Party Drops Communism in Cambodia
The ruling party in Cambodia declared a formal end to more than 13 years of communism Friday, replacing its president and embracing multi-party democracy and a free market system.
The changes came in the final resolution of a two-day extraordinary congress of the newly named Cambodian People’s Party just days before Wednesday’s scheduled signing in Paris of a peace accord ending a civil war that began in 1979.
They are intended to improve the party image before elections to be held under U.N. supervision.
Heng Samrin, president of what was formerly the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party, was moved to the ceremonial post of honorary president. He was replaced by Chea Sim, the powerful head of the National Assembly, while Premier Hun Sen becomes party vice president.
Cambodia is the first of Indochina’s three Soviet-supported Communist countries to take steps to permit the formation of opposition parties. Laos has recently dropped Marxism-Leninism and Communist symbolism, leaving only Vietnam following a strict dogmatic path.
The war has pitted the Phnom Penh government, set up by Vietnamese troops in 1979, against the more extreme Communists of the ousted Khmer Rouge backed by China.
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