Cambodia, 2000 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
On 24 November 2000 the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, an anti communist paramilitary group founded and led from California by the Cambodian American tax accountant Chhun Yasith, launched a coup attempt against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen in an operation the group called Operation Volcano. In a coordinated pre dawn assault, dozens of lightly armed rebels, wielding AK-47s, rockets, and grenades, attacked government buildings in the capital Phnom Penh, striking near the Ministry of Defense and the Council of Ministers and assaulting a military barracks outside the city, in a bid to spark a wider uprising to topple Hun Sen, the former Khmer Rouge commander who had dominated Cambodia since defecting to Vietnam. The attack was crushed within hours by security forces; around eight people were killed and many wounded, and dozens of suspects were arrested.
The coup failed utterly, and Chhun Yasith was tried in absentia and sentenced to life by a Cambodian court; he was later arrested in the United States, convicted in 2008, and sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the plot. Hun Sen used the affair to press his political opponents.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
81111242000
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Hun Sen crushed the November 2000 Cambodian Freedom Fighters attack on Phnom Penh within hours.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Wikipedia
New York Times
The Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →