Qualla: Battle of Pailin https://qualla.com/battle-of-pailin en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:36 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/2/c/battle-of-pailin-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Pailin https://qualla.com/battle-of-pailin Battle of Pailin: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-pailin/ Photo credit Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, CC BY 2.0. Rubies made Pailin worth fighting for. The small town in northwestern Cambodia, ringed by tropical forest and straddling some of the richest gemstone fields in Southeast Asia, became the final stronghold of the Khmer Rouge after their overthrow in 1978. For nearly a decade, the remnants of Pol Pot's regime had hidden in the dense forests of the northwest, waging guerrilla war against the Vietnamese-backed government. But as resources dwindled, the sapphire and ruby deposits around Pailin offered something the revolution could no longer provide: money. What followed was an eight-year siege that outlasted the UN peacekeeping mission, defied multiple ceasefire attempts, and left behind a landscape so saturated with landmines that it became one of the most heavily mined zones on earth.

Read more: Battle of Pailin on Qualla

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/2/c/battle-of-pailin-wp/w62c-battle-of-pailin-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Pailin: Gems in the Killing Fields https://qualla.com/battle-of-pailin/ Photo credit Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, CC BY 2.0. After Vietnamese forces toppled the Khmer Rouge on Christmas Day 1978, ending the genocide that had killed an estimated two million Cambodians, the regime did not vanish. Thousands of fighters retreated into the forests of northwestern Cambodia, where they regrouped alongside mon...

Read more: Battle of Pailin on Qualla

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/2/c/battle-of-pailin-wp/w62c-battle-of-pailin-gems-in-the-killing-fields.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Pailin: The UN Departs, the Fighting Resumes https://qualla.com/battle-of-pailin/ Photo credit Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, CC BY 2.0. The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia arrived to broker peace, but Pailin proved beyond its reach. In May 1993, Khmer Rouge guerrillas ambushed and killed Haruyuki Takata, a Japanese policeman serving with UNTAC, in Banteay Meanchey province. His death accelerated...

Read more: Battle of Pailin on Qualla

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/2/c/battle-of-pailin-wp/w62c-battle-of-pailin-the-un-departs-the-fighting-resumes.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Pailin: A City Taken and Lost in Days https://qualla.com/battle-of-pailin/ Photo credit Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, CC BY 2.0. In March 1994, the government launched its most ambitious assault on Pailin: 7,000 troops, tanks, heavy artillery, and armed helicopters. After two days of intense combat, they captured the town. The victory lasted barely a month. As government soldiers stretched their supply lin...

Read more: Battle of Pailin on Qualla

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/2/c/battle-of-pailin-wp/w62c-battle-of-pailin-a-city-taken-and-lost-in-days.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Pailin: Three Plagues After the Guns https://qualla.com/battle-of-pailin/ Photo credit Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, CC BY 2.0. When the conflict finally ended with Ieng Sary's defection and Pailin's normalization as a Cambodian municipality in November 1997, the town's suffering was far from over. Landmines blanketed the surrounding countryside so densely that the International Campaign to Ban Landmines,...

Read more: Battle of Pailin on Qualla

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/2/c/battle-of-pailin-wp/w62c-battle-of-pailin-three-plagues-after-the-guns.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Pailin: From Guns to Casinos https://qualla.com/battle-of-pailin/ Photo credit Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, CC BY 2.0. General Ke Kim Yan eventually led a campaign to collect the weapons flooding the country. Three tons of crushed firearms were melted into a national monument erected on the roundabout of the Chroy Changvar Bridge in Phnom Penh. At the unveiling, Prime Minister Hun Sen symbolicall...

Read more: Battle of Pailin on Qualla

Image: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/6/2/c/battle-of-pailin-wp/w62c-battle-of-pailin-from-guns-to-casinos.mp3 0:06 6 full