SON Sann (1911-2000) is a former Kampuchean Prime Minister.
BIOGRAPHY :
He was born on October 5 1911 in Phnom Penh, in a family khmère Krom (minority khmère of South-Vietnam)
SON Sann leaves to study in France and, after a passage by the Saint-Aspais college of Melun then the Louis-the-Large College, leaves graduate HEC Paris in 1933.
With His return to Cambodia, in 1935, it is used the French administration as a vice-governor as Siem Reap then, in 1937, of Battambang.
In June 1939, he leaves the administration to be tested in the business world.
In December 1940, he is member of a Cambodia economic mission sent to Tokyo to negotiate the rice export in Japan.
From 1941, he is charged to train the new king, Norodom Sihanouk, with the delights of the economy.
Once returned peace, he finds the public office and, since 1947, he becomes Minister for Finance, vice-president of the council then, as from 1950, Foreign Minister. In all, in a score of years, he will not occupy less than ten seven different stations in ministries, of which that of Prime Minister of 1967 to 1969. In 1954, he is as a Foreign Minister that he leaves to represent Cambodia with the conference which leads to the agreements of Geneva, marking the end of the first war of Indo-China.
Of return, he creates, with the assistance of Achilles Dolphin-Miller (to which Edmond Vivier had presented), the National Bank of Cambodia from which he becomes the first Governor in 1955, keeping this station until 1968 and cumulating he with his ministerial functions.
Even if he forever really shared the political ideas of prince Norodom Sihanouk, when this last is deposited March 18 1970, he decides to leave the country for Paris.
In June 1970, he goes to Beijing to try to reconcile Norodom Sihanouk and Lon Nol which had deposited Prince Norodom Sihanouk. he continued his efforts, even after the proclamation in October of the republic khmère. At the end of 1971, he had gained the support of several diplomats and Cambodia, French and Chinese politicians. However, in 1972, the Prime Minister Zhou Enlai rejects the initiative and Lon Nol answers it by autoproclamant President of the republic.
He had returned to France when April 17 1975, the Khmer Rouges seized the capacity with Phnom Penh.
In 1976, he creates and chairs the General association of the Khmers abroad (AGKE) by whom with the material aid and financial of the Americans, he finances the groups of former soldiers and republican officers combatant the mode of Pol Pot.
In October 1979, whereas the Khmer Rouges had had to yield the capacity to the popular republic of Cambodia installation by the Vietnameses, SON Sann founded the Face of national release of the Khmer people (FLNPK) of republican inspiration, to be opposed to the mode of Phnom Penh without to guarantee a return of the Khmer Rouges.
Unfortunately this third way proved not very viable and, since 1982, he integrates, as a Prime Minister, a new coalition government in exile created by Norodom Sihanouk and including the Khmer Rouges.
However, the military weakness of the FLNPK and the fact of having to overlook the exactions perpetrated against his own troops by the Khmer Rouges in order to continue to touch the funds of the Chinese government led to dissensions in the rows of the party; but SON Sann succeeds in nevertheless preserving the Directorate of Political Affairs of it.
His critical attitude towards the capacity in place with Phnom Penh been worth to him to take share with the negotiations which led to the conference of peace on Cambodia and to the signature of the agreements of Paris in October 1991.
he goes back to Cambodia in December 1991 and transforms the FLNPK into Democratic and Buddhist Liberal party (PLDB) in order to prepare the elections of May 1993 which are held under the aegis of the Provisional Authority of the United Nations in Cambodia (APRONUC).
The party gains only 10 of the 120 seats of the new constituent assembly. SON Sann is elected president and thus supervises by it the drafting of the new constitution which was promulgated in September.
After the re-establishment of the constitutional monarchy, SON Sann decides to withdraw public life and yields his seat of president of the National Assembly to Chea Sim.
Norodom Sihanouk thinks then of him and appoints his personal adviser.
In July 1995, he must leave the presidency of his party with Ieng Mouly, then Minister for information.
The end of his life is marked by a series of failures, between impossibility of establishing a pluralist democracy and the weakening of his party which will not survive the internal conflicts.
He is on this disappointment that it was withdrawn in Paris where he dies of an heart attack, December 19 2000. his body is brought back to Phnom Penh and is incinerated in the presence of L. King Norodom Sihanouk and the Monique Queen. His ashes rest in a stûpa with Sri-Ampel, in Cambodia.
Share by S K MONOHA
Subject: SON SANN 'S BIOGRAPHY 
3rd July 2009, 9:12 am
