Khieu Samphan

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Khieu Samphan
Chairman of the State Presidium of Democratic Kampuchea
In office April 11, 1976 – January 7, 1979
Preceded by	Norodom Sihanouk
Succeeded by	Heng Samrin
Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia)
In office April 4, 1976 – May 13, 1976
Preceded by	Samdech Penn Nouth
Succeeded by	Pol Pot
President of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia)
In office April 11, 1976 – January 7, 1979
Preceded by	Norodom Sihanouk
Succeeded by	Heng Samrin
Born	January 27, 1931 (1931-01-27) (age 77) Cambodia
Political party	Khmer Rouge

Khieu Samphan (born July 27, 1931) was the president of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) from 1976 until 1979. As such, he served as the country's head of state and was one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge movement, though Pol Pot was the group's true political leader and held the most extensive power. He is of Chinese-Khmer ancestry.^[1][2]

[edit] Bio

A prominent member of the circle of leftist Khmer intellectuals studying in Paris in the 1950s, Khieu Samphan studied economics and politics there. His successful 1959 doctoral thesis, "Cambodia's Economy and Industrial Development" advocated national self-reliance and generally sided with dependency theorists in blaming the wealthy, industrialized states for the poverty of the Third World. He was one of the founders of the Khmer Students' Association (KSA), out of which would grow the left-wing revolutionary movements that would so alter Cambodian history in the 1970s, most notably the Khmer Rouge. Once the KSA was shuttered by French authorities in 1956, he founded yet another student organization, the Khmer Students' Union.

Returning from Paris with his doctorate in 1959, Khieu held a faculty position at the University of Phnom Penh and started L'Observateur, a French-language leftist publication that was viewed with hostility by the government. His first important conflict with the anti-Communist Cambodian authorities came the following year, when L'Observateur was banned and Khieu was arrested, forced to undress and photographed in public.

After the coup of 1970 overthrew the government of Prince Sihanouk, the Khmer Communists, including Khieu Samphan, joined forces with the now-deposed monarch in establishing an anti-government coalition known as the Gouvernement Royal d'Union Nationale du Kampuchéa (GRUNK). In this alliance with his former enemies, Khieu served as deputy prime minister, minister of defense, and commander-in-chief of GRUNK military forces. (However, Pol Pot exercised real control over the latter.) In fact, Khieu's appointment to these posts and residence inside the country were instrumental in allowing GRUNK to maintain that it was not just a government-in-exile.

During the years of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979), Khieu remained near the top of the movement, assuming the post of president of the central presidium in 1976. His loyalty and closeness to Pol Pot and apparent dedication to the former's harshly doctrinaire vision of the revolution meant that Khieu survived the bloody purges of the last few years of Khmer Rouge rule. It is believed by some that Samphan's role as president was essentially ceremonial with real political power being exercised by Pol Pot.

After the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and subsequent fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Samphan led a rebel government which accorded a level of international recognition until 1982. In 1985 he officially succeeded Pol Pot as leader of the Khmer Rouge, and served in this position until he surrendered to the Cambodian government in 1998.

[edit] Arrest

On November 13, 2007, Samphan reportedly suffered a stroke. This occurred one day after the former Khmer Rouge Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife were arrested for war crimes committed while they were in power.^[3] At about the same time, a book by Samphan, Reflection on Cambodian History Up to the Era of Democratic Kampuchea, was published; in the book, he wrote that Pol Pot had worked for social justice and the defense of national sovereignty, while attributing responsibility for all of the group's policies to Pol Pot. According to Samphan, under the Khmer Rouge "there was no policy of starving people. Nor was there any direction set out for carrying out mass killings", and "there was always close consideration of the people's well-being." He acknowledged the use of coercion to produce food due to shortages. Samphan also strongly criticized the current government in the book, blaming it for corruption and social ills.^[4]

After he left a Phnom Penh hospital where he was treated following his stroke, Samphan was arrested^[5][6] by the Cambodia Tribunal and charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.^[6]

In April of 2008 former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan made his first appearance at Cambodia's genocide tribunal. His lawyer, Jacques Vergès, is using the defense that while he has never denied that many people in Cambodia were killed, but both he and Verges insist that, as head of state, he was never directly responsible.^[7]

[edit] References

• Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, Country Studies: Cambodia

Preceded by Norodom Sihanouk

Chairman of the Council of State (President) of Cambodia April 11, 1976–January 7, 1979

Succeeded by Heng Samrin

Preceded by Penn Nouth

Prime Minister of Cambodia April 4, 1976–May 13, 1976

Succeeded by Pol Pot

v • d • e Prime Ministers of Cambodia since 1970 Khmer Republic: Lon Nol | Sisowath Sirik Matak | Son Ngoc Thanh | Hang Thun Hak | In Tam | Long Boret | Sosthene Fernandez | Penn Nouth Democratic Kampuchea: Penn Nouth | Khieu Samphan | Pol Pot People's Republic of Kampuchea: Pen Sovan | Chan Sy | Hun Sen State of Cambodia: Hun Sen | Sen-Ranariddh Coalition | Norodom Ranariddh Kingdom of Cambodia: Norodom Ranariddh | Ung Huot | Hun Sen

v • d • e Prominent Members of the Khmer Rouge Pol Pot | Khieu Samphan | Nuon Chea | Ta Mok | Son Sen | Ieng Sary | Hu Nim | Khang Khek Ieu | Ieng Thirith | Ke Pauk | Hun Sen (defected)