When I first met Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, I didn’t have much hope for his future.
A seemingly shy, simple man appeared before me in January 1980 at the foreign ministry in Phnom Penh. He was then foreign minister, soon to be deputy prime minister.
A Khmer Rouge battalion commander, Hun Sen had lost an eye during the war. Defecting from the murderous Pol Pot regime (1975-1979) to the Vietnamese in June 1977, he received intensive tutoring from Hanoi’s communist leaders. Eighteen months later, Hanoi moved to oust Pol Pot and install Hun Sen as a key member of the new Khmer leadership.
In full: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/7/22/cambodias-sham-election-might-be-hun-sens-last
