Background: Most Cambodians consider themselves to be Khmers,
whose Angkor Empire extended over much of Southeast Asia and
reached its zenith between the 10th and 13th centuries.
Subsequently, attacks by the Thai and Cham (from present-day
Vietnam) weakened the empire ushering in a long period of
decline. In 1863, the king of Cambodia placed the country under
French protection; it became part of French Indochina in 1887.
Following Japanese occupation in World War II, Cambodia became
independent within the French Union in 1949 and fully
independent in 1953. After a five-year struggle, Communist Khmer
Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh in April 1975 and ordered the
evacuation of all cities and towns; at least 1.5 million
Cambodians died from execution, enforced hardships, or
starvation during the Khmer Rouge regime under POL POT. A
December 1978 Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge into the
countryside, led to a 10-year Vietnamese occupation, and touched
off almost 13 years of civil war. The 1991 Paris Peace