Biographies Heng Samrin Was Born in 1934 in Prey Veng Province. He
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Biographies Biographies Heng Samrin was born in 1934 in Prey Veng province. He was little known until his installation as the president of the National United Front for National Salvation by the Vietnamese in whose name the Vietnamese used to justified its invasion of Cambodia in December 1978. Between 1976-1978, Heng Sarin served as political commissar and commander of Democratic Kampuchea’s fourth division stationed in the eastern zone. In May 1978, he was involved in a failed rebellion against Pol Pot’s leadership and fled to Vietnam to escape political purge. Heng Samrin entered Cambodia with the Vietnamese invading forces and was appointed the president of the State Council and Secretary General of the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea and served in that capacity until 1989. However, Heng Samrin did not have a strong power base consequently leading to the erosion of his power as the political climate in Cambodia changed. With anticipation of a comprehensive political settlement, the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea transformed itself into the Cambodian People’s Party with Chea Sim as president and Hun Sen as vice president. Heng Samrin was then given a new ceremonial title of Honorary President. Hun Sen (on the right) was born in 1952 into a peasant family in Kampong Cham province. As a teenager, Hun Sen joined the communist resistance, as he repeatedly mentions, in response to King Sihanouk’s appeal. After the Khmer Rouge victory in 1975, he became a regimental leader in the Eastern Zone. As the http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/Ledgerwood/biographies.htm (1 of 12)3/28/2009 7:47:36 AM Biographies violent purge against eastern zone cadres intensified, Hun Sen, along with other zone leaders, fled to Vietnam. In January 1979, Hun Sen returned to Cambodia alongside the invading Vietnamese soldiers and rose rapidly within the ranks of the leadership in the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. He was appointed foreign minister in 1979 and prime minister in 1985. His role in the Cambodian People’s Party became even more prominent during the negotiation process leading to the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements, when he served as the chief negotiator for the People’s Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia. Although his party, the Cambodian People’s Party, lost the 1993 U.N elections, he was able to put pressure on the victorious party, the FUNCINPEC party, to share power, an arrangement in which his party had an upper hand. Although he served as the Second Prime Minister he was the de facto leader of Cambodia. From 1995, Hun Sen’s relations with Prince Norodom Ranariddh were extremely cool, leading eventually to fierce fighting in July 1997 during which Prince Ranariddh was overthrown in a coup d’etat. Since the 1998 elections, Hun Sen became the Prime Minister of Cambodia. Ieng Mouly was vice president of the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party. Upon the establishment of the coalition government in 1993, Ieng Mouly became the Minister of Information. Political splits within BLDP led Mouly to challenge Son Sann’s leadership by holding his own congress and attempting to get himself elected as the president of BLDP. But his attempt did not succeed. He then formed his owned political party called Buddhist Liberal Party and led this party to contest the 1998 general elections -- without any success. Ieng Sary was a member of the Standing http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/Ledgerwood/biographies.htm (2 of 12)3/28/2009 7:47:36 AM Biographies Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea and was a deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1978. Like Pol Pot and Khieu Samphan, he won a government scholarship to study in France in 1950 and was drawn into communism. A few years after his return from France in the mid-1950s, Ieng Sary was engaged in clandestine revolutionary activities and worked as a schoolteacher. Facing intense crackdown on communists by the Sihanouk regime, in 1963, Ieng Sary, along with Pol Pot, left Phnom Penh for the remote jungle in the Eastern Cambodia. He escaped to the Thai border after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1979 and continued to serve as the Khmer Rouge deputy prime minister in charge of foreign affairs. Ieng Sary transferred formal responsibility in foreign affairs to Khieu Samphan after the creation of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea in 1982. Although he did not hold any formal position within the Khmer Rouge leadership, Ieng Sary was a very powerful figure within the Khmer Rouge as he secured a personal command in Pailin, a gem and timber rich Khmer Rouge stronghold in western Cambodia. As rifts within the Khmer Rouge intensified as a result of its