Guiding a transition to democracy: mission impossible?

New Mandala

In this podcast episode (in Khmer), we dive deep into archives of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia and its UNTAC Radio with selected key events on the promises and the challenges from the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement on October 23, 1991 to the UNTAC supervised general election in May 1993 and beyond. The episode reflects on the challenges of disarming four well-equipped conflicting military factions, combatting ethnic hate speech and responding to violence against ethnic Vietnamese, the return of Cambodian refugees, the pre-election inflammatory political rhetoric, and failed attempts at secession by CPP officials after electoral defeats.