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Timeline
September 1989 – The last Vietnamese troops withdraw from Cambodia after 11 years of occupation. Hun Sen, the prime minister, ends socialism and tries to attract foreign investors. The government abandons the prohibition on religion and re-establishes Buddhism as the national religion.
October 1991 – King Norodom Sihanouk becomes the head of state after the signing of a peace agreement among the four warring factions.
May 1993 – Funcinpec, (Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Indépendent, Neutre, Pacifique et Coopératif), led by King Sihanouk's son, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, defeats Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in the general election. In September, Sihanouk is reinstated as king, Ranariddh becomes prime minister and Hun Sen becomes deputy prime minister.
September 1996 – King Sihanouk grants amnesty to Ieng Sary, a foreign minister in the Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people. In 2001, the senate approves a law creating a special tribunal to prosecute Khmer Rouge members on genocide charges.
July 1997 – Hun Sen overthrows Prime Minister Ranariddh in a bloody coup and replaces him with Ung Huot. As many as 100 anti-government activists are killed in the months following the coup.
December 1997 – The Supreme Court is established.
July 1998 – The CPP wins the general election and forms a coalition government with Funcinpec. Hun Sen become prime minister, and Rannaridh becomes president of the National Assembly.
March 1999 – The constitution is amended, establishing a senate.
April 1999 – Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
April 2000 – The Ministry of Information suspends publication of the bilingual weekly "Cambodia News Bulletin" for thirty days after it publishes articles that allegedly defamed members of the government. The paper is hit with another thirty day suspension in July for again running afoul of the country's strict 1995 press law.
October 2003 – Unidentified gunmen kill Chuor Chetharith, the deputy editor-in-chief of Ta Prom Radio, a radio station aligned with Funcinpec. His murder derails negotiations between Funcinpec and the ruling CPP to form a coalition government after the CPP failed to win an absolute majority in July parliamentary elections.
July 2004 – Prime Minister Hun Sen is re-elected by parliament after nearly a year of political stalemate between the CPP and Funcinpec.
October 2004 – King Norodom Sihanouk abdicates due to poor health. To facilitate an orderly succession, parliament quickly passes a law that establishes a procedure for replacing a monarch who dies, retires or abdicates. Weeks later, Prince Norodom Sihamoni is chosen as successor pursuant to the new law.
February 2005 – Opposition leader Sam Rainsy flees Cambodia after being stripped of his parliamentary immunity. Rainsy faces criminal defamation charges for accusing the CPP and Funcinpec of corruption in the formation of the current coalition government and accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of involvement in the 2004 murder of union leader Chea Vichea. In December, he is convicted and sentenced in absentia to 18 months in jail but is pardoned and returns to Cambodia in February 2006.
May 2006 – Parliament abolishes prison terms for the crime of defamation; however, defamation still remains punishable by fines. International journalist organizations continue to press the government to completely decriminalize defamation.
May 2006 – The government freezes tens of million of dollars in World Bank funds after instances of fraud and corruption are uncovered in several Bank-funded projects. In June, the World Bank suspends three projects and reports finding financial irregularities in dozens more, but also approves a new US$14 million project for improving public financial management. In 2005, the Bank forced Cambodia to repay US$2.8 million that was allegedly misused in a military demobilization project.
July 2006 – The Economic Institute of Cambodia, an independent economic research group, reports that businesses in Cambodia paid US$330 million in bribes for government favors in 2005, or about 2.8 percent of their total annual revenue. The institute also reports that the potential loss in annual government revenue due to corruption could potentially reach US$400 million, an amount confirmed in a separate study conducted in 2005 by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The institute's report rates the country's court system and tax and custom department as the most corrupt and the water and sewage department as the least corrupt.
July 2006 – Charges are filed against Dam Sithek, the publisher of Moneakseka Newspaper, for allegedly publishing false information. A June 13 article in the paper accused the government of corruption and claimed that a dispute over resources had instigated a power struggle inside the CPP.
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