During the Cambodian Civil War in Som Lang, a young husband was killed in a street store on the evening of January 13, 1998, after being caught up in the civil war. The body of the husband, who was killed instantly by a direct shell hit, lay on his back on the ground. Due to indiscriminate shelling, the young husband's upper body was bleeding from a deep cut wound. Beside the corpse, the young wife groaned and wept. The young wife shakily appealed to the Cambodians around her, "Remove the ring from my husband's finger. They were still newlyweds when they got married. The young wife asked the Cambodians around her to remove the ring from her husband's finger. The wife held her husband's ring in her palm and continued to cry out loudly.
Hun Sen's army was attacking every day and Lanarit's army was resisting. Suddenly, the Lanarit army shelled Som Lang, where Hun Sen's army was stationed. In the midst of the bombardment, the residents immediately dug a hole in their yard and put their children in the hole, and the residents bent down. Only the rich and senior citizens were able to flee the country, but the weaker citizens were left behind on the battlefield. The Buddhist citizens, fearing civil war, gathered at temples to pray for peace. Indiscriminate shelling reached the hospital, and medical personnel left. The wounded soldiers were pulled back from the battlefield, but their bodies were left unattended. At the local crematoriums, bodies were burned all day long. The poor soldiers of the invading army also looted local houses, killing Cambodian citizens. During the fierce civil war, both Ranarit and senior officials, including Hun Sen, were evacuated from the country.
On July 5, 1997, Cambodia's full-scale civil war broke out again and Hun Sen's army invaded Ranarit's army in the capital Phnom Penh. Immediately, the battlefield expanded to the vicinity of the northwestern border with Thailand. Many civilians were caught up in the civil war and lost their lives. In March 1970, during the Vietnam War, the pro-American Lon Nol military regime was established, and the civil war between the Khmer Rouge's Pol Pot army and Lon Nol's army clashed and spread throughout the country. The Lon Nol regime collapsed due to indiscriminate bombing and corruption; the Pol Pot regime was established in April 1975. In 1982, a coalition of Sihanouk, Pol Pot, and Song Sam factions was established. The civil war between the three coalition factions on the Thai border and the Heng Samrin faction continued; in 1993, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) led a four-party general election in Cambodia, and the Pol Pot faction broke away; in 1995, the conflict between the Ranarit faction of the Hunsinpec Party and the Hun Sen faction of the People's Party intensified, and bombings became frequent. In 1998, the second National Assembly election resulted in the formation of the Hun Sen coalition government. Since then, Hun Sen's government has been re-elected in the 3rd (2003), 4th (2008), 5th (2013), and 6th (2018) National Assembly elections, and the long-term dictatorship has continued.
