Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0067/00676.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 25KB | 409 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00676}
$Pretitle{250}
$Title{Cambodia
Chapter 2A.   The Society and its Environment}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert K. Headly, Jr.}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{khmer
cambodia
population
thailand
tonle
country
rouge
percent
sap
cham}
$Date{1987}
$Log{Cham Minority*0067601.scf
Figure 5.*0067603.scf
Figure 6.*0067604.scf
}
Country:     Cambodia
Book:        Cambodia, A Country Study
Author:      Robert K. Headly, Jr.
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1987

Chapter 2A.   The Society and its Environment

[See Cham Minority: Members of the Cham minority near Kampong Cham."]

     Since 1975 Cambodia has suffered through one of the most catastrophic
periods in its long history. The takeover of the country by the communist
Khmer Rouge (see Appendix B) in 1975, its violent aftermath, and the constant
warfare between communist and noncommunist factions has resulted in widespread
and major changes in the Cambodian social fabric. The country was plunged into
a dark age from which it was slowly emerging in the late 1980s.

     Under the Khmer Rouge, the entire social structure of the country
suffered radical and massive changes. An estimated 1 million to 2 million
Cambodians died during the first three-and-one-half years of communist rule.
Traditional family life was violently disrupted and virtually abolished
between 1975 and 1979. Nuclear families--the most important units of Cambodian
society--were broken up and were replaced with communal groupings. About 97
percent of the population was forced into communal economic programs. Urban
dwellers were driven into the countryside in mass marches that caused great
suffering and many deaths. Rural society was reorganized into interfamilial
units known as krom (groups). Urban Cambodians, ethnic minorities, and
educated people suffered especially harsh treatment. The ethnic Chinese,
because they were engaged extensively in small businesses and were mainly
urban dwellers, were targets for communist persecution, as were the Cham (see
Glossary), a prominent ethnic minority group. Educated people were special
targets for extermination, and most of the teachers and physicians fled the
country or were massacred. Those who showed evidence of Western influence,
such as using the English language, were suspect. Although freedom of religion
was guaranteed in theory under the Khmer Rouge, in fact Buddhism and other
religions were repressed ruthlessly. Temples were destroyed or put to secular
uses, and monks were defrocked and forced do manual labor.

     The Vietnamese invasion in December 1978 ameliorated the situation
somewhat. As a result of the invasion, the Khmer Rouge government of
Democratic Kampuchea was overthrown, and the People's Republic of Kampuchea
(PRK--see Appendix B) under Heng Samrin was installed in 1979. The PRK allowed
considerably more freedom than had its predecessor. In the late 1980s,
Marxist-Leninist socialism as it existed in Vietnam was the goal of the PRK
government in Phnom Penh. The regime was not pushing hard to convert the
country, but was planning a gradual conversion instead. Religions were allowed
to function. The government allowed Buddhist monks to return to their temples,
although narrow limits were placed on those who could become monks and on
aspects of ritual. The education system, which had suffered almost total
destruction under the Khmer Rouge, was reconstituted, and the number of
students attending formal classes rose dramatically in the early 1980s. The
public health service was functioning again in the mid-1980s, and modern
medical services were available although trained medical personnel and some
medicines continued to be in short supply. The shortage of medical personnel
was partially filled by foreign doctors and technicians. The PRK did not
neglect to court ethnic minorities. Members of one of the Khmer Loeu (or
highland Khmer) tribal minorities were made leaders in several northeastern
provinces, and members of the Cham minority served in the central government.

Environment

     Cambodia covers 181,040 square kilometers in the southwestern part of the
Indochina peninsula. It lies completely within the tropics; its southernmost
points are only slightly more than 10 above the equator. Roughly square in
shape, the country is bounded on the north by Thailand and by Laos, on the
east and southeast by Vietnam, and on the west by the Gulf of Thailand and by
Thailand. Much of the country's area consists of rolling plains. Dominant
features are the large, almost centrally located, Tonle Sap (Great Lake) and
the Mekong River, which traverses the country from north to south.

     The climate is monsoonal and has marked wet and dry seasons of relatively
equal length. Both temperature and humidity generally are high throughout the
year. Forest covers about two-thirds of the country, but it has been somewhat
degraded in the more readily accessible areas by burning (a method called
slash-and-burn agriculture), and by shifting agriculture.

Topography

     Cambodia falls within several well-defined geographic regions. The
largest part of the country--about 75 percent of the total--consists of the
Tonle Sap Basin and the Mekong Lowlands. To the southeast of this great basin
is the Mekong Delta, which extends through Vietnam to the South China Sea. The
basin and delta regions are rimmed with mountain ranges to the southwest (the
Cardamom Mountains the Elephant Range) and to the north (Dangrek Mountains).
Higher land to the northeast and to the east merges into the Central Highlands
of southern Vietnam (see fig. 4).

     The Tonle Sap Basin-Mekong Lowlands region consists chiefly of plains
with elevations generally of less than 100 meters. As the elevation increases,
the terrain becomes more rolling and dissected.

     The Cardamom Mountains in the southwest, oriented generally in a
northwest-southeast direction, rise to more than 1,500 meters. The highest
mountain in Cambodia--Phnom Aural, at 1,771 meters--is in the eastern part of
this range. The Elephant Range, an extension running toward the south and the
southeast from the Cardamom Mountains, rises to elevations of between 500 and
1,000 meters. These two ranges are bordered on the west by a narrow coastal
plain that contains Kampong Saom Bay, which faces the Gulf of Thailand. This
area was largely isolated until the opening of the port of Kampong Saom
(formerly called Sihanoukville) and the construction of a road and railroad
connecting Kampong Saom, Kampot, Takev, and Phnom Penh in the 1960s.

     The Dangrek Mountains at the northern rim of the Tonle Sap Basin consist
of a steep escarpment with an average elevation of about 500 meters, the
highest points of which reach more than 700 meters. The escarpment faces
southward and is the southern edge of the Korat Plateau in Thailand. The
watershed along the escarpment marks the boundary between Thailand and
Cambodia. The main road through a pass in the Dangrek Mountains at O Smach
connects northwestern Cambodia with Thailand. Despite this road and those
running through a few other passes, in general the escarpment impedes easy
communication between the two countries. Between the western part of the
Dangrek and the northern part of the Cardamom ranges, however, lies an
extension of the Tonle Sap Basin that merges into lowlands in Thailand, which
allows easy access from the border to Bangkok.

     The Mekong Valley, which offers a communication route between Cambodia
and Laos, separates the eastern end of the Dangrek Mountains and the
northeastern highlands. To the southeast, the basin joins the Mekong Delta,
which, extending into Vietnam, provides both water and land communications
between the two countries.

Climate

[See Figure 5.: Annual Rainfall and Monsoon Airflow.]

[See Figure 6.: Annual flooding around Tonle Sap, 1985.]

     Cambodia's climate--like that of the rest of Southeast Asia--is dominated
by the monsoons, which are known as tropical wet and dry because of