Son Sann

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Son Sann ( Khmer : សឺ ន សាន; born October 5, 1911 in Phnom Penh ; † December 19, 2000 in Paris ) was a Cambodian politician and anti-communist resistance leader who served as the 24th Prime Minister of Cambodia (May 1, 1967– January 31 1968) served. His full honorary title was Samdech Borvor Setha Thipadei Son Sann (Khmer: ម្តេ ច បវរ សេដ្ឋា ធិបតី សឺ ន សាន).

Son was also deputy prime minister and finance minister from July 25, 1947 to February 20, 1948, the first president of the Cambodian National Bank from 1955 to 1968, foreign minister from July 10, 1958 to April 19, 1960, and president of the Buddhist Liberal from 1991 to 1997 . Democratic Party (BLDP) and President of the National Assembly from June 14, 1993 to October 6, 1993 .

Early years of life

Son Sann's family belonged to the Cambodian minority in Kampuchea Krom in Vietnam ; Both of his parents came from families of wealthy landowners in the Trà Vinh province of Vietnam. Son Sann's father Son Sach moved to Cambodia before Son Sann was born to serve as an officer for Sisowath Soupanouvong, a brother of King Sisowath Monivong . Son Sann studied in Phnom Penh and later in Paris, where he graduated from the École des hautes études commerciales in 1933 . He spent some time in London learning English. In 1935 he returned to Cambodia, entered the civil service and served in the provinces of Prey Veng and later Battambang , where he was the deputy governor in charge of trade. Son Sann was also a member of a Cambodian economic mission in Tokyo in 1941 .

Political career

As an early supporter of the Khmer Democratic Party , Son Sann became a member of its steering committee. From 1946 to 1947 he was Vice President of the Council of Ministers (equivalent to Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister of Finance of the Sisowath Youtévong government. After Youtévong's death, he kept his post as Vice President of the Council of Ministers until February 1948. In June 1950 he became Foreign Minister and held this office until March 1951. After the crushing defeat of the Khmer Democratic Party in 1952, he resigned from the leadership of the party. He returned to politics as a member of the Sangkum Reastr Niyum Party , founded the Cambodian National Bank in 1955 and was its first president until 1966. He served in various governments from the late 1950s to early 1960s.

House arrest and France

After Lon Nol's coup against Prince Norodom Sihanouk in 1970 , Son Sann was placed under house arrest and later went to France . In June 1970 he went to Beijing to initiate a reconciliation between Sihanouk and Lon Nol. He continued these efforts even after the proclamation of the Khmer Republic and won the support of politicians and diplomats in Cambodia, France and China by the end of 1971 . In 1972, however, Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai condemned the initiative, and Lon Nol responded with his own appointment as President of the Khmer Republic.

Return to Cambodia

In 1978, Son founded the National People's Liberation Front of the Khmer (KPNLF) to unite anti-communist refugees on the Thai-Cambodian border after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1979. The KPNLF later joined the Sihanouk National Army to organize the non-communist resistance. 1982 KPNLF made of Son with Sihanouk and the Party of Democratic Kampuchea of the Khmer Rouge , the coalition government of Democratic Kampuchea . Education was difficult because Son Sann claimed a leadership role in the coalition government. He was eventually appointed Prime Minister, Sihanouk was President and the leader of the Khmer Rouge, Khieu Samphan , Vice President and Foreign Minister. Sihanouk justified its cooperation with the Khmer Rouge by saying that it had no choice but to be destroyed by the Vietnamese.

United States support

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Son Sann received military and financial support from the United States, who saw his movement in the spirit of the Reagan Doctrine as a way of suppressing Soviet and Vietnamese engagement in Cambodia. One of the principal architects of the Reagan Doctrine, Michael Johns of the Heritage Foundation , visited the forces of Son Sanns KPNLF in Cambodia in 1987. He returned to Washington with the request to intensify the support of the KPNLF and the resistance forces of Norodom Sihanouk in order to strengthen them as a further opposition force alongside the Khmer Rouge against Vietnam and the government he installed. The USA responded with further military and humanitarian aid for the resistance forces of Son Sann and Sihanouk with the aim of driving the Vietnamese out of Cambodia, but also to build a non-communist opposition alternative to the Khmer Rouge.

Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party

After the Paris Peace Agreements Son Sann in 1992 founded a new political party, the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party ( Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party , BLDP), and participated in the 1993 elections in part. Despite the unexpectedly weak performance with 3.81% of the vote and 10 seats, the BLDP was accepted into the coalition government with FUNCINPEC and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP). Son Sann even received the position of President of the National Assembly on June 14, 1993 until the constitution was promulgated on October 6, 1993, when he handed over the office to his successor Chea Sim . Conflicts between Son Sann and the party's vice president, Ieng Mouly, led to the party's split in 1997. Ieng Mouly's followers tended to follow the policy of the CPP, while Son Sann's faction tended more towards FUNCINPEC. Ieng Mouly founded the Buddhist Liberal Party and received the legal right to be the only party to use the name Buddhist . Son Sann reacted to this by founding the Son Sann Party and handed it over to his son Son Soubert. Five of the ten parliamentarians of the now dissolved BDLP followed the Buddhist Liberal Party , five from the Son Sann Party . However, the two parties only won 0.9 and 0.7% of the vote in the 1998 parliamentary elections and were subsequently dissolved.

family

In 1997 Son Sann moved back to Paris, where he lived with his family until his death from heart failure at the age of 89.

Son Sann was a devout Buddhist and married to Nema Toula Macchwa, with whom he had seven children.

literature

  • Justin J. Corfield: Khmers stand up! - A history of the Cambodian Government 1970-1975. Center of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, Melbourne 1994, ISBN 978-0-7326-0565-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Leifer: Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia. Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-1-317-62232-1 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ Son Sann in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible).
  3. ↑ Corfield: Khmers stand up! 1994, p. 5 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  4. ^ Cambodian Envoy Off to Paris. In: New York Times . May 31, 1973.
  5. ^ Paul Quinn-Judge: Two old enemies fight Cambodia was. In: Christian Science Monitor . October 23, 1985.
  6. ↑ Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany. 1981. January 1 to April 30. Institute for Contemporary History on behalf of the Foreign Office, Oldenbourg, Munich 2008 ( limited preview in the Google book search.)
  7. ^ John Gittings: Son Sann. Cambodian leader in hoc to western aims in Asia. In: The Guardian . December 23, 2000.
  8. ↑ Michael Johns: Cambodia at a Crossroads ( Memento of November 24, 2002 in the Internet Archive ). In: The World and I. February 1988.
  9. ^ Ieng Mouly Party to Reconcile Resistance Roots. In: The Cambodia Daily . April 6, 1998.
  10. ↑ Former Cambodian Prime Minister Son Sann Dies. In: People's Daily . December 20, 2000.
personal data
SURNAME Son Sann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cambodian politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Phnom Penh
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 2000
Place of death Paris