Timeline: A damning Human Rights Watch report

Photo: AFP.  Hun Sen (R) greets people during a cement casting ceremony for the Neak Loeung bridge in Kandal province, Jan. 14, 2014.

Timeline: A damning Human Rights Watch report

RFA | 3 February 2015

On Jan. 14, 2015, Hun Sen marked 30 years as prime minister of Cambodia. He joins an exclusive club of men now in power who, through politically motivated violence, control of the security forces, manipulated elections, massive corruption, and the tacit support of foreign powers, have been able to remain in power well beyond the time any leader in a democratic political system has ever served.  Source: Human Rights Watch.

Graphic: RFA

August 5, 1952

Hun Sen’s early life in Kampong Cham province

Hun Sen is born on Aug. 5, 1952, in Peam Koh Sna village in Kampong Cham province, along the north bank of the Mekong River in central Cambodia. His official birth name is Hun Bunnal, or Nal for short, the third of seven children. Two older brothers and three younger sisters remain alive (Hun San and Hun Neng, and Hun Sengny, Hun Sinat, and Hun Thoeun, respectively).

January 1, 1964

Studies in Phnom Penh (1964/1965 - 1969)

Hun Sen goes to primary school locally. However, as there is no middle school in his village, in 1964 or 1965 his parents send the then 12 or 13-year-old Hun Sen to study in Phnom Penh, where he lives at Wat Neakavoan pagoda through 1969. During this period, he changes his name to Hun Ritthi Sen. In Phnom Penh, he has relatives in the elite, including in the armed forces and in senior positions in the government security services. However, Hun Sen is also influenced by the writings of the secretly communist teacher Tiv Ol. 

Photo: AFP.  A picture released 16 June 1972 shows a Khmer Rouge unit during the Cambodia war.

April 4, 1970

Joins the Khmer Rouge

Hun Sen, under a new name, Hun Samrech, joins the armed insurgency on April 19, 1970, in response to Sihanouk’s March 23, 1970 radio broadcast from exile urging people to rebel against his overthrow. Hun Sen claims later that he was unaware of Pol Pot’s leadership of the insurgency.  Remnants of Pol Pot's and Nuon Chea’s communist movement, known as the Khmer Rouge (officially led from 1971 by what it calls the Communist Party of Kampuchea, or CPK), emerges to launch a renewed insurgency, backed by Vietnamese communists.

January 1, 1972

The Mekong River Front, 1972-1975

About 1972, Hun Sen is appointed company commander. In late 1972, Hun Sen undergoes further military training and changes his name from Hun Samrech back to Hun Sen. By 1973, he is a member of the battalion command committee leadership group. His area of operations is the east bank of the Mekong. This battlefield increasingly comprises the Roka Thom and Prek Touch areas of Chiro Ti Muoy commune, opposite the northern part of Kampong Cham town, putting Hun Sen’s East Zone Sector 21 forces in the thick of a major battle.

April 16, 1975

Loses his left eye

On April 1, 1975, Hun Sen commands an offensive with the objective of taking Tonle Bet. On April 16, he is wounded by shrapnel, as a result of which he lose his left eye and is left unconscious for about a week. While still in hospital, Hun Sen is appointed chief of staff of an autonomous special regiment in the East Zone.

June 20, 1977

Leaves Cambodia for Vietnam

Hun Sen asserts that he has had increasing disagreements with certain CPK policies and practices in 1976 and especially in the first half of 1977, as a result of which he decides to leave Cambodia for Vietnam. He crosses the border on June 20, 1977, although the exact circumstances are disputed.

January 14, 1985

Becomes Prime Minister of People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK)

In response to Khmer Rouge attacks, the Vietnamese army invades Cambodia on Dec. 25, 1978. It reaches Phnom Penh on Jan. 7, 1979, then chases the Khmer Rouge to the Thai border. Vietnam installs a new government, mixing Hanoi-trained communists with former Khmer Rouge officers to run the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). The former group includes Pen Sovann, who is named prime minister. Among the latter group is the 26- year-old Hun Sen, who becomes the world’s youngest foreign minister. Pen Sovann soon falls out with Hanoi and is arrested. He is replaced by Chan Si, who dies in office in December 1984. Hanoi, impressed with the ability and loyalty of the young foreign minister, promotes Hun Sen to the post of PRK prime minister on Jan. 14, 1985.

Photo: AFP.  Cambodian resistance leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk (r) and prime minister of the pro-Vietnamese Phnom Penh government Hun Sen meet Dec. 4, 1987 in Fere-en Tardenois, in the north of France, to sign a joint communique aimed at ending the nine-year conflict between the warring Cambodian factions. This meeting between the warring parties is the first since the Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia in 1978.

 See the full RFA timeline here