Son Sen

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Not to be confused with Son Sann.
In this Cambodian name, the surname is Son. In accordance with Cambodian custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Sen.
Son Sen
Deputy Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea
In office
14 April 1976 – 7 January 1979
Prime MinisterPol Pot
Personal details
Born(1930-06-12)12 June 1930
Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia
Cause of deathExecution by shooting
Political partyCommunist Party of Kampuchea
SpouseYun Yat

Son Sen (

Tuol Sleng
.

Son Sen was responsible for ordering the massacre of more than 100,000 people in the Eastern Zone of Cambodia during the last six months of 1978.[3]

Sen was married to Yun Yat, who became the Party's minister of education and information. Along with the rest of his family, he was killed on the orders of Pol Pot during a 1997 factional split in the Khmer Rouge.

Early life

Son Sen was born in the village of Huong Hoa,

Saloth Sar (alias Pol Pot), Ieng Sary, and Hou Yuon. Along with other members of the group, Sen was influenced by the radical line pursued by the French Communist Party.[clarification needed
]

Sen's academic record was relatively mediocre, and in May 1956 the

University of Phnom Penh. By 1960 he had also, however, joined the clandestine Cambodian Communist Party, then known as the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party and led by Tou Samouth.[9]

In the maquis

Son Sen's political views, which opposed the ruling

car boot of a Chinese diplomatic vehicle.[10]

Sen was initially to join Saloth Sar and other former colleagues at a Vietnamese Communist military base called Office 100, located in the border areas of Cambodia. There are indications that he was soon sent to the remote,

Kampong Speu.[12]

Chief of Staff of Khmer Rouge forces

After the

Cambodian coup of 1970, and the subsequent establishment of the Khmer Republic under Lon Nol, Sihanouk was to join with his former Communist enemies in forming the GRUNK, a Beijing-based government-in-exile. The Khmer Rouge's forces were soon to be swelled by thousands of new recruits, attracted in part by Sihanouk's name. Son Sen, whilst not a prominent member of the GRUNK, had considerable power thanks to his high position in the government's forces on the ground – CPNLAF, the Cambodian People's National Liberation Armed Forces. Along with Ieng Sary, he was responsible for the North-Eastern Zone, the stronghold of the Party 'Centre'.[13]

By 1972 Son Sen had become

Chief of Staff of the Khmer Rouge forces. Despite occasional criticisms – his colleagues found his style peremptory and his point of view "bourgeois",[10] and he was openly criticised by Hou Yuon
at the Party's 1971 Congress – his devotion to Saloth Sar and his closeness to the Party 'Centre' guaranteed his senior position.

Democratic Kampuchea

Skulls of victims of Son Sen's Khmer Rouge security apparatus. Choeung Ek.

After the Khmer Rouge

Prime Minister with responsibility for Defense. Responsible for internal security, he also oversaw the Santebal – the Khmer Rouge secret police. As such he monitored the operations of the infamous S-21 prison at Tuol Sleng, and engaged actively in the design of its interrogation and torture procedures. Son Sen's role meant that he was particularly closely implicated in the many thousands of deaths that occurred in this period due to the arrest and execution of perceived enemies of the regime. His memoranda to his subordinate Kang Kek Iew, and notes taken during study sessions overseen by Sen for S-21 cadres, reveal his continued interest in history, deeply anti-Vietnamese views, and revolutionary zeal, along with a "schoolmasterish attention to detail".[14] These were combined with a brutally ruthless streak; Sen was reputed to have once been so angry with Foreign Minister Ieng Sary that he unsuccessfully attempted to have him murdered.[15]

The Party's paranoia with regard to security, and its obsessive secrecy, led many senior Khmer Rouge cadres to be identified in internal documents by pseudonyms or numbers: Son Sen was often referred to as "Khieu", and his wife as "At". He was also identified as "Brother 89" on letters and memoranda.[citation needed]

Sen's other main duties in this period involved reorganising the CPNLAF forces into a cohesive national army, the

Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea. By 1977–78, he was overseeing an increasing series of clashes with Vietnamese forces along the border, as well as mounting a massive purge of Eastern Zone cadres considered to have Vietnamese links. As the ongoing war with the Vietnamese began to go increasingly badly for the Democratic Kampuchean forces, however, Sen began to fall under suspicion himself, and may well have become a victim of his own security apparatus if the 1979 Vietnamese invasion had not intervened.[14] In particular, he had been implicated by the Party's internal security in several "traitorous" activities including the 1978 murder of the British academic Malcolm Caldwell.[16]

Commander of the NADK

Following the Vietnamese invasion and the establishment of a pro-Vietnamese regime in Phnom Penh, Sen was to re-establish his control over the Khmer Rouge forces, now operating against the Vietnamese and the forces of the People's Republic of Kampuchea from bases in the Cardamom Mountains.

By August 1985, when the 'retirement' of Pol Pot was officially announced, Son Sen assumed supreme command of the

Norodom Ranarridh
. There was occasional coordination between the Sen's NADK and the ANS in particular, though the Khmer Rouge forces remained easily the strongest element in the coalition (and periodically attacked ANS and KPNLAF forces).

After 1991 and death

Following the

UNTAC and the Cambodian government in Phnom Penh. Sen was made a member of the Supreme National Council which was set up to protect the country's independence until UN-supervised elections could take place, and seems to have been more determined than most Khmer Rouge leaders to ensure that they were reintegrated into normal national politics.[16] However, as a result Sen was removed from power in May 1992 by Ta Mok, after a dispute with fellow Khmer Rouge leaders over whether to continue the negotiations.[17]
From 1992 to 1997 he had relatively little influence within the Khmer Rouge.

He was murdered on 15 June 1997, alongside 13 members of his family, including children, on orders of Pol Pot, who at the time was fighting his last battle to regain control of the Khmer Rouge from Ta Mok.[18] Pol Pot is thought to have believed that Sen was in negotiations with government forces to surrender, specifically being in contact with then-Second Prime Minister Hun Sen; he ordered Son Sen and his family to be shot, after which trucks drove over their bodies back-and-forth and at high speed.[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ Atkinson, Carole. "Tuol Sleng and the Cambodian Genocide: Khmer Rouge and Its Leaders". Cornell University Library.
  2. ^ "Brother System of the Khmer Rouge". Young Pioneer Tours. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  3. ISBN 0-8027-1472-2
    .
  4. ^ Kiernan, B. (2004), p.29
  5. ^ Bora, Touch. Jurisdictional and Definitional Issues Archived 2018-11-06 at the Wayback Machine, Khmer Institute, retrieved 2007-11-19
  6. ^ Béréziat (2009), p. 102 Son Sen est d'origine khmère krom (et non sino- khmère comme on l'a écrit). H est né en 1926 ou 1930 à Huong Hoa, dans la province de Trà Vinh (Sud- Vietnam), le même canton d'où est originaire Ieng Sary....
  7. ^ Kiernan, The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia, Yale UP, 2014, p.298
  8. ^ Kiernan, p.122
  9. ^ Kiernan, p.184
  10. ^ a b c Chandler, D. (1999). Voices from S-21 - Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, p. 19
  11. ^ Kiernan, p.212
  12. ^ Kiernan, p.269
  13. ^ Kiernan, p.308
  14. ^ a b Chandler, pp. 19-20
  15. ^ Son Sen, Documentation Centre of Cambodia Archived 2010-01-23 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 12-10-09
  16. ^ a b Corfield, J. and Summers, L. Historical Dictionary of Cambodia, Scarecrow Press, p.397
  17. ^ * Chandler, D. (1999). Brother Number One. A Political Biography of Pol Pot, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, p. 173
  18. ^ * Chandler, D. (1999). Brother Number One. A Political Biography of Pol Pot, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, p. 180
  19. ^ "Khmer Rouge Said to Execute A Top Aide on Pol Pot's Order", New York Times, 14-06-97

Bibliography

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