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p The second reason for the fall of the Pol Pot regime is the action taken against it by its own army—the so-called Kampuchean Armed Forces.

p The leadership of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation includes people from all sections of society, among them a large number of military leaders, probably as a result of the course that has been followed by the liberation struggle in Cambodia.

p Since 1976, KUFNS Central Committee Chairman Heng Samrin has been commander of the Fourth Division, as well as assistant head of a military district; in May 1978, he assumed command of the anti-government forces. Roh Samay, General Secretary of the KUFNS Central Committee, was assistant commander of a military unit. Many other KUFNS leaders had also previously held top military posts. This shows that commanders were accompanied by their units and divisions in their opposition to the Pol Pot regime. When the KUFNS was formed, a large part of the Kampuchean Armed Forces (as the troops of the Pol Pot regime were called) were already under the command of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation.

p It is in no way surprising that the Pol Pot regime’s inhuman policy of suppressing people’s rights won many soldiers and commanders, supposed to represent the Kampuchean Armed Forces, over to the side of the anti-government forces.

p No reports about developments in Kampuchea mention anything resembling resistance offered by the Pol Pot forces during the civil war, which testifies that the Pol Pot regime had lost its ability to control its troops.

p Third, the Pol Pot regime considerably undermined the fighting efficiency of its armed forces by engaging in frequent border clashes with Vietnamese troops.

p On December 31, 1977, Kampuchea suddenly condemned Vietnam as an “aggressor” and announced that it had broken 172 off relations with the country. Simultaneously, Kampuchea rejected Vietnam’s proposals that the border conflicts be settled by negotiation and began exacerbating these conflicts. During the armed border clashes caused by the actions of the Pol Pot regime, a serious blow was dealt to the regime itself.

p No other approach to analysing the events in Kampuchea explains their rapid development. The barbarous domestic and foreign policies of the Pol Pot regime, which had lost its independence, themselves engendered the conditions for and actually hastened the debacle.

p The civil war ended in complete victory for the KUFNS; the appointment of the heads of the new revolutionary government and their functions has been announced. Today even bourgeois newspapers are writing about the “ impossibility of returning to the past" and the “lack of any future for the Pol Pot forces".

The domestic and foreign policies of the new Kampuchean government will stabilise and develop life in Kampuchea. On the international scene, the course aimed at non-alignment, neutrality, good-neighbourliness and friendship will be an important contribution to fostering peace in Indochina and throughout Asia.