Khmer National Liberation Committee

The Khmer People's Liberation Committee (in Khmer language: Kana Cheat Mouta Keaha Mocchim Nokor Khmer, ) was a Cambodian anticolonial movement, formed by Khmer Issarak elements on February 1, 1948. It was later renamed the Khmer National Liberation Committee.

The Liberation Committee was an attempt to coordinate the efforts of the existing Issarak armed bands, some of which were sponsored by Thailand, some of which were leftist, and others of which were little more than bandit groups, to fight French colonial forces.

Composition

The Committee and its "armed forces" were led by Dap Chhuon, a deserter from the colonial army who had built up a militia with Thai backing. Other leading figures of the Committee included Hong Chhun, a former district official from Battambang; Mey Pho, a former palace clerk who was later to join the Indochinese Communist Party; Sieu Heng, a practitioner of traditional medicine from Battambang; Leav Keo Moni, an ex-bamboo seller and like Heng a leftist sympathiser; Kao Tak, an Issarak and previously a stock merchant from Siem Reap; Mao Sarouth, who became the Committee's political commissar, and Hem Savang, its representative for foreign affairs. Savang, along with Mey Pho, had as a student previously taken part in a 1945 coup attempt against King Norodom Sihanouk in an attempt to secure Cambodian independence.

The armed forces of the Committee numbered around 800 at the time of formation, with Chhuon's men being the largest element. The...
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