Hun Sen

In 1975, he married Bun Rany, a public health official and director of a Khmer Rouge hospital. The couple has six children.

His eldest son, Manet, is a Lieutenant General in the 'Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.' His youngest child, Malis, was adopted.

In 1987, 'Amnesty International' accused him of torturing thousands of political prisoners. Iron bars and rubber hoses were among the tools used to accomplish the tasks.

Hun Sen was born on August 5, 1952 in Kampong Cham, a city northeast of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. His official birth name was Hun Bunal.

As a child, he attended a local primary school and worked in agriculture. In 1965, he left home to attend a Buddhist monastic school in Phnom Penh.

In 1969, a year before graduation, he abandoned his studies. He joined the Khmer Rouge a year later and changed his name to Hun Sen.

He is the third of seven children born to peasant farmers. One of his siblings died before he was born. His mother, Dee Yon, died from an illness in 1998 at age 79.

His father, Hun Neang, was a monk at a local vat before defrocking himself to join the French resistance. He died in July 12, 2013 at the age of 89 after battling health issues.

In 1970, he joined the ‘Khmer Rouge’ after the Cambodian military ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk. After just two weeks of training, he was appointed as platoon leader on April 30th.

In 1971, he became a member of the 'Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) Youth League.' From then on, he moved rapidly up the ranks and turned into one of the most prominent names of the party.

On April 16, 1975, he lost an eye in the battle for Phnom Penh. The ‘Khmer Rouge’ won and he was made Chief of Staff of an autonomous special regiment in the East Zone.

In a growing rift with ‘Pol Pot’, who demanded more self-destructive attacks on Vietnamese villages, he and other eastern zone leaders fled to Vietnam in 1977. They escaped internal purges in the ‘Khmer Rouge’.

On January 10, 1979, he became Foreign Minister in the Vietnamese-installed 'People's Republic of Kampuchea/State of Cambodia’ after the ‘Khmer Rouge’ regime was overthrown.

Hun Sen was an essential figure in the '1991 Paris Peace Talks.' On October 23, 1991, the Cambodian factions of the 'Supreme National Council,' along with Vietnam and 15 member nations of the 'International Peace Conference' on Cambodia, signed the 'Paris Peace Agreement,' marking the official end of the 'Cambodian-Vietnamese War.'

Under his leadership, Cambodia became the 10th member of the 'Association of South-East Asian Nations' (ASEAN) in 1999. The organization promotes political and economic cooperation and regional stability.