failure to advance militarily after the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement in 1991 and the drying up of Chinese aid, Ieng Sary defected to the government in 1996 along with the forces he commanded. He was soon pardoned by King Norodom Sihanouk from the death sentenced passed on him in absentia in 1979 by the Vietnamese backed government of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. Although Ieng Sary holds no official position, he is believed to be the de facto leader of this autonomous region. Khieu Samphan (on the left) is believed to have been born in 1931 in Svay Rieng province. Because of his intelligence and hard work, Samphan won a government scholarship to study in France where like many other Cambodian students, he was drawn into Marxism. He earned a doctorate in economics for thesis on Cambodia’s economy. He was elected to the National Assembly twice, in 1962 and again 1964, and served one time in http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/Ledgerwood/biographies.htm (3 of 12)3/28/2009 7:47:36 AM Biographies the Sihanouk’s cabinet. Khieu Samphan achieved a reputation as "Mr. Clean" because of his incorruptibility. Facing intensely increased suppression by Sihanouk against the leftists, Khieu Samphan fled Phnom Penh to join Pol Pot in the jungle. He did not make public appearances until 1973 and during this period he was believed to have been killed by Sihanouk’s secret police. After the Khmer Rouge seizure of power in 1975, Khieu Samphan succeeded Sihanouk as the head of state. Since then he played a crucial role as the spokesperson for the Khmer Rouge, and thus his reputation is slightly better than of Pol Pot, Ieng Sary and other Khmer Rouge leaders. When the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea was created in 1982, Khieu Samphan became its vice president in charge of foreign affairs. Khieu Samphan represented the Khmer Rouge in peace negotiations leading to the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement in 1991 and served as Khmer Rouge representative to the Supreme National Council. Like many other top Khmer Rouge leaders, Khieu Samphan is now living in Pailin under the control of the Khmer Rouge forces loyal to his brother-in-law and former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary. Lon Nol was born on November 13, 1913 in Prey Veng province. He was a long time social servant first under the French colonial administration and later under Sihanouk. Because of his loyalty to Sihanouk, Lon Nol was assigned various important portfolios within the Sihanouk regime, including chief of police, governor, command-in-chief and minister of defense and prime minister twice from 1966 to 1967 and again in 1969. In 1970, as Prince Sihanouk’s hold on power began to slip, Lon Nol with hesitation, collaborated with Prince Sisovath Sirik Matak to overthrow Sihanouk in a coup d’etat, abolishing the monarchy and declaring Cambodia a republic with himself as the president. Lon Nol proved to be an incompetent leader who made http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/Ledgerwood/biographies.htm (4 of 12)3/28/2009 7:47:36 AM Biographies decisions based on mystical beliefs rather sound judgment when faced with stiff challenges from Vietnamese forces and Khmer Rouge. His government was ripe with corruption. In 1971, Lon Nol suffered a serious stroke. His regime was sustained by massive US military assistance and a long-term bombing campaign. He went into exile in Hawaii just days before the Khmer Rouge soldiers entered Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. Lon Nol lived there until 1979 and then moved to California where he died in November, 1985. Norodom Sihanouk was crowned king at the age of 18 by the French colonial authorities who thought that the young Sihanouk would make a tractable monarch. This judgment was proven wrong when Sihanouk later challenged the French to grant Cambodia independence in 1953. Since then, Sihanouk has played a central role in Cambodian politics, achieving both fame and blame for the fate of Cambodians as the country achieved peace and tranquility in the 1950s and 1960s and plunged into great tragedy in the 1970s. In 1955, in order to release himself from royal ceremonial duties and in order to enter politics as a private citizen, King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated the throne. He then set up a political movement called Sangkum Reastr Niyum (People’s Socialist Community) that coopted all sectors of society. Through Sangkum, Sihanouk ruled Cambodia singlehandedly. He proclaimed himself to be the father of Cambodia in all fields and he referred to Cambodians as his children. With global geopolitical shift, Prince Sihanouk lost his political balance and was finally disposed by his own Prime Minister General Lon Nol in March 1970. After he was overthrown, Sihanouk formed a government in exile called the Royal Government of National Union that included the Khmer Rouge.