Phnom Penh – Cambodia’s government will host the start of a three-day celebration marking the 20-year anniversary of the end of civil war. The event, beginning Dec. 29, is designed to lay to rest the issue of when the long-running conflict finally ended.
Tens of thousands are expected to gather in Chroy Changvar, the peninsula that fronts the capital, dividing the Mekong River and Tonle Sap, to mark the war’s end — known as “win-win.” They will also mark the opening of a memorial that the government says will “tell the next generation the real history of Cambodia.”
On Dec. 29, 1998, Cambodia’s 30-year war ended when surviving Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan formally surrendered to Prime Minister Hun Sen at his compound on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.