Hun Sen
Hun Sen is a Cambodian politician and former military officer who currently serves as the president of the Senate. He previously served as the prime minister of Cambodia, the second prime minister and the prime minister again. Hun Sen is the longest-serving head of government in Cambodia's history. He is the president of the Cambodian People's Party, originally known as the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party, which has governed Cambodia since 1979, and has served as a member of the Senate since 2024.
Born Hun Bunal, he changed his name to Hun Sen in 1972, two years after joining the Khmer Rouge as a soldier. He fought for the Khmer Rouge in the Cambodian Civil War and was a battalion commander in Democratic Kampuchea until defecting in 1977 and fighting alongside Vietnamese forces in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. From 1979 to 1986 and again from 1987 to 1990, he served as Cambodia's foreign minister in the puppet government installed by Vietnam. At age 26, he was also the world's youngest foreign minister.
Hun Sen rose to the premiership in January 1985 when the one-party National Assembly appointed him to succeed Chan Sy, who had died in office in December 1984. He held the position until the 1993 UN-backed elections which resulted in a hung parliament, with opposition party FUNCINPEC winning the majority of votes. Hun Sen refused to accept the result. After negotiations with FUNCINPEC, Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen agreed to simultaneously serve as First and Second Prime Minister, until the coalition broke down and Sen orchestrated a coup d'état in 1997 which toppled Ranariddh. Between 1998 and 2023, Hun Sen led the CPP to consecutive and often contentious election victories, overseeing rapid economic growth and development, but also corruption, deforestation and human rights violations. In 2013, Hun Sen and the CPP were reelected with a significantly reduced majority amidst a resurgent opposition. Allegations of voter fraud and irregularities led to unprecedented anti-government protests. In 2018, he was elected to a sixth and final term in a largely unopposed poll after the Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition party, with the CPP winning every seat in the National Assembly. He led the country during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and Cambodia's third chairmanship of ASEAN; and, after the 2023 election formally announced his resignation as prime minister in favour of his son, Hun Manet. He remains as party leader and in 2024, was appointed president of the Senate, ensuring his continued influence over the country's politics.
Hun Sen has been prominent in communist, Marxist–Leninist, and now state capitalist and national conservative political parties, and although Khmer nationalism has been a consistent trait of all of them, he is thought to lack a core political ideology. He has been described as a "wily operator who destroys his political opponents" by The Sydney Morning Herald and as a dictator who has assumed highly centralized power in Cambodia and considerable personal wealth using violence and corruption, including a personal guard said to rival the country's regular army.
Early life and education
Hun Sen was born on 5 August 1952, in Peam Kaoh Sna, Kampong Cham as Hun Bunal, the third of six children. His father, Hun Neang, had been a resident monk in a local Wat in Kampong Cham province before defrocking himself to join the French resistance and marry Hun Sen's mother, Dee Yon, in the 1940s. Hun Neang's paternal grandparents were wealthy landowners of Chinese heritage. His Chinese ancestry is at Zhuanshui Village, Tanjiang Town, Fengshun County.Hun Neang inherited some of his family assets, including several hectares of land, and led a relatively comfortable life until a kidnapping incident forced their family to sell off much of their assets. Hun Nal left his family at the age of 13 to attend a monastic school in Phnom Penh. At the time, he changed his name to Ritthi Sen or simply Sen; his prior given name, Nal, was often a nickname for overweight children.
He graduated with a master's degree in state administrative management from the National Academy of Public Administration of Vietnam.
Military career and entry to politics
When Lon Nol removed Norodom Sihanouk from power in 1970, Sen gave up his education to join the Khmer Rouge following Sihanouk's call to join the insurgency. Sen also claims he was inspired to fight against foreign interference when his hometown of Memot was bombed by U.S. aircraft in Operation Menu. Sen claims he had no political opinions or ideology at the time. As a soldier, he again changed his name, this time to Hun Samrach, to conceal his identity.He changed his name to Hun Sen two years later, saying that the name Hun Samrach had been inauspicious and that he had been wounded several times during the period he had that name. Sen rapidly ascended ranks as a soldier, and fought during the fall of Phnom Penh, becoming injured and being hospitalized for some time and sustaining a permanent eye injury.
In Democratic Kampuchea, Sen served as a Battalion Commander in the Eastern Region, with authority over around 2000 men. The involvement or role of Sen in the Cambodian genocide is unclear, although he denies complicity. Human Rights Watch suggested he may have had a role in a massacre to suppress Cham Muslim unrest in September–October 1975, but Sen has denied this, claiming that he had stopped following orders from the central government by this time. Sen claims he had increasing disagreements with Khmer Rouge authorities in the administration throughout 1975–1977.
