The Most Well-Known Leaders of the Khmer Rouge
Pol Pot (1928 – 1998)
Ieng Sary (Born 1924)
Khieu Samphan (Born 1931)
Noun Chea (Born 1926)
Ta Mok (1924-2006)
The Khmer Rouge was formed primarily by Pol Pot and a number of other prominent Cambodian student leaders who were influenced by the French Communist Party in the 1950s. These students came back to Cambodia to intensify the local communist movement by taking control of the KPRP in the 1960s. It was under their leadership that the Khmer Rouge rose to power and unleashed a reign of terror in Cambodia from 1975 to1979. All major Khmer Rouge leaders are held responsible for crimes against humanity. The most prominent of them are as follows.
The most infamous and probably the most educated of the communist leaders in the Cold War Era was Pol Pot, who was the mastermind behind the political strategy of the Khmer Rouge. Born Saloth Sar, Pol Pot, or the Brother No. 1, was the main leader and one of the architects of the Khmer Rouge. He was the leader of the Kampuchean Communist Party and a leader of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.
He is also known for the measures he took to establish an agrarian and totalitarian communist society in Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, and is also one of the major figures responsible for the massacre. However, till the very end of his life, Pot denied any responsibility for the massacre of the Cambodian people.
Pot received a scholarship to study in Paris, France in 1949, where he joined the French Communist Party in 1952. On his return to Cambodia, he joined the KPRP in 1953 and led the party in 1960, restructuring it. He renamed his party Kampuchean Communist Party in 1966 and in 1975 gained power over the country, renaming it Democratic Kampuchea. In 1975, Pot became the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea.
In 1979, after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, he went into hiding in the South Western forests near the Thailand border. Pot resigned from the Khmer Rouge military services in 1985. Pot was suspecting a number of his Khmer Rouge colleagues to be collaborating with the then Cambodian government of Hun Sen, and later in 1997, he was arrested by Ta Mok, one of the most important commanders of the Khmer Rouge, who formed another faction of the party. He faced a show trial, and died on April 15, 1998 under house arrest.
Ieng Sary was born Kim Trang in Tra Vinh Province in Vietnam. He was an important leader of the Khmer Rouge, holding important positions such as the Deputy Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. He was also an old friend and companion of Pol Pot and knew him since they were young students in Cambodia, and also studied together in France when they joined the French Communist Party.
Ieng Sary joined the North Eastern forces in 1963 and collaborated closely with the Vietnamese for help. In 1975, he became the member of the KPRP and in the same year he was made the member of the central committee. When the Democratic Kampuchea was established, he served at its Foreign Minister in 1975, and later Deputy Prime Minister from 1976 till the regime collapsed in 1979. He surrendered to the government in 1996 and was granted amnesty by King Sinahouk. He and his wife were arrested in November 2007 for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Cambodia Tribunal and Sary was charged with genocide on December 16, 2009.
The first President of the Democratic Kampuchea and held the strongest state position when the regime was established, although the real political power was held by Pol Pot. He was an official for King Sihanouk and joined the Communist Party in 1967. Succeeded Pot as the leader of the Democratic Kampuchea Khmer Rouge faction after his resign in 1985 and surrendered to the government in 1998. He appeared before Cambodia’s genocide tribunal in 2008.
Chea was born Long Bunruot. He is a retired Khmer Rouge member and the head of the last remnants of the Khmer Rouge to surrender in 1998. He was one of the most trusted comrades of Pol Pot and was elected as the General Secretary of the Communist Party. He was also known as Brother No. 2.
Ta Mok was born Chhit Choeun, and took the name “Brother No. 5” when he joined the Communist Party in the late 1960s. He had earlier been actively involved in armed struggle against French colonial rule. He was named the Head of the National Army of the Democratic Kampuchea by Pol Pot. However, in 1996, it was none other than Ta Mok who was responsible for the arrest of Pol Pot after a split in the rebel group in 1997. A powerful man in the southern zone of the country, he was also held responsible for major killings during the massacre that occurred in the Khmer Rouge regime, earning him the nickname of “Butcher”.
Related Post
For further info: http://www.cambodia.org/khmer_rouge/
Related Post
For further info: http://www.cambodia.org/khmer_rouge/
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