Pailin municipality: History
Pailin City was founded under the Khmer Empire, where it was an important trading centre. It continued to be an important centre for commerce during French colonial control, where several French-owned businesses and plantations were established. During the late 1800s, the area saw an influx of migrants from Burma who became the Kula people of the Pailin-Chanthaburi region. In 1922, the Kula people established a pagoda on top of the 60 metres (200 ft) tall Phnom Yat.
After the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and the flight of the Khmer Rouge government from Phnom Penh, the municipality and wider province was occupied by the remaining forces of the Khmer Rouge under the Provisional Government of National Union and National Salvation of Cambodia and its predecessors.
Since 1979, the urban centre of Pailin has been abandoned due to the war. In July 1989, Khmer Rouge forces began attacking the area. In September 1989, Vietnam began withdrawing its forces from Cambodia. Meanwhile, Khmer Rouge forces increased engagements against the Vietnamese-backed State of Cambodia over control of Pailin City and surrounding ruby and sapphire mines. Beginning on 17 September, the Khmer Rouge began launching 800 to 2,000 shells per day onto Pailin, and according to Deputy Defence Minister Ke Kim Yan, the shells were being fired from Khmer Rouge positions in Thailand. On 23 September, Defense Minister Tea Banh acknowledged the Khmer Rouge's capture of land around Pailin in the government's first admission of losing territory in the war.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Pailin municipality served as a stronghold and resource centre for the Khmer Rouge. In particular, the municipality served as source of gems and logging which financed guerrilla fighters. Gems such as rubies, sapphires, and amethysts allowed Khmer Rouge guerrilla fighters to finance themselves.
The ruby mining workforce numbered in the thousands and consisted mostly Thai and Burmese miners. The conditions for the miners were tough, with frequent cases of malaria and typhoid among themselves. For them to work on 1 cubic yard (0.76 m3), each miner required a license issued by the Khmer Rouge costing ฿6,000 (US$240 in 1990). The rubies were then traded to makeshift markets on the other side of the border in Bo Rai district in Thailand, earning the Khmer Rouge around a million dollars per month. According to the Los Angeles Times in 1990, there was an estimated 15-year supply of rubies left in Pailin. …