Cambodia: A young Hun Sen addresses a group of supporters in 1983

Hun Sen (born 5 August 1952) is a Cambodian politician and retired army soldier who has been the 32nd and current Prime Minister of Cambodia since November 1998. He previously served from 1985 to 1993 as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Hanoi-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea, and from 1993 to 1998 as Second Prime Minister. He is the Vice President of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which has governed Cambodia since the Vietnamese-backed overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. One of the world's longest-serving leaders, with a reputation as a 'wily operator who destroys his political opponents', Hun Sen is widely viewed as a dictator that has assumed authoritarian power in Cambodia using violence and intimidation and corruption to maintain his power base.