Cambodia: Progress and Challenges since 1991

12. An Assessment of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC)

An Assessment of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) 153 153 12 AN ASSESSMENT OF THE UNITED NATIONS TRANSITIONAL AUTHORITY IN CAMBODIA (UNTAC) Yasushi Akashi There are divergent appraisals on the outcome of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operation in Cambodia, which took place for 18 months from March 1992 to September 1993. In my view, such divergence of views is inevitable; it arises from degrees of prior expectations, varied estimates regarding the capacity of the United Nations to deploy and implement a complex peace-keeping mandate, as well as the degree to which a UN intervention could make a serious impact upon the socioeconomic and political structure of a country within a limited time span. Michael W. Doyle, for example, argues that, while the peace-keeping operation in Cambodia produced positive results, the subsequent peacebuilding phase was not entirely satisfactory, since the war against the Khmer Rouge was inconclusive and some opportunities to reform the Cambodian state were missed. Samol Ney, Deputy Director General for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cambodia, said in a Tokyo workshop of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) that the UN peace-keeping in his country had achieved a great success and 12 Cambodia_Progress 3/6/12, 10:35 AM 153 154 Yasushi Akashi that the general elections in 1993 were a turning point in Cambodian history. But he added that the task of UNTAC under the Paris Peace Agreements was too ambitious and, therefore, was an impossible one to implement as the cease-fire was not honoured and demilitarization was not achieved. In his view, UNTAC was too passive vis-à-vis the Khmer Rouge resistance. He argued that the most serious UNTAC failure was its inability to “bring about the disarmament and demobilization of the Khmer Rouge”. Despite these critical appraisals, it cannot be denied that during its 18-month mandate, UNTAC achieved many of its ambitious tasks, particularly its core objective, namely the conduct of free and fair general elections, which led to the creation of a new government of Cambodia with considerable success, although as will be noted later in this paper, there were shortcomings and defects in the operation, more particularly due to the fact that there had been little time to prepare logistically for the commencement of a huge peace-keeping operation and, most of all, UNTAC met a totally unanticipated armed resistance from the Party of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK, also known as the Khmer Rouge). In short, UNTAC played an indispensable role in bringing to birth a new Cambodian polity, based on the unity it had carefully cultivated among the major factions with the exception of the Khmer Rouge. It organized from scratch a complex nation-wide voter registration and the general elections, in which 90 per cent of the electorate participated with clear enthusiasm. However, it was beyond the capacity of UNTAC to put an end to the bitter political bickering among the factions, nor was it within its reach to lift Cambodia from its endemic poverty or serious urban-rural disparity within a year and a half of its mandate. The new government of Cambodia, which came into being on the basis of a Constitution hammered out by the Constituent Assembly in 1993, had to struggle with remnants of the Khmer Rouge for several years, even though the strength of the Khmer Rouge (or PDK) was considerably weakened by its dogged boycott of the democratic elections organized by UNTAC. One has to pay tribute to Mr Hun Sen, the Prime Minister, for having achieved the final demise of the Khmer Rouge. FACTORS BEHIND THE SUCCESS It is undeniable that a deep and pervasive aspiration of the Cambodian people for peace and democracy after more than 20 years of the incessant strife and suffering was a vital under-pinning which enabled UNTAC to achieve its fundamental objectives, namely, the conduct of free and fair general elections in a neutral political environment, in spite of numerous obstacles along the way. 12 Cambodia_Progress 3/6/12, 10:35 AM 154 An Assessment of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) 155 Secondly, the consistent support given by the relevant UN Member States, including the five Permanent Members of the Security Council, major Asian countries, including Indonesia, Japan and Australia and other signatories of the Paris Peace Agreements, signed on 23 October 1991, was undoubtedly an essential element...