Chhun Yasith (aka “Cambodian Moses”) is a

Cambodian American Cambodian Americans,; also Khmer Americans, are Americans of Cambodian or Khmer ancestry. In addition, Cambodian Americans are also Americans with ancestry of other ethnic groups of Cambodia, such as the Chams and Chinese Cambodians. According ...

who led a failed '' coup d’état'' in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

in 2000.

Biography

Yasith left Cambodia in the early 1980s, amid the disarray following the Vietnamese invasion that deposed the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...

régime In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan J ...

from power. Man guilty of Cambodia coup plot
April 17, 2008. BBC News He emigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a

tax accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. In 1988, he returned to

and joined the opposition

Sam Rainsy Party The Candlelight Party ( km, គណបក្សភ្លើងទៀន) is a liberal party in Cambodia. The party was a member of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, Liberal International, and the Alliance of Democrats. It is the largest ...

. He left the party a year later after he came to believe that the non-violent opposition was ineffective. In 1998, he established the

Cambodian Freedom Fighters The Cambodian Freedom Fighters (CFF; km, ចលនាកងទ័ពសេរីជាតិកម្ពុជា) is an anti-communist political and paramilitary organization that was established on 21 October 1998, by its founder, Chhun Yasi ...

(CFF) an

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

organization and serves as its President. The group's aim was to unseat the government of Prime Minister

Hun Sen Hun Sen (; km, ហ៊ុន សែន, ; born 5 August 1952) is a Cambodian politician and former military commander who has served as the prime minister of Cambodia since 1985. He is the longest-serving head of government of Cambodia, and o ...

, a former Khmer Rouge commander who had defected to Vietnam in the 1970s and returned to Cambodia with the Vietnamese troops in 1979. The group—controlled by Chhun from a base in Thailand—carried out a series of small attacks. On 24 November 2000, dozens of rebels armed with rockets and grenades attacked government buildings in

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

. Several people were killed in this attack and several others injured. Following the attack, dozens of people were arrested and jailed. Chhun was tried in absentia by a Phnom Penh court. On June 22, 2001, the Cambodian Criminal Court found Yasith guilty and sentenced him to life in prison on charges of conspiring to commit

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

, along with

Richard Kiri Kim Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

and

Thong Samien The thong is a garment generally used as either underwear or in some countries, as a swimsuit. It may also be worn for traditional ceremonies or competitions. Viewed from the front, the thong typically resembles a bikini bottom, but at the ba ...

. The government of Cambodia issued an international

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

warrant for Chhun Yasith's arrest. On April 17, 2008, Chhun Yasith was convicted in a U.S. court of masterminding the failed ''coup'' attempt in 2000. He was sentenced in Los Angeles on June 22, 2010 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.Former refugee gets life term over failed Cambodian coup
June 23, 2010. The LA Times

Quotes

*"I felt that nonviolence cannot do anything to the dictatorship in Cambodia."
July 21, 2007. The New York Times *"Yeah, we tried to remove this government from power. We have a non-violent demonstration many times, but never change this government. That's why we have to use force to remove this government."

References

External links

The Lonely WarGuerrillas in our Midst
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20010124035000/http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/2001/0108/cambodia.terrorists.html By Night, a Fierce Rebelbr>Golden State Terrorists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yasith, Chhun Politics of Cambodia Cambodian emigrants to the United States Living people Cambodian anti-communists Year of birth missing (living people)

Biography

Quotes

See also

References

External links