Khieu Samphan
Encyclopedia
Khieu Samphan was the president of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea
(Cambodia
) from 1976 until 1979. As such, he served as Cambodia'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. Samphan is of Chinese
-Khmer
ancestry.
; he came from a relatively privileged background, being the son of a judge.
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"http://www.archive.org/details/IndochinaChronicle51-52Sept.-Nov.1976 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 government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk
came the following year, when L'Observateur was banned and Samphan was arrested, forced to undress and photographed in public.
Despite this humiliation, Samphan was invited to join Sihanouk's Sangkum
, a 'national movement' that operated as the single political party within Cambodia. After Sihanouk's swing leftward in 1963, Samphan's economic theories were put into practice in an extensive nationalisation programme. Samphan stood as a Sangkum deputy in the 1966 elections, in which the rightist elements of the party, led by Lon Nol
, gained an overwhelming victory; he then became a member of a 'Counter-Government' created by Sihanouk to keep the rightists under control.
In 1967 the Samlaut Uprising
, a rebellion of rural peasantry in Battambang Province
, led to a severe crackdown on the leftists. Samphan, who had called on the government to moderate its actions towards the demonstrators, was threatened by Sihanouk with arrest and execution, and fled Phnom Penh to join his former colleagues in the maquis. At the time, he was widely rumoured to have been murdered by Sihanouk's security forces.
After the coup of 1970 overthrew the government of Sihanouk, the Khmer Communists, including Khieu Samphan, joined forces with the now-deposed Head of State in establishing an anti-government coalition known as the Gouvernement Royal d'Union Nationale du Kampuchéa
(GRUNK). In this alliance with his former enemies, Samphan 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, Samphan'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), Samphan remained near the top of the movement, assuming the post of president of the central presidium in 1976. His faithfullness to Pol Pot meant that he survived the purges in the later years of the Khmer Rouge rule. His roles within the party suggest he was well entrenched in the upper echelons of the CPK, and a leading figure in the ruling elite. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7101154.stm
After the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and subsequent fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Samphan led a rebel government which was 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. In 1982 he was appointed Vice President in charge of foreign affairs of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea
and from 1991 to 1993 he served in the Supreme National Council as Khmer Rouge representative. From 1993 his influence mainly vanished, with the real power still resided in Pol Pot's hands, who was Director of the Higher Institute of National Defence
. In 1998 Khieu and former Pol Pot's deputy Nuon Chea
surrendered to Hun Sen
.
and his wife were arrested for war crimes committed while they were in power. 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 he 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.
The historian Ben Kiernan
stated that Samphan's protestations (such as the fact that he regarded the collectivisation of agriculture as a "surprise", and his expressions of sympathy for his "friend" Hu Nim
, a fellow member of the CPK hierarchy tortured and killed at Tuol Sleng) betrayed the fundamental "moral cowardice" of a man mesmerised by power but lacking any nerve.
After he left a Phnom Penh hospital where he was treated following his stroke, Samphan was arrested by the Cambodia Tribunal and charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In April 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.
Democratic Kampuchea
The Khmer Rouge period refers to the rule of Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Khieu Samphan and the Khmer Rouge Communist party over Cambodia, which the Khmer Rouge renamed as Democratic Kampuchea....
(Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
) from 1976 until 1979. As such, he served as Cambodia's head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
and was one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
movement, though Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
was the group's true political leader and held the most extensive power. Samphan is of Chinese
Chinese Cambodian
Chinese Cambodians are Cambodian citizens of Chinese descent. "Khmer-Chen", is used for peoples of either mixed Cambodian & Chinese descent or people of whom are Cambodian born citizens with Chinese ancestry;...
-Khmer
Khmer people
Khmer people are the predominant ethnic group in Cambodia, accounting for approximately 90% of the 14.8 million people in the country. They speak the Khmer language, which is part of the larger Mon–Khmer language family found throughout Southeast Asia...
ancestry.
Biography
Samphan was born in Svay Rieng Province and was educated at the Lycee SisowathLycee Sisowath
Lycée Preah Sisowath is a secondary school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The school was founded in 1873 as a collège and became a lycée in 1933.-History:...
; he came from a relatively privileged background, being the son of a judge.
A prominent member of the circle of leftist Khmer
Khmer people
Khmer people are the predominant ethnic group in Cambodia, accounting for approximately 90% of the 14.8 million people in the country. They speak the Khmer language, which is part of the larger Mon–Khmer language family found throughout Southeast Asia...
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"http://www.archive.org/details/IndochinaChronicle51-52Sept.-Nov.1976 advocated national self-reliance and generally sided with dependency theorists
Dependency theory
Dependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...
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 government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk regular script was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni...
came the following year, when L'Observateur was banned and Samphan was arrested, forced to undress and photographed in public.
Despite this humiliation, Samphan was invited to join Sihanouk's Sangkum
Sangkum
The Sangkum Reastr Niyum , commonly known simply as the Sangkum, was a political organisation set up in 1955 by Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia...
