Hun Sen | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

(b. 1952), prime minister of Cambodia. Hun Sen is the prime minister of Cambodia and has been the dominant player on the Cambodian political stage for more than fifteen years. Born at Peam Koh Sna village in Kompong Cham Province on 4 April 1952, Hun Sen attended a local primary school before attending the Lycée Indra Devi in Phnom Penh (1965–1969). In 1970, he joined the Cambodian liberationforces under the leadership of the Communists and the patronage of deposed ruler Prince Norodom Sihanouk. In 1975, as Communists troops launched their final assault on Phnom Penh, Hun Sen was being treated in a field hospital and eventually lost his left eye. In the same year, he married Bun Rany, with whom he had three sons and three daughters (one of them adopted).

Hun Sen rose through the ranks of the Khmer Rouge before eventually defecting to Vietnam. He was a leading figure in the Vietnamese-sponsored invasion that ousted the Khmer Rouge in 1979. At age twenty-seven he became the new regime's foreign minister and was appointed prime minister in 1985 at the age of thirty-three. Hun Sen was a leading figure in the negotiations that led to Cambodia's 1991 peace agreements and to the elections of 1993. After his party lost those elections, he refused to concede defeat and was appointed second prime minister. In July 1997, Hun Sen ousted First Prime Minister Ranariddh and eventually secured absolute power at the 1998 elections. A controversial figure, widely criticized for his record on human rights and his links with corrupt business persons, Hun Sen is often referred to as the "strongman" of Cambodian politics.

Brown, MacAlister, and Joseph Zasloff. (1998) Cambodia Confounds the Peacemakers, 1979–1998. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Mehta, Harish, and Julie Mehta. (1999) Hun Sen: Strongman of Cambodia. Singapore: Graham Brash.

This is the complete article, containing 322 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).