Cambodia Today

In 1979, Cambodia hit the headlines as the horrors perpetrated during the Khmer Rouge regime were revealed. But that was a generation ago. Today the world has largely forgotten Cambodia as fresh tragedies have unfolded elsewhere. So has Cambodia recovered from its traumatic past?

Unhealed wounds

• After nearly three decades of civil war, the Khmer Rouge are no more. Pol Pot is dead, other ageing leaders were arrested or pardoned, and the remaining Khmer Rouge soldiers defected to the Government side. Forthcoming trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders may help close this chapter in Cambodia's history, or they may yet open fresh wounds.
• Though war may have come to end, violent crime, including banditry, armed robbery and kidnapping, is rife. A culture of impunity and corruption denies justice to the poor and oppressed.
• Millions of landmines remained in the ground at the end of the war. About 850 people died from injuries caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance each year from 2000 to 2005, but there are signs that the casualty rate may now be dropping. About 2,900 km2 of land remains covered with mines. Cambodia's prime minister has predicted that the country will not be clear of the devices until at least 2020.

Political strife

• Following the 2003 general election it took almost a year for the two main political parties to form a coalition government. Rifts and realignments are a constant feature of political life.

Slow economic growth

• Although Cambodia is a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations, it lags far behind some of its more prosperous neighbours. Foreign direct investment fell each year from 1998 to 2003, a symptom of the frustation that investors feel with Cambodia's seemingly endemic corruption.
• The garment industry has been one of Cambodia's success stories. The International Labour Organisation has commended working conditions, though trade unions have complained of oppression of workers by some employers. The industry's future prosperity depends on Cambodia's ability to compete with manufacturers in other Asian countries such as China and Vietnam.
• The number of tourist arrivals is increasing steadily, but many tourists arrive in Siem Reap (a provincial town) by air, spend two or three days wisiting the Angkor temples, and then fly out again, seeing nothing of the rest of the country and contributing little to the economy.

Poverty

• Cambodia remains one of the poorest, least developed countries in Asia. Our Facts and Figures page reveals the degree to which Cambodia's standard of health, level of education, care for the environment and other indicators of quality of life need to be improved.
• The gap between rich and poor is widening rapidly.
• It is the rural poor who suffer when floods and drought occur, or when illegal logging causes environmental damage.

Challenges

Challenges faced by Cambodia today include:

• achieving a measure of political consensus with a viable opposition;
• reducing corruption and creating a competent and impartial judiciary;
• establishing a fair way of resolving land disputes;
• reducing the trafficking and abuse of illegal drugs;
• achieving millennium development goals;
• stimulating foreign investment and economic growth;
• conducting trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders and achieving some kind of closure to the tragic events of 1975-1979.

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