Khmer Issarak

The Khmer Issarak (Khmer: ខ្មែរឥស្សរៈ, lit. 'Free Khmer' or 'Independent Khmer') was a "loosely structured" anti-French and anti-colonial independence movement. The movement has been labelled as “amorphous”. The Issarak was formed around 1945 and composed of several factions, each with its own leader. Most of the Issarak factions fought actively between the end of the Second World War in 1945 and Cambodia’s independence in 1953. The initial objective of the Khmer Issarak was to fight against the French in order to gain independence, before later focusing on overthrowing the Cambodian government. The term Issarak originally referred to non-communist, but in the early 1950s the Việt Minh-guided guerrillas branded themselves Issaraks for the sake of unifying other non-communist forces.