2003 Phnom Penh riots
Encyclopedia
In January 2003, a Cambodia
n newspaper article falsely alleged that a Thai actress claimed that Angkor Wat
belonged to Thailand
. Other Cambodian print and radio media picked up the report and furthered the nationalistic sentiment which resulted in riots in Phnom Penh
on January 29 where the Thai Embassy was burned and commercial properties of Thai businesses were vandalized. The riots reflect the fluid historical relationship between Thailand
and Cambodia
, as well as the economic, cultural and political factors involving the two countries.
s by more or less strong political, military and tributary
ties.
In the 14th century, the centre of Thai power passed from Sukhothai
to the more southerly Ayutthaya
, in territory which had formed part of the Khmer empire. The threat posed by Ayutthaya to Angkor increased as its power grew, and in the 15th century Angkor itself was sacked.
The ensuing centuries saw numerous further incursions by the Siamese. For much of the 19th century, northern Cambodia, including Angkor, was ruled by a Siamese tributary state. The degree of independence enjoyed by this state fluctuated according to the relative fortunes of Siam, Cambodia and the French
colonialists.
In 1907, Siam ceded northern Cambodia to France. In the 1930s, this loss became the basis of the nationalist government’s claim that the area was a “lost territory” which rightfully belonged to Thailand. This claim was not abandoned until the 1950s.
government and the subsequent civil war
kept Cambodia economically weak. As a result, Thai businesses dominate part of the Cambodian economy, fuelling resentment.
, had said that Cambodia had stolen Angkor, and that she would not appear in Cambodia until it was returned to Thailand. The newspaper’s editor gave the source for the story as a group of Khmer nationalists who said they had seen the actress on television. No evidence to support the newspaper’s claim has ever emerged, and it seems that the report was either fabricated or arose from a misunderstanding of what Suvanan’s character had said. It has also been suggested that the report was an attempt by a rival firm to discredit the actress, who was inter alia the “face” of a cosmetics company.
The report was picked up by Khmer radio and print media, and copies of the Rasmei Angkor article were distributed in schools. On January 27, the Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen
repeated the allegations, and said that Suvanant was “not worth a few blades of grass near the temple”. On January 28, the Cambodian government then banned all Thai television programmes in the country.
and Shin Corp
, owned by the family of then Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra
. A photograph of a Cambodian man holding a burning portrait of the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej
enraged many Thai people.
The Thai government sent military aircraft to Cambodia to evacuate Thai nationals, while Thais demonstrated outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok.
Responsibility for the riots was disputed: Hun Sen attributed the government’s failure to prevent the attacks to “incompetence”, and said that the riots were stirred up by “extremists”. The chairman of the National Assembly, Prince Norodom Ranariddh claimed that opposition leader Sam Rainsy
had directed the attacks. Rainsy said that he had attempted to prevent the violence.
, several influential Thai diplomats, including former ambassador to the UN Asda Jayanama
and former ambassador to Vietnam Supapong Jayanama, alleged that only half of the compensation was actually paid. The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied this accusation. The Cambodian government also agreed to compensate individual Thai businesses for the losses which they had suffered, to be negotiated separately.
Shortly after the riots, a wave of arrests - more than 150 persons - was criticized by human rights groups, highlighting irregularities in the procedures and denial by the authorities to monitor their detention conditions. The owner of Beehive Radio, Mr. Mom Sonando, and Chan Sivutha, Editor-in-Chief of Reaksmei Angkor, were both arrested without warrants, charged with incitement to commit a crime, incitement to discrimination and announcement of false information. They were later on released on bail and no trial was ever made.
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
n newspaper article falsely alleged that a Thai actress claimed that Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu,...
belonged to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
. Other Cambodian print and radio media picked up the report and furthered the nationalistic sentiment which resulted in riots in Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
on January 29 where the Thai Embassy was burned and commercial properties of Thai businesses were vandalized. The riots reflect the fluid historical relationship between Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, as well as the economic, cultural and political factors involving the two countries.
Historical
Historically, the relationship between Siam (modern Thailand) and Cambodia was extremely fluid, reflecting the region’s division into city states rather than nation states. These city states were bound together into empireEmpire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
s by more or less strong political, military and tributary
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
ties.
In the 14th century, the centre of Thai power passed from Sukhothai
Sukhothai Province
Sukhothai is one of the northern provinces of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Phrae, Uttaradit, Phitsanulok, Kamphaeng Phet, Tak, and Lampang...
to the more southerly Ayutthaya
Ayutthaya (city)
Ayutthaya city is the capital of Ayutthaya province in Thailand. Located in the valley of the Chao Phraya River. The city was founded in 1350 by King U Thong, who went there to escape a smallpox outbreak in Lop Buri and proclaimed it the capital of his kingdom, often referred to as the Ayutthaya...
, in territory which had formed part of the Khmer empire. The threat posed by Ayutthaya to Angkor increased as its power grew, and in the 15th century Angkor itself was sacked.
The ensuing centuries saw numerous further incursions by the Siamese. For much of the 19th century, northern Cambodia, including Angkor, was ruled by a Siamese tributary state. The degree of independence enjoyed by this state fluctuated according to the relative fortunes of Siam, Cambodia and the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
colonialists.
