Khmer Issarak

The Khmer Issarak was an anti-French, Khmer nationalist political movement formed in 1945 with the backing of the government of Thailand. It sought to expel the French colonial authorities from Cambodia, and establish an independent Khmer state.

The Issarak bands of the 1940s and 50s, although not a single organised movement , were important in the nationalist and communist movements not just because many later joined Sihanouk's Sangkum or the communists, but also because of their aims and principles, and their use of guerrilla tactics and extreme violence.

The Khmer Issarak (independence) movement was founded in 1940 by Poc Khun in Bangkok,1 almost at the same time as Thanh was petitioning the Japanese. Like Thanh the Thai were also ready to exploit French weakness in Cambodia. In November 1940, they took control of Battambang and Siemreap provinces,2 an action legitimised by the Japanese four months later. Thailand decided to make use of the newly founded Khmer Issarak organisation, by making Poc Khun the representative of Battambang in the Thai parliament. This group of Issaraks was based only in the north-west.

The other major Issarak group started with two ex-monks, Achar Mean and Achar Sok.3 After an independence riot in Phnom Penh on 20 July 1942 they both fled north to Kampong Chhnang and Battambang respectively,4 where they decided to form armed resistance bands. These two men were essentially the founders of communism in Cambodia, although in the 1980s' it was Son Ngoc Minh who was honoured as the father of Cambodian Communism by Vietnam, Laos and the PRK.5 By the end of 1945 they were both working together with the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), in Vietnam, where the Viet Minh were leading the August Revolution after the Japanese capitulation.6 They were working together to recruit among the Khmer Krom minority in Vietnam. Ben Kiernan sums up their progress very well: “Son Ngoc Minh and Tou Samouth recruited supporters among the Khmer Krom on the basis of anti-colonial solidarity, and travelled to Thailand to buy arms with funds supplied by the Viet Minh. They made contact with ... the Issarak Committee there, and recruited more supporters in Thai-held Battambang and Siemreap. It was in Thailand, under the auspices of its overseas branch, that Son Ngoc Minh joined the ICP, in October 1946. Tou Samouth followed suit in Kampuchea at the end of the year.”7

Already in early 1946 Poc Khun's organisation had fallen apart due to internal dissension. An attempt to revive it failed as Thailand tried to exploit it for its own use. The concept of a Thai-funded Cambodian nationalist movement did not seem so enticing to people who were tired of being exploited by foreign powers like France. By December 1946 Thailand was forced to relinquish control over Battambang, Siemreap and Stung Treng; Thai officials were quick to sign a deal with one of rebel leaders Dap Chhuon, offering their support for anti- French guerilla bands.8 This was in the unlikely hope that they could incite a rebellion in the region and then annex it under the guise of calming the situation. This never eventuated.

On 1 February 1948, the Issarak movement formed the Khmer Peoples' Liberation Committee (KPLC) with Chhuon as its president.9 Five of its eleven leaders were sympathetic to the Vietnamese,10 which pushed away certain elements of the Issarak movement. Within this organisation there were two important Viet Minh supporters, Sieu Heng, who was head of the ICP North-Western branch but then left the communist movement in the 1950s, and his nephew Long Bunruot11 who later changed his name to Nuon Chea and rose to become deputy leader of the CPK (Communist Party of Kampuchea), second only to Pol Pot.

One can see how the Viet Minh was leading a concerted attempt to exploit Issarak anti-colonialism and turn it into communism and support for Vietnam. This was so particularly on the eastern side of the country, where guerrillas cells were often commanded by Vietnamese, and Cambodian recruits into them often attended ICP political schools.12 There they were taught Marxist-Leninism and the virtues of cooperating with Vietnam. On the other side of the country, Son Ngoc Minh had returned from Thailand with enough weapons to equip a fairly large company. In 1947 he established the Liberation Committee of South-east Kampuchea.13 This is particularly of note, because by the end of the civil war of 1970-75 the south-west had one of the most powerful and well organised communist armies in Cambodia and the one Pol Pot allied himself with. By late 1948 every corner of the country had a powerful Issarak organisation in charge. By 1949 the Issarak movement was coming to an end as the French began to exploit the greed of Issarak leaders by giving them colonial positions and others went off to join more radical organisations.

The Issaraks had a great influence on Cambodia's future. Many later communists were first introduced to its concepts whilst involved with the Issaraks; in the East the leaders of those Viet Minh influenced forces remained largely unchanged all the way up to the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea. The guerrilla tactics and organisation of the Issarak forces would be mimicked by the communist forces during the civil war.

Given the wide range of ideological beliefs within the movement, Khmer Issarak lacked cohesion, and split into factions soon after its formation. Many of its component groups later participated in government under Prince Sihanouk.

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