The Devil Is in the Details.(government)

Last weekend Cambodians had a lot to smile about. The country's 50th Independence Day and annual water festival followed a breakthrough in a three-month political deadlock marred by a series of brutal killings. Strongman ruler Hun Sen's government announced a deal last Wednesday by which he'd be re-elected prime minister in exchange for bringing the two main opposition parties--Sam Rainsy's self-named Sam Rainsy Party and Prince Norodom Ranariddh's royalist FUNCINPEC party--into a tripartite coalition government. The deal was hailed as a success story for a country that has historically settled political disputes through coup d'etats and civil war. "It's a relief," says political analyst Kao Kim Hourn. "It's a big step for democracy."

It remains to be seen, however, whether Cambodia took a step forward or back. Despite the rosy assessments, the country may in fact be nowhere near ending a crisis that began the day after the July 27 parliamentary election. Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) easily won the poll--some claim by rigging it--but failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed to form a new government. Opposition leaders Rainsy and Ranariddh had both refused to bring their respective parties into a coalition as long as Hun Sen remained in charge. So it greeted with surprise the news that the opposition--at the prodding of revered King Norodom Sihanouk--had signed an agreement to join a new government led by Hun Sen.

The devil is in the details. The opposition insists that it never agreed that Hun Sen would be prime minister, and that his election by the 123-seat Parliament remains in doubt if certain demands are not met. Among the conditions are an equal split of government ministries, the creation of an anti-corruption commission and the return of the international environmental group Global Witness, which Hun Sen fired as an independent monitor last April following its reports on rampant illegal logging. Rainsy says the opposition is willing to let the deadlock drag into next year. "It will be tough negotiations," Rainsy says. "We will put the bar high, ...