Cambodia's long-serving prime minister
In 1979, at the age of 26, he became Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of Kampuchea, the world's youngest foreign minister.
A Cambodian politician and former military officer. He joined the Khmer Rouge in 1970 and served as a battalion commander before defecting in 1977 to fight alongside Vietnamese forces. After the regime fell in 1979 he became Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of Kampuchea, and in 1985 succeeded Chan Sy as Prime Minister. He remained in power for decades and now serves as president of the Senate and acting head of state.
Also known as: Hun Bunal · Hun Nal
Activities and affiliations
-
–1991
Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP)
Political and party leadership -
1991–
Cambodian People's Party (CPP)PresidentMain
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1970Joined the Khmer Rouge
- 1979Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of Kampuchea
- 1985Became Prime Minister
- 1993Second Prime Minister
- 1998Prime Minister after consecutive CPP election victories
- 2023Stepped down as prime minister
Related historical events
- 1975–1979Democratic Kampuchea and the 1979 regime changedeputy prime minister of the new regimeHe began as deputy prime minister in the new republic's first government of 1979 and later ruled Cambodia for decades.
- 1978–1979The Sino-Vietnamese WarLeader of the People’s Republic of KampucheaWas briefed by Lê Đức Anh at the end of 1990 on the Chengdu summit and the line that “this ally is China”.
Rejecting the 1993 election and the 1997 coup
In the 1993 elections held under the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), FUNCINPEC won the largest share of votes but the result was a hung parliament. Hun Sen and his party formally rejected the outcome. Backed by much of the state apparatus, including the army and police, he and his deputy Norodom Chakrapong threatened to lead the secession of seven provinces, and CPP-backed forces committed violence against UN and FUNCINPEC forces. A few days later Hun Sen distanced himself from the secessionist movement, and UNTAC and FUNCINPEC conceded a power-sharing agreement that made him Second Prime Minister alongside First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh.
In 1997 the coalition became unstable over tensions between Ranariddh and Hun Sen. When FUNCINPEC opened talks with the remaining Khmer Rouge rebels, with whom it had been allied against Hun Sen's Vietnamese-backed government in the 1980s, to absorb them into its ranks, the move threatened to alter the military balance between royalists and the CPP. Hun Sen responded by launching the 1997 coup, replacing Ranariddh with Ung Huot as First Prime Minister while keeping his own post as Second Prime Minister. Amnesty International condemned the summary execution of FUNCINPEC ministers and a "systematic campaign of arrests and harassment" of political opponents in an open letter, and Thomas Hammarberg, then Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia, strongly condemned the coup.