Khmer Rumdo

The Khmer Rumdos (Khmer: ខ្មែររំដោះ), also spelt Khmer Rumdos or Khmer Rumdoh ("Liberation Khmer" in the Khmer language) were one of several groups of guerrillas operating within the borders of Cambodia during the Cambodian Civil War of 1970–1975. They were a part of the National United Front of Kampuchea (Front Uni National du Kampuchea, FUNK), an association between Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who had been ousted from power in 1970, and communist forces.

Although the boundaries between the different factions were somewhat confused, the Khmer Rumdo are generally identified as those elements which were nominally loyal to Prince Sihanouk, but which were also leftist and supported by North Vietnam.

The faction had its origins partly in the history of the Communist Party of Kampuchea and of the early Khmer Issarak (independence) movement. Many of the early Cambodian communists had strong links with the Viet Minh, received training and support from the Vietnamese Party, and in many cases supported Sihanouk as a figure of national unity. These cadres retained senior positions in many of the areas east of the Mekong and near the Vietnamese border. The 'Khmer Rumdo' forces, accordingly, were recruited largely in the east of the country.

They were differentiated from the forces loyal to the hardline 'Centre' of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were strongest in the west and south-west, and who were generally referred to by European and American observers as the Khmer Rouge (a name originally coined by Sihanouk to refer to Cambodian communists in general). The 'Centre', led by Saloth Sar, Son Sen and Ieng Sary, had a strongly nationalistic ideology, and did not cooperate so much with North Vietnam, receiving most of its support from China; it also disliked Sihanouk, regarding him as a 'feudal' figure. There were even periodic reports of clashes between the 'Centre' troops on the one side, and the eastern forces (and their Vietnam People's Army support) on the other – although both factions coordinated their efforts against the Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK), the armed forces of Lon Nol's Khmer Republic.

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