កម្ពុជា ១៩៧៧

1977 Chronology Of Cambodia History

• Jan. 28, 1977 A force of about 200-400 Khmer Rouge soldiers crossed the Thai border and attacked four Thai villages, killing 30 civilians. Two policemen and five Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed in the fighting that continued through Jan. 29.
• Jan. 30, 1977 Thailand closed its border with Cambodia and delivered protest to the Phnom Penh govt. for the cross-border attack. Thai armed forces were put on alert.
• April 30, 1977 Khmer Rouge launched attacks on Vietnamese villages.
  
• May 1977 Heavy fighting had raged along the Cambodia-Vietnam border in May, forcing the Vietnamese to temporarily evacuate two of their southern border towns. The fighting erupted when Khmer Rouge troops crossed into Vietnam and burned villages, forcing most of the inhabitants to flee to Chau Doc, a provincial capital, which was evacuated on May 17 after it was struck by gunfire that caused 40 casualties.
• May 2, 1977 The New York Times reports harsh conditions plaguing Cambodia, including crop failure, hunger, and disease.  The Khmer Rouge's program to evacuate cities has culminated in enforced collectivization of farms into village-wide cooperatives.
• May 16, 1977 Ha Tien, Vietnamese province, was evacuated after a shelling and a ground attack launched by the Khmer Rouge.  And a number of villages northwest of Ha Tien was said to have been captured by the Khmer Rouge and was still in the hands of the invaders when the refugees left.
• May 17, 1977 Chau Doc, Vietnamese province, was also evacuated after it was struck by gunfire that caused some 40 casualties.
• June 14, 1977 US Rep. Fish introduces H.R.7769
• June 30, 1977 SEATO terminated.
• July 8, 1977 Former Prime Minister Son Ngoc Thanh died.
• July 19, 1977 Heavy Cambodia-Thai border fighting leaves 17 Thais and 50 Cambodians dead.
• July 23, 1977 About 50 Khmer Rouge soldiers raided a Thai outpost in northeast of the country, killing 4 Thai policemen.
• July 26, 1977 A US State Dept. official, Richard Holbrooke, reports that an estimated 1.2 million Cambodians may have perished since the Khmer Rouge seized power in April 1975 and charges the Khmer Rouge with flagrant and systematic violations of human rights.  He cites, among other offenses, their forcible relocation of urban populations and brutal treatment of political opponents.
• July 28, 1977 A large Khmer Rouge force crossed into Thailand but withdrew after clashing with Thai police and military forces.
• Aug. 3, 1977 Khmer Rouge soldiers kill 28 Thai civilians and one policeman in an attack on Ta Phraya district of Thailand.
• Aug. 6, 1977 Thai PM Thanin Kraivichien confirms reports of Khmer Rouge attacks on Vietnam and Thailand, as well as raids on Laos.
• Sept. 12, 1977 Exiled former Pres. Lon Nol says more than 2.5 million people have met violent deaths in Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge came to power.
• Sept. 24, 1977 Khmer Rouge forces launch attacks against a number of Vietnamese villages.
• Sept. 25, 1977 DK govt. announced for the first time that PM Pol Pot had been named to the additional post of secretary general of the Communist Party, apparently making him Cambodia’s top leader, and that he would lead a party and govt. delegation to China for official visit.
• Sept. 27, 1977 US House of Representatives passed a resolution H.RES.724 expressing concern over human rights violation in Cambodia.
• Sept. 28, 1977 Pol Pot began his state visit to China; he was greeted at Peking's airport by Communist Party Chairman and PM Hua Guofeng and other top Chinese leaders. A crowd of 100,000 cheered Pol Pot and his delegation as they were driven through the city's main square.  At a banquet given in his honor later of the day, Pol Pot said conditions in his country “excellent” and he made references to his country’s recent border clashes with Vietnam and Thailand.
• Sept. 29, 1977 Pol Pot meets with PRC PM Hua Guofen.  Pol Pot tells the Chinese PM that the Soviet, Vietnam and Cuba are cooperating to attack Cambodia.  [Memo of conversation]
• Oct. 2, 1977 At a news conference in Beijing, Pol Pot said that the evacuation of millions of Cambodian from the cities to the countryside was to break up an "enemy spy organization". He said the evacuation decision had been made three months before the end of the war.
• Oct. 19, 1977 Hanoi reports that over 60,000 Cambodian refugees have been granted asylum in Vietnam over the past two year.
• Nov. 11, 1977 DK Foreign Ministry issued a statement reaffirming the country stand on the border issues. [Statement in Cambodian page 1 2 3]
• Dec. 3, 1977 Chinese Vice-Premier Chen Yonggui visited Cambodia.
• Dec. 21-22, 1977 The fighting erupted again along the Cambodia-Thai border.
• Dec. 22, 1977 Thai premier Kriangsak Chamanand, who touring the region that Khmer Rouge attack, warned of heavy military retaliation unless Cambodia halted its attacks………. Cambodians are reported carrying out major attacks during Nov. into Vietnam's Tay Ninh province.
• Dec. 25, 1977 Vietnam, using warplanes and artillery, launched a major retaliatory attack on Cambodia, capturing the Parrot’s Beak area of Svay Rieng Province.
• Dec. 31, 1977 Cambodia severed diplomatic relations with Vietnam and ordered Vietnamese diplomats in Phnom Penh to leave before Jan. 7, 1978. Hanoi earlier had withdrawn its ambassador from Phnom Penh, an action described by the DK Foreign Ministry as “unfriendly.”