, a 'national movement' that operated as the single political party within Cambodia. After Sihanouk's swing leftward in 1963, Samphan's economic theories were put into practice in an extensive nationalisation programme. Samphan stood as a Sangkum deputy in the 1966 elections, in which the rightist elements of the party, led by Lon Nol
Lon Nol
Lon Nol was a Cambodian politician and general who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as Defense Minister...
, gained an overwhelming victory; he then became a member of a 'Counter-Government' created by Sihanouk to keep the rightists under control.
In 1967 the Samlaut Uprising
Samlaut Uprising
The Samlaut Uprising, or Samlaut Rebellion, was an incident that took place in 1967 in Battambang Province in Cambodia, in which the rural peasantry revolted against the Sangkum regime of the then-Head of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk....
, a rebellion of rural peasantry in Battambang Province
Battambang Province
Battambang is a province in northwestern Cambodia. It is bordered to the North with Banteay Meanchey, to the West with Thailand, and to the East and South with Pursat. The capital of the province is the city of Battambang. The name, meaning 'lost staff', refers to the legend of Preah Bat Dambang...
, led to a severe crackdown on the leftists. Samphan, who had called on the government to moderate its actions towards the demonstrators, was threatened by Sihanouk with arrest and execution, and fled Phnom Penh to join his former colleagues in the maquis. At the time, he was widely rumoured to have been murdered by Sihanouk's security forces.
After the coup of 1970 overthrew the government of Sihanouk, the Khmer Communists, including Khieu Samphan, joined forces with the now-deposed Head of State in establishing an anti-government coalition known as the Gouvernement Royal d'Union Nationale du Kampuchéa
GRUNK
The Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea, usually known by the French acronym GRUNK, was a government-in-exile of Cambodia, based in Beijing, that was in existence between 1970 and 1976...
(GRUNK). In this alliance with his former enemies, Samphan 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, Samphan'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), Samphan remained near the top of the movement, assuming the post of president of the central presidium in 1976. His faithfullness to Pol Pot meant that he survived the purges in the later years of the Khmer Rouge rule. His roles within the party suggest he was well entrenched in the upper echelons of the CPK, and a leading figure in the ruling elite. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7101154.stm
After the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and subsequent fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Samphan led a rebel government which was 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. In 1982 he was appointed Vice President in charge of foreign affairs of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea
Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea
The Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea was a coalition government in exile composed of three Cambodian political factions: Prince Norodom Sihanouk's Funcinpec party, the Party of Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front formed in 1982, broadening the de...
and from 1991 to 1993 he served in the Supreme National Council as Khmer Rouge representative. From 1993 his influence mainly vanished, with the real power still resided in Pol Pot's hands, who was Director of the Higher Institute of National Defence
Higher Institute of National Defence
The Higher Institute of National Defence was an organ of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, then of the Khmer Rouge remnants in 1990s, with an advisory role on military issues...
. In 1998 Khieu and former Pol Pot's deputy Nuon Chea
Nuon Chea
Nuon Chea , also known as Long Bunruot , is a Cambodian former communist politician and former chief ideologist of Khmer Rouge. He was commonly known as "Brother Number Two" second in command to Pol Pot who was leader during the Cambodian Genocide 1975-1979...
surrendered to Hun Sen
Hun Sen
Hun Sen is the current Prime Minister of Cambodia.He has been the sole leader of the Cambodian People's Party , which has governed Cambodia since the Vietnamese-backed overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979...
.
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 SaryIeng Sary
Ieng Sary was a powerful figure in the Khmer Rouge. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979 and held several senior positions in the Khmer Rouge until his defection to the government in 1996....
and his wife were arrested for war crimes committed while they were in power. 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 he 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.
The historian Ben Kiernan
Ben Kiernan
Benedict F. Kiernan is the Whitney Griswold Professor of History, Professor of International and Area Studies and Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University. He is a prolific writer on the Cambodian genocide...
stated that Samphan's protestations (such as the fact that he regarded the collectivisation of agriculture as a "surprise", and his expressions of sympathy for his "friend" Hu Nim
Hu Nim
Hu Nim, alias "Phoas" was a Cambodian Communistintellectual and politician who held a number of ministerial posts.His long political career included spells with the Sangkum regime...
, a fellow member of the CPK hierarchy tortured and killed at Tuol Sleng) betrayed the fundamental "moral cowardice" of a man mesmerised by power but lacking any nerve.
After he left a Phnom Penh hospital where he was treated following his stroke, Samphan was arrested by the Cambodia Tribunal and charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In April 2008 former Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
head of state Khieu Samphan made his first appearance at Cambodia's genocide tribunal. His lawyer, Jacques Vergès
Jacques Vergès
Jacques Vergès, born 5 March 1925 in Ubon Ratchathani, Siam , is a French-Vietnamese lawyer who has earned fame continually since the 1950s, first as an anticolonialist communist figure and then for defending a long string of well-known clients from anticolonialist Algerian militant Djamila...
, 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.
External links
- Cambodia Tribunal Monitor
- Cambodia's Economy and Industrial Development Khieu Samphan's 1959 doctoral thesis.