Flag of the Khmer Republic
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| Use | National flag and ensign |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 9 October 1970 |
| Design | Blue field with a red canton; in the canton a white representation of Angkor Wat, in the upper fly corner three white stars |
The flag of the Khmer Republic is one of the historical flags of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
It consists of a blue field with a red rectangle in the canton. The red rectangle bears the Angkor Wat silhouette. Three large white stars are aligned horizontally on the upper corner of the blue field.
The flag of the Khmer Republic was introduced on 9 October 1970 by the Lon Nol regime replacing the Royal Flag. It was the official flag of Cambodia for almost five years and it was displayed at the 1972 Summer Olympics where Cambodia officially competed under its new government after a long absence.
The last place where it was hoisted as official flag of the state was in May 1975 in the final area held by the Khmer National Armed Forces forces on the escarpment of the Preah Vihear Temple in the Dângrêk Mountains. Even though their government had surrendered, loyalist Khmer Republic soldiers continued to fiercely hold their ground for nearly a month after the fall of Phnom Penh. Finally that outpost fell to the Khmer Rouge on 22 May 1975. The flag of Democratic Kampuchea became the flag of Cambodia after the ousting of the republican government.
The Khmer Republic flag is still used afterwards by Cambodian opposition groups in exile, such as the Khmer Power Party (KPP), and by certain political parties within Cambodia, such as the Khmer Republican Party (KRP), though on a smaller scale if compared to the South Vietnamese flag. Khmer scholar Keng Vannsak commented that, according to Cambodian superstition, the choice of three stars was inauspicious. The Cambodian Liberty Party (CLP), the Hang Dara Democratic Movement Party (HDMP), the Khmer Front Party, the Khmer Improvement Party, the Khmer Loves Khmer Party and the Society of Justice Party also use the flag.
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