Hun Sen: Cambodia Strongman

Spotlight: Checkmate
By Nate Thayer
1 October 1998
Far Eastern Economic Review
FEER

He was a Khmer Rouge military officer in the 1970s, and became the prime minister of Cambodia's communist government in the 1980s. Observers may have expected Hun Sen's rise to stall, however, when his Cambodian People's Party lost the United Nations-run elections in 1993. Instead -- five years, three coups, hundreds of politically motivated killings and a questionable election later -- he appears to be in complete control.

After losing the 1993 election, Hun Sen refused to accept the result and ordered out the military, forcing a power-sharing arrangement with the victorious Funcinpec party. Like the expert chess player that he is, he has methodically -- and often brutally -- outmanoeuvred all his challengers since. He forced out competition within his CPP, and created a large personal army to spearhead attacks against critics, culminating in his coup d'etat in July 1997.

When the international community balked, he threatened to overrun embassies with pro-government protesters, kick out the UN, and withdraw Cambodia's request to join Asean. The July 1998 elections failed to give him the majority he needed to form a government alone, forcing him to negotiate with opposition leaders. When that failed to produce a coalition, he banned elected parliamentarians from leaving the country and threatened opposition leaders with arrest.

In the end, the opposition essentially gave up. A new government with a five-year mandate and Hun Sen in the top job was expected to be formed soon. King Sihanouk told opposition parties: "In a Cambodia that is not a state of law and not a full-fledged democracy, I have no other choice than to advise the weak to choose a policy that avoids misfortune for the people, the motherland, and themselves."