Ieng Sary.

A biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ieng Sary

Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office
15 January 1976 7 January 1979
President Khieu Samphan
Prime Minister Pol Pot
Preceded by Long Boret
Succeeded by Hun Sen
Personal details
Born Kim Trang
24 October 1925
Chau Thanh, Tra Vinh,
French Indochina
Died 14 March 2013 (aged 87)
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Resting place Malai, Banteay Meanchey
[1]

Nationality Cambodian
Political party Communist Party
Spouse(s) Khieu Thirith
(m. 19512013; his death)

This article
contains Khmer text.Without
proper rendering support, you
may see question marks, boxes,
or other symbols instead
of Khmer script.
Ieng Sary (Khmer: ; 24 October 1925 14 March 2013) was a co-founder and senior
member of the Khmer Rouge. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Kampuchea led by Pol Pot and served in the 197579 government ofDemocratic
Kampuchea as foreign minister and deputy prime minister. He was known as "Brother
Number Three" as he was third in command after Pol Pot and Nuon Chea. His wife, Ieng
Thirith (ne Khieu), served in the Khmer Rouge government as social affairs minister. Ieng
Sary was arrested in 2007 and was charged with crimes against humanity but died of heart
failure before the case against him could be brought to a verdict.
Contents
1 Early years
2 Mid-life
3 Arrest and trial
4 Death
5 References
Early years
Ieng Sary was born in Nhan Hoa village, which is located in the subdistrict of Luong Hoa (also
known as Loeung Va in Khmer), Chu Thnh District, Tr Vinh Province, southern Vietnam in
1925. His father, Kim Riem was a Khmer Krom while his mother Tran Thi Loi, was
a Chinese immigrant who moved to Vietnam with her parents when she was a little
girl.
[2][3]
However, during his trial in 2011, it was stated that his mother was of mixed Vietnamese
and Chinese descent.
[4]
Sary changed his name from the Vietnamese Kim Trangwhen he
joined the Khmer Rouge. He was the brother-in-law by marriage of the Khmer Rouge
leader Pol Pot (real name: Saloth Sar). Sary and Saloth Sar studied at Phnom Penh's Lyce
Sisowath where their future wives, the sisters Khieu Thirith and Khieu Ponnaryalso studied.
Before leaving Cambodia to study in Paris, Sary was engaged to Khieu Thirith.
[5]

Sary and Saloth Sar also studied together in Paris. Whilst there, Sary rented an apartment in
the Latin Quarter, a hotbed of student radicalism. He and Saloth Sar met with French
communist intellectuals, and formed their own cell of Cambodian communists.
[citation needed]

Sary and Khieu Thirith married in the town hall of Paris' 15th arrondissement in the winter of
1951. Thirith took her husband's name, becoming Ieng Thirith.
[5]

Mid-life
After returning to Cambodia, he was inducted into the Central Committee of the Workers Party
of Kampuchea in September 1960.
[5]

After the fall of the Khmer Republic on 17 April 1975, Sary made personal appeals to
expatriates to help rebuild Cambodia. However when they returned to Cambodia, they were
arrested on arrival, and thrown into brutal detention centers.
[6]
He took the nickname "Brother
number 3" and, as head of diplomacy, he will be the only dignitary not to cultivate his secret
identity.
He welcomed foreign visitors and was also responsible for purges and arrests in the
government's ministries.
[7]
At the end of 1977, before the United Nations, he rejected
accusations from Cambodian refugees who wanted to open a discussion with the Khmer
Rouge government. Together with Pol Pot, Ieng Sary was sentenced to death in-absentia by
the People's Revolutionary Tribunal after the Khmer Rouge were overthrown in 1979.
King Norodom Sihanouk officially pardoned Ieng Sary in 1996. He was the founder of
the Democratic National Union Movement, a split from the Cambodian National Unity Party.
[8]

Arrest and trial

Ieng Sary with Nuon Chea on trial
Ieng Sary, reportedly living in "an opulent Phnom Penh villa surrounded by security guards and
barbed wire"
[9]
was arrested on 12 November 2007 in Phnom Penh on an arrest warrant from
the Cambodia Tribunal
[10]
for war crimes and crimes against humanity. His wife, Ieng Thirith,
was also arrested for crimes against humanity.
[11]

On 16 December 2009, the tribunal officially charged him with genocide for his involvement
with the subjugation and murder of Vietnamese and Muslim minorities in Cambodia.
[12]

Death
Sary died in Phnom Penh on 14 March 2013 at the age of 87, before the case against him
could be brought to a verdict. He had heart problems for years as well as other ailments. He
was taken from his holding cell at the special tribunal to a hospital on 4 March 2013 for what
his lawyers said were gastrointestinalproblems.
[13]
Sary's body was transported to his home
in Banteay Meanchey province. The body lay for seven days before being cremated.
[14]
At the
time of his death, Sary was on trial for his involvement in the Khmer Rouge.
[14]
Elisabeth
Simonneau Fort, a lawyer for the victims, said "For the victims, this death narrows the scope of
the trial and limits their search for truth and justice".
[15]

References[
1. Jump up^ Kong Sothanarith (6 June 2014). "Former Khmer Rouge Minister Hospitalized in
Thailand" (in Khmer). Voice of America. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
2. Jump up^ Kim Keo Kanitha, Choung Sphearith and Long Dany. Magazine of the
Documentation Center of CambodiaIeng Sary's Brief Biography (Special English Edition,
April 2003). p. 8. Retrieved 2012-06-23.
3. Jump up^ Bora, Touch. "Jurisdictional and Definitional Issues". Khmer Institute. Retrieved
2007-11-19.
4. Jump up^ Sann Rada, Transcript of Trial ProceedingsCase File N 002/19-09-2007-
ECCC/TC, Day 45 December 2011, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,
retrieved 29 October 2013
5. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c
David P. Chandler (1999). Brother Number One: A Political Biography of
Pol Pot. Westview Press. p. 32. ISBN 0813335108. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
6. Jump up^ BBC News, Top Khmer Rouge diplomat in court. 30 June 2008
7. Jump up^ Lemonde, Marcel (2013-01-03). un juge face aux khmers rouges. ditions du
Seuil. p. 250. ISBN 978-2021055740.
8. Jump up^ Peter H. Maguire. Facing Death in Cambodia. New York: Columbia University
Press. 2005. p. 101, 103.
9. Jump up^ The Statesman
10. Jump up^ Ed Johnson and Paul Tighe, "Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Arrested in
Cambodia", Bloomberg L.P., 12 November 2007.
11. Jump up^ "Ex-official of Khmer Rouge and wife arrested for crimes against humanity",
Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), 12 November 2007.
12. Jump up^ "Genocide charges for two former Khmer Rouge Leaders"
13. Jump up^ "Ieng Sary, Khmer Rouge Leader Tied to Genocide, Dies at 87". The New York
Times. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
14. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
"Khmer Rouge Founder Ieng Sary Dies". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 15
March 2013.
15. Jump up^ "KIeng Sary, minister for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies". Yahoo! News.
Retrieved 15 March 2013.