In 1977, during internal purges of the Khmer Rouge regime, Hun Sen and his battalion cadres fled to Vietnam. During the Cambodian–Vietnamese War as Vietnam prepared to invade Cambodia, Hun Sen became one of the leaders of the Vietnamese-sponsored rebel army. He was given the secret name Mai Phúc by Vietnamese leaders.
Following the defeat of the Khmer Rouge regime, Hun Sen was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Vietnamese-installed People's Republic of Kampuchea/State of Cambodia in 1979 at age 26. The Vietnamese-appointed government appointed Sen some authority over the K5 Plan, a Khmer Rouge containment strategy that saw the mass mobilization of civilian labor in constructing barricades and land mines, although the extent of his involvement is unclear.
First appointment as prime minister (1985–1993)
Hun Sen first rose to the premiership in January 1985 when the one-party National Assembly encouraged by politburo cadre Say Phouthang appointed him to succeed Chan Sy, who had died in office in December 1984. As the de facto leader of Cambodia, in 1985, he was elected as Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Prime Minister. Sen oversaw continuing conflict against several ongoing insurgencies during this period.In 1987, Amnesty International accused Hun Sen's government of torturing thousands of political prisoners, using "electric shocks, hot irons and near-suffocation with plastic bags."
Paris Peace Talks and UNTAC (1991–1993)
As foreign minister and then prime minister, Hun Sen played a role in the 1991 Paris Peace Talks, which brokered peace in Cambodia and formally ended the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.He held the position of prime minister during the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia until the 1993 UN-sponsored elections, which resulted opposition party FUNCINPEC winning the majority of votes with a hung parliament. Hun Sen and his party formally rejected the result. With the support of much of the state apparatus, including the army and police, Hun Sen and his deputy Norodom Chakrapong threatened to lead the secession of seven provinces and CPP-backed forces committed violence against UN and FUNCINPEC forces although Sen distanced himself from the secessionist movement a few days later. UNTAC and FUNCINPEC conceded a unique power sharing agreement with Hun Sen serving as Second Prime Minister alongside First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh.
Co-premiership (1993–1997)
1997 coup
In 1997, the coalition became unstable due to tensions between Ranariddh and Hun Sen. FUNCINPEC entered into discussions with the remaining Khmer Rouge rebels, with the aim of absorbing them into its ranks. Such a development would have altered the balance of military power between royalists and the CPP.In response, Hun Sen launched the 1997 coup, replacing Ranariddh with Ung Huot as the First Prime Minister and maintaining his position as the Second Prime Minister.
In an open letter, Amnesty International condemned the summary execution of FUNCINPEC ministers and the "systematic campaign of arrests and harassment" of political opponents. Thomas Hammarberg, then Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia, strongly condemned the coup.
Prime Minister of Cambodia (1998–2023)
In the 1998 election, he led the CPP to victory and forming a coalition with FUNCINPEC.The elections of July 2003 resulted in a larger majority in the National Assembly for the CPP, with FUNCINPEC losing seats to the CPP and the Sam Rainsy Party. However, the CPP's majority was short of the two thirds constitutionally required for the CPP to form a government alone. This deadlock was overcome when a new CPP-FUNCINPEC coalition was formed in mid-2004, with Norodom Ranariddh chosen to be head of the National Assembly and Hun Sen again becoming sole prime minister.
Sen has opposed extensive investigations and prosecutions related to crimes committed by former Khmer Rouge leaders by the UN-backed Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
On 6 May 2013, Hun Sen declared his intention to rule Cambodia until the age of 74.
2013–2014 protests
After the July 2013 general elections both Hun Sen and his opponents Cambodia National Rescue Party claimed victory. In August, Hun Sen continued to pursue his aim of forming a new government. Cambodians in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, with hundreds of Buddhist Monks, peacefully protested in front of the United Nations in New York City on 19 August in opposition to Hun Sen's deployment of military and security forces in Phnom Penh, his unwillingness to share political power with opposition groups and seriously address earlier voting fraud and election irregularities.One person was killed and others injured during protests in Phnom Penh in September 2013, where a reported 20,000 protesters gathered, some clashing with riot police. Following two weeks of opposition protests, Hun Sen declared that he had been constitutionally elected and would not step down nor hold a new election.
On 7 September 2013, tens of thousands of Cambodians, along with Buddhist monks and opposition groups, including Sam Rainsy's Cambodian National Rescue Party held mass demonstrations in Phnom Penh to protest the 28 July elections results which they claimed were flawed and marred by voting irregularities and potential fraud. The groups asked the United Nations to investigate and claimed that the elections results were not free and fair.
On 3 January 2014, military police opened fire at protesters, killing 4 people and injuring more than 20. The United Nations and US State Department condemned the violence. US Congressman Ed Royce responded to the report of violence in Cambodia by calling for Hun Sen to step down, saying that the Cambodian people deserve a better leader.