Hun Sen

Biography

Hun Sen, born Hun Bunal in 1952 in French-ruled Cambodia, left school in 1970 to join the Khmer Rouge insurgency after Sihanouk's overthrow. He lost the sight of one eye in the 1975 battle for Phnom Penh and became a battalion commander in the Eastern Region of Democratic Kampuchea. In 1977, during the regime's internal purges, he fled to Vietnam and became one of the leaders of the Vietnamese-backed rebel force.

After Vietnam drove out the Khmer Rouge in January 1979, he became foreign minister and later deputy prime minister of the People's Republic of Kampuchea. In January 1985 the National Assembly made him prime minister. He took part in the talks that produced the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements and governed during the UN transitional administration.

When FUNCINPEC won the 1993 election, Hun Sen refused to accept the result and became Second Prime Minister alongside Norodom Ranariddh. In July 1997 he ousted Ranariddh by force, and after the 1998 election he governed as sole prime minister. Under his long rule the Cambodian People's Party, which he has led since 2015, steadily tightened its control, and the main opposition party was dissolved before the 2018 election.

After the 2023 election he handed the premiership to his son Hun Manet and became chairman of the king's Supreme Privy Council. In April 2024 he was elected president of the Senate.