Pen Sovann, Cambodia’s First Prime Minister After Khmer Rouge, Dies at 80
New York Times | 30 October 2016
Pen Sovann, who was installed as prime minister of Cambodia by the Vietnamese after Vietnam defeated the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, only to be ousted and imprisoned six months later, died on Saturday in Takeo Province, in southern Cambodia. He was 80.
His death was announced by the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which he joined in 2012.
Mr. Pen Sovann was Cambodia’s first post-Khmer Rouge prime minister. He held the office from June to December 1981, when the country was known as the People’s Republic of Kampuchea.
He was part of a group of self-exiled former Cambodian Communists who fled the country after becoming disenchanted with the Khmer Rouge. He returned amid the Vietnamese military invasion that toppled the regime.
He was named leader of the ruling People’s Revolutionary Party in late May 1981 and prime minister shortly after. Before then, he had been defense minister and vice president.
He was removed from power by the Vietnamese in December and imprisoned for 10 years in Hanoi. His calls for the withdrawal of Vietnam’s forces from Cambodia led to his ouster.
Mr. Pen Sovann later founded the Cambodian National Sustaining Party, which took part in the 1998 election but did not win a seat in Parliament. After joining the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, he was elected to Parliament in 2013.
He was a bitter rival of the current Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen.
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