Channelling Cambodia in Phnom Penh

1954  Cambodia gains independence from France.
1967  The Khmer Rouge begins its Maoist insurgency, led by Brother Number One – failed radio engineering student Pol Pot.
1975  ‘Year Zero’. Khmer Rouge forces take Phnom Penh and proceed to abolish money, destroy schools, banks and hospitals, and execute dissidents, ethnic groups and intellectuals. Millions of urban dwellers forced out of their homes and into the countryside to work in labour camps.
1977  Fighting breaks out with Vietnam. Hun Sen defects from the Khmer Rouge.
1979  Vietnamese overthrow the Khmer Rouge, who escape into the countryside to wage guerrilla war.
1984  Hun Sen becomes prime minister for the first time.
1989 Paris peace talks begin. Vietnam begins withdrawal.
1991  Paris Peace Accord signed. King Sihanouk reinstated.
1992  UN enters Cambodia.
1993  UN holds first general election. Royalists win, followed by Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party.
1997  Pol Pot overthrown by his military chief Ta Mok, after Pol Pot has another Khmer Rouge leader, Son Sen, and his family, brutally murdered and their bodies run over by trucks. Hun Sen stages a bloody coup in Phnom Penh, overthrowing Royalists.
1998  Pol Pot dies. Last Khmer Rouge surrender to Cambodian Government. Hun Sen wins second election.
2002  Third general election. Hun Sen wins, but takes a year to form a government.
2004  King Sihanouk abdicates in favour of his son, Prince Sihamoni.