| Ratanakiri or Ratanak Kiri is a province of northeast Cambodia.  It borders the provinces of Mondulkiri to the south and Stung Treng to the west and the countries  of Laos and Vietnam to  the north and east, respectively. The province extends from the mountains of  the Annamite Range in the north, across a  hilly plateau between the Tonlé San and Tonlé Srepok rivers,  to tropical deciduous forests in the south. In recent  years, logging and mining have scarred Ratanakiri's environment, long known for  its beauty.For over a millennium, Ratanakiri has been occupied by the  highland Khmer Loeu people, who are a minority elsewhere in  Cambodia. During the region's early history, its Khmer Loeu inhabitants were  exploited as slaves by neighboring empires. The slave trade economy ended  during the French colonial era, but a harsh Khmerization campaign  after Cambodia's independence again threatened Khmer Loeu ways of life.  The Khmer Rouge built  its headquarters in the province in the 1960s, and bombing during the Vietnam War devastated  the region. Today, rapid development in the province is altering traditional  ways of life.
 Ratanakiri is sparsely populated; its 184,000 residents make up  just over 1% of the country's total population. Residents generally live-in  villages of 20 to 60 families and engage in subsistence shifting agriculture. Ratanakiri is among the  least developed provinces of Cambodia. Its infrastructure is poor, and the  local government is weak. Health indicators in Ratanakiri are extremely poor;  men's life expectancy is 39 years, and women's is 43 years. Education levels  are also low, with just under half of the population illiterate.
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