has fallen silent , NZZ, May 8, 2018
- ↑ The announcement of flights suspension on Siem Reap Airways ( Memento of December 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). Siem Reap Airways International website (announcement of the company's decommissioning).
- ^ Airlines Servicing Cambodia. Canby Publications.
- ↑ Phnom Penh City Bus Comprehensive Network with Wikivoyage map , January 19, 2019.
- ↑ a b c d e Report on Power Sector of the Kingdom of Cambodia. 2010 Edition ( Memento from January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Electricity Authority of Cambodia, Phnom Penh 2010 (PDF; 3.7 MB).
- ^ A b Matilda Brown, Yos Katank: Power play. In: Southeastern Globe. July 2009, pp. 38-39.
- ↑ David P. Chandler , Leonard C. Overton: Cambodia. In: Encyclopædia Britannica .
- ^ Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia. ( Memento of the original of July 12, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Website of the Cambodian Senate (Constitution of Cambodia; PDF; 117 kB).
- ^ Judy Ledgerwood: Education in Cambodia. Northern Illinois University , Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Interactive Learning Resources for Southeast Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SEAsite), v. a. Paragraphs 2-4; the quote also comes from there.
- ^ Cambodia — Education System ( Memento July 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). BookRags, v. a. Paragraphs 1, 2 and 4.
- ↑ a b c d e f Beverley Palmer: Cambodia (= Stefan Loose Travel Handbooks ). DuMont, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 978-3-7701-6141-6 .
- ↑ Prevalence of undernourishment (% of population). 2000-2015. World Bank.
- ↑ Cambodia. Cultural and educational policy. Country information from the Federal Foreign Office .
- ↑ Jean Boisselier et al. a .: Handbook of Form and Style. Asia. Fourier, Wiesbaden 1988, ISBN 978-3-925037-21-4 , chapter "Cambodia".
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