When weeks of tensions escalated into a major border conflict with Thailand last week, former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared to take charge of his country¡¯s response.
Photographs showed him at the end of a long table, speaking with military officers and poring over detailed maps, radio set in hand and a cup of Starbucks coffee within arms reach. The former guerrilla fighter is no longer Cambodia¡¯s leader, having passed on the premiership to his eldest son in 2023 after nearly four decades in power, and has taken over as the president of the Southeast Asian nation¡¯s Senate.
But Hun Sen played an outsize role in events leading up to the deadliest fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in over a decade and ¡ª according to three diplomatic sources ¡ª showed his continuing influence during the five-day conflict. On Friday, after artillery fired from Cambodia landed in civilian areas in Thailand¡¯s border provinces, the Thai army took direct aim at him.
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