Son Sen

Son Sen (born June 12, 1930 in the province of Trà Vinh , Vietnam , † June 10, 1997 in Anlong Veng , Cambodia ), also known by his battle name " Brother 89 " or " Comrade Khieu ", was a leading figure in the Communist Party Kampucheas (KPK) and Head of Intelligence and Defense Minister during the rule of the Khmer Rouge in Democratic Kampuchea .

Life

He was born in the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam as a member of the Khmer Krom minority living there . The family owned land on a smaller scale. From 1946 Sen began a school education as a teacher, but was soon sent by the colonial administration of French Indochina for an academic training in Paris . There he was quickly influenced by the radical ideas of the Parti communiste français (PCF) and attended a Marxist discussion group, the center of which was Pol Pot and also had Ieng Sary , Hu Nim and Hou Yuon as members .

In 1956 Sen returned to Cambodia, where he first worked as a teacher at the Lycée Sisowath. He then went on to teach at the National Teaching Institute of Phnom Penh University , all the while remaining true to his radical beliefs. In 1960, Sen was one of the founding members of the Kampuchea Labor Party (WPK), from which the KPK emerged in September 1966. In 1962 he was dismissed from the university for political reasons under the rule of Prince Norodom Sihanouk .

The following year, Sen successfully ran for a seat on the WPK Central Committee and had to flee the capital when the pressure of persecution against the communists increased. From 1964 he stayed in the jungle area of ​​eastern Cambodia and at times in Hanoi. Until the end of the 1960s, Sen gained experience as a field commander in the ranks of the Khmer Rouge in the fight against the troops of Sihanouk and Lon Nol . From 1970 to 1971 he was KPK secretary for the northeastern administrative zone and from 1972 chief of staff of the Khmer Rouge. In the party, in whose central committee he sat from 1974, he was known by his fighting name "Brother 89" or "Comrade Khieu".

After the Khmer Rouge victory in the Cambodian Civil War , Sen was appointed Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister under Pol Pot in September 1975, while his wife Yun Yat held the post of Minister of Culture and Education. In his function as defense minister, he was subordinate to the Angkas secret police, Santebal , which also operated within the party. Together with Vorn Vet , he appointed Kaing Guek Eav as head of the S-21 torture prison , who acted according to her instructions. Sen was personally involved in planning and designing the interrogation and torture methods used there, which killed thousands. As Defense Minister he was also responsible for the military power of the Khmer Rouge and its fight against alleged dissenters within Cambodia. In terms of foreign policy, he was responsible for the increasing border conflicts with Vietnam, which finally culminated in an open war in December 1978 and in January 1979 led to the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia .

In the following guerrilla war by the Khmer Rouge against the People's Republic of Kampuchea, which was controlled by Hanoi , he continued to be an important leading figure and, in the opinion of many observers, established himself as the right-hand man of Pol Pot. When he stepped down in August 1985, Sen became commander in chief of the Khmer Rouge.

When the Paris Peace Accords were concluded between the various warring parties on October 23, 1991 under the supervision of the United Nations , Sen and Khieu Samphan traveled to Phnom Penh soon afterwards to negotiate with the United Nations Interim Administration in Cambodia (UNTAC). During this time, the Cambodian government contacted him and appointed him a member of the Supreme National Council, which ensured the country's independence until a constituent assembly was elected . Pol Pot saw this as treason and replaced Sen with Ta Mok in May 1992 .

After the Khmer Rouge left the Supreme National Council for good in 1993, Pol made Pot Sen the scapegoat for failing to reach an understanding with Phnom Penh. Although he was reinstated in his old functions in April 1994, he had little influence under the Khmer Rouge. Three years later, Pol Pot ordered Sen's murder. On June 10, 1997, he was shot with his wife, children and grandchildren and other family members in Anlong Veng. The following month, Mok's party cadres used the incident to eliminate Pol Pot and staged a show trial against him for the crime .

See also

• International Khmer Rouge Tribunal
• Killing Fields

Remarks

1. ↑ Ben Kiernan : The Pol Pot Regime. Race, Power and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 (2nd Edition). P. 126.
2. ↑ Paul R. Bartrop: Son Sen . In: Paul R. Bartrop, Steven Leonard Jacobs (Eds.): Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection . Volume 1. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2015, ISBN 978-1-61069-363-9 , pp. 541-542 .
3. ↑ Paul R. Bartrop: Son Sen . In: Paul R. Bartrop, Steven Leonard Jacobs (Eds.): Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection . Volume 1. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2015, ISBN 978-1-61069-363-9 , pp. 542-543 .