During the civil war, the Pailin area's gem and timber resource - sold on international markets with help from Thai army generals served as the economic crutch that kept the khmer Rouge war machine hobbling along. In the mid-1990s, it was a staging area for regular dry-season offensives that overran government positions as far east as Phnom Sampeau.
In 1996, the khmer Rouge supremo in these
parts, Ieng Sary or Brother Number Three during the Democratic Kampuchea regime, defected to the government side with 3000 heavily armed troops. His reward was amnesty and free reign in Krong Pailin, a mini-province cared out of Battambang Province to serve as a Khmer Rouge fiefdom. Only in late 2007 were Ieng and his wife arrested for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ieng's son, Ieng Vuth, Currently serves as deputy governor of Pailin.
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| Article | LonelyPlanet |
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| Youtube Video | Pailin Province |
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