Khmer Issarak - Legacy of The Issarak Movement

Legacy of The Issarak Movement

The Issarak bands of the 1940s and 1950s, although not a single organised movement, were important in the nationalist and communist movements not just because many later joined Norodom Sihanouk's Sangkum or the communists, but also because of their aims, principles, and their use of guerrilla tactics and on occasion extreme violence.

Many of the component groups of the Khmer Issarak - particularly its more rightist elements - participated in government under Prince Norodom Sihanouk after independence. Leading Issarak Dap Chhuon, for example, was given considerable power as Royal Delegate and Governor of Siem Reap, though he was to be killed by Sihanouk's forces in 1959 after being alleged to be involved in a coup plot. The only major group not to be integrated with Sihanouk's government was Son Ngoc Thanh's Khmer Serai, who remained resolutely anti-monarchist.

Not only would the guerrilla tactics and organisation of the Issarak forces be mimicked by the communist forces during the Cambodian Civil War, but many later communists were first introduced to the concepts of Marxist-Leninism whilst involved with the Issaraks. In the eastern area of Cambodia, the leaders of those Viet Minh-influenced forces remained largely unchanged up to and beyond the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea. Until purged by Pol Pot in 1976, their forces not only wore differing uniforms to those of Pol Pot loyalists, but were noted to be exemplary in their treatment of the civilian population and to retain a certain degree of loyalty to Sihanouk.