In 1907, Siam ceded northern Cambodia to France. In the 1930s, this loss became the basis of the nationalist government’s claim that the area was a “lost territory” which rightfully belonged to Thailand. This claim was not abandoned until the 1950s.
Economic
Thailand’s rapid economic progress during the 1980s and 1990s made its economy one of the strongest in south-east Asia. Conversely, the Khmer RougeKhmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
government and the subsequent civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
kept Cambodia economically weak. As a result, Thai businesses dominate part of the Cambodian economy, fuelling resentment.
Cultural
Compared to Cambodia, Thailand has a far greater population and is more open to western influences. These factors have given Thailand a substantial cultural influence on Cambodian music and television. This is coupled with a perception on the part of many Cambodians that Thais are arrogant and racist towards their neighbors.Cause of the riots
The January 2003 riots were prompted by an article in the Cambodian Rasmei Angkor (Light of Angkor) newspaper on January 18. The article alleged that a Thai actress, Suvanant KongyingSuvanant Kongying
Suvanant Kongying is a Thai actress. She was the lead actress in many Thai lakorns in the 1990s-2000s. She has appeared in several lakorns , including Dao pra sook with Sornram Teppitak, in which she played Dao, the main character. She has been voted people's choice winner for top actress for many...
, had said that Cambodia had stolen Angkor, and that she would not appear in Cambodia until it was returned to Thailand. The newspaper’s editor gave the source for the story as a group of Khmer nationalists who said they had seen the actress on television. No evidence to support the newspaper’s claim has ever emerged, and it seems that the report was either fabricated or arose from a misunderstanding of what Suvanan’s character had said. It has also been suggested that the report was an attempt by a rival firm to discredit the actress, who was inter alia the “face” of a cosmetics company.
The report was picked up by Khmer radio and print media, and copies of the Rasmei Angkor article were distributed in schools. On January 27, the Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen
Hun Sen
Hun Sen is the current Prime Minister of Cambodia.He has been the sole leader of the Cambodian People's Party , which has governed Cambodia since the Vietnamese-backed overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979...
repeated the allegations, and said that Suvanant was “not worth a few blades of grass near the temple”. On January 28, the Cambodian government then banned all Thai television programmes in the country.
The riots
On January 29, rioters attacked the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh, destroying the building. Mobs also attacked the premises of Thai-owned businesses, including Thai Airways InternationalThai Airways International
Thai Airways International Public Company Limited is the national flag carrier and largest airline of Thailand. Formed in 1988, the airline's headquarters are located in Chatuchak District, Bangkok, and operates out of Suvarnabhumi Airport. Thai is a founding member of the Star Alliance. Thai is a...
and Shin Corp
Shin Corporation
Shin Corporation is one of the largest conglomerates in Thailand.- History :It was founded in 1983 as Shinawatra Computer by Thaksin Shinawatra, former Prime Minister of Thailand, and took on its current name in 1999, by using the first four letters of his last name...
, owned by the family of then Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician, who was Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, when he was overthrown in a military coup....
. A photograph of a Cambodian man holding a burning portrait of the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Bhumibol Adulyadej
Bhumibol Adulyadej is the current King of Thailand. He is known as Rama IX...
enraged many Thai people.
The Thai government sent military aircraft to Cambodia to evacuate Thai nationals, while Thais demonstrated outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok.
Responsibility for the riots was disputed: Hun Sen attributed the government’s failure to prevent the attacks to “incompetence”, and said that the riots were stirred up by “extremists”. The chairman of the National Assembly, Prince Norodom Ranariddh claimed that opposition leader Sam Rainsy
Sam Rainsy
Sam Rainsy is a Cambodian politician.Sam Rainsy was born in Phnom Penh, son of Sam Sary, a member of Cambodia's government for a time in the 1950s. He moved to France in 1965, studied there and then worked in a variety of Parisian financial companies...
had directed the attacks. Rainsy said that he had attempted to prevent the violence.
The aftermath
The Thai government closed the country’s border with Cambodia following the riots, but only to Thai and Cambodian nationals. At no point was the border ever closed to foreigners or Western tourists. The border was re-opened on 21 March 2003, following the Cambodian government’s payment of $6 million compensation for the destruction of the Thai embassy. In a 2006 rally against Thai Prime Minister Thaksin ShinawatraThaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician, who was Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, when he was overthrown in a military coup....
, several influential Thai diplomats, including former ambassador to the UN Asda Jayanama
Asda Jayanama
Asda Jayanama is a former career diplomat of the Kingdom of Thailand. He is noted for his criticisms of the Myanmar military regime, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and Former Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.- Family and Education :...
and former ambassador to Vietnam Supapong Jayanama, alleged that only half of the compensation was actually paid. The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied this accusation. The Cambodian government also agreed to compensate individual Thai businesses for the losses which they had suffered, to be negotiated separately.
Shortly after the riots, a wave of arrests - more than 150 persons - was criticized by human rights groups, highlighting irregularities in the procedures and denial by the authorities to monitor their detention conditions. The owner of Beehive Radio, Mr. Mom Sonando, and Chan Sivutha, Editor-in-Chief of Reaksmei Angkor, were both arrested without warrants, charged with incitement to commit a crime, incitement to discrimination and announcement of false information. They were later on released on bail and no trial was ever made.