Ta Mok

▪ 2007

      Cambodian guerrilla leader (b. c. 1926, Takeo province, Cambodia, French Indochina—d. July 21, 2006, Phnom Penh, Cambodia), as a senior leader of the Khmer Rouge, was believed to have been responsible for many of the worst atrocities of that bloody regime. Ta Mok fought against both the Japanese (1941–45) and the French (until the early 1950s) occupations of his country. After Japan's defeat he joined the Communist Party, led by Pol Pot. At that time he took the nom de guerre Ta Mok (his birth name was believed to be Ung Choeun, Chhit Choeun, or Ek Choeun). In 1963 Ta Mok was appointed to the Central Committee of the party that became the Khmer Rouge, and a few years later he was given charge of the southwest zone, where some of the most violent excesses of the regime were carried out. In 1978 he was sent to the area bordering Vietnam; later that year Vietnam invaded and overthrew the Khmer Rouge government. Thereafter, Ta Mok led guerrilla campaigns against the government. In 1996 he overthrew Pol Pot as head of the marginalized Khmer Rouge. Ta Mok was captured in 1999 and held in a military prison. He was expected to face genocide charges before an international tribunal but died while awaiting trial.

* * *