Who is Hun Sen?

by Richard S. Ehrlich

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- A motorcycle-riding, communist, ex-Khmer Rouge guerrilla named Hun Sen leads this destitute nation, fighting against a return of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime.

Displaying confidence and a willingness to defend his Hanoi-created government, Hun Sen embodies the hopes of many Cambodians who survived the nightmare of Pol Pot's 1975 to 1979 "killing fields" holocaust.

But to many other Cambodians, Hun Sen is still seen as a treacherous enemy, and puppet of Hanoi, despite the recent withdrawal of Vietnamese forces.

At first glance, Hun Sen appears to have a disastrous resume. He was a member of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge rebels which seized power in 1975 by toppling Cambodia's US-backed, Lon Nol regime. During four years of Pol Pot's government, more than one million Cambodians perished when the nation was turned into a giant labor camp and slaughterhouse.

Hun Sen bristles at accusations that he was a devout, top Khmer Rouge leader during the massacres when Pol Pot ruled. Raising his voice and gesturing with rage, during an otherwise sedate news conference, Hun Sen responded to a question about his previous role by saying: "I was only a simple Khmer Rouge."

When the Khmer Rouge were insurgents struggling to gain power during the early 1970s, Hun Sen and many other Cambodians proudly considered the rebels "a national, patriotic movement, and therefore I was also in that movement," he said.

When the Khmer Rouge won, and Pol Pot unleashed horror, Hun Sen said he felt betrayed and plotted against the Khmer Rouge.

Under Pol Pot's government, Hun Sen served as a regimental commander of the Eastern Zone, in a region between the towns of Kratie and Kompong Cham, according to historian Nayan Chanda. Hun Sen says he was secretly waiting for the day to escape, and finally defected in 1977 by fleeing across the eastern border to Vietnam.

He returned to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, nearly two years later, initially as Cambodia's new foreign minister, then as prime minister, and allowed Vietnamese troops to remain in his Southeast Asian nation for nearly 11 years until their September 1989 withdrawal.

"From 1975 to 1979, and from 1979 to now, I always opposed the Khmer Rouge. Prince Sihanouk has his hands soaked in blood because he stayed behind and defended the Khmer Rouge when the Khmer Rouge were in power, while at that time, I was the one to oppose Pol Pot," he added, becoming increasingly agitated.

"That is my biography," Hun Sen said. "I was only a Khmer Rouge soldier."

During the 1980s, Norodom Sihanouk's US-financed, 12,000 fighters, along with former Prime Minister Son Sann's 10,000 supporters, were in a coalition with the Khmer Rouge's 30,000 rebels. They were all trying to regain power from base camps along Cambodia's western border with Thailand.

Today, they are still competing to rule Cambodia. All but the Khmer Rouge have agreed to participate in a United Nations-supervised election in May. Sihanouk is said to be leading in the election race, because while Hun Sen is somewhat popular, many members of his regime are not.

One East European diplomat who traced Hun Sen's roots, and visited his childhood home in nearby Kompong Cham province, said he admires Hun Sen's leadership abilities. The envoy said in an interview, "Hun Sen's personality is very complicated. The Hun Sen of today is not the same Hun Sen as before 1979.

"It is very difficult to know him, because he doesn't like to speak about his life. His family was lower-middle class, but the history of Cambodia pushed him as a talented young guy into becoming Khmer Rouge."

The Khmer Rouge initially attracted many of the best minds in Cambodia. Paris-educated, Cambodian communists saw the rebels as a force against the corrupt, brutal regimes of Sihanouk and Lon Nol, and the devastating bombing of the countryside by former US President Richard Nixon.

Hun Sen's supporters insist he belonged to a faction of the Khmer Rouge which opposed Pol Pot's policies, and did not directly participate in the mass executions, death camps and other atrocities.

Hun Sen said he was permanently blinded in one eye while fighting as a Khmer Rouge soldier exactly one day before Pol Pot seized Phnom Penh. Khmer Rouge rule in the Eastern Zone, where Hun Sen later served, was "not as harsh" as elsewhere, his supporters claim.

Foreign Ministry official Men Samorn said in an interview, "Hun Sen knew everything (about the massacres) when the Khmer Rouge came to power and cities were evacuated, and he was not happy.

"But he had no choice by then, because the security situation was so tight he could not do anything. He had to wait to make an uprising in 1977," Men Samorn added.

The East European diplomat said, "During 1975 to 1977, he made Khmer Rouge propaganda among the soldiers and the population, telling them to join the Khmer Rouge against the puppets of imperialism and all the other well-known political phrases.

"You could point to the soldiers in the German fascist (Nazi) army, but I don't consider those people responsible for what happened in the 1940s, because the soldiers and officers didn't create ideology. Hun Sen was only a mid-level officer."

Hun Sen's refusal to forgive top Khmer Rouge leaders -- similar to the West's rejection of a role for Nazis in the wake of World War Two -- has endeared him to many Cambodians who are terrified of Pol Pot returning to power, or having any role in the government today.

Hun Sen's followers emphasize he is a dynamic leader who sometimes prefers to ride a motorcycle when visiting isolated villages, rather than travelling in a big car or in a convoy, so he can better relate with the common man.

In practice, Hun Sen has helped strip away most of the Khmer Rouge's original policies, and restored relative freedom to practice religion, traditions, and business. He has promised Cambodia greater liberties if peace is restored.

One loyal Cambodian army officer said, "Hun Sen was an official of the Khmer Rouge, so he knows about the tricks of the Khmer Rouge. Hun Sen was the man who liberated us," along with the invading Vietnamese troops, in 1979.

"So our people do not say Hun Sen is Khmer Rouge. We know Hun Sen was a member of those cruel people before, but now today he knows how to lead our people, and he doesn't want to negotiate with the Khmer Rouge again."

Copyright by Richard S. Ehrlich

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