Sosthène Fernandez

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The native form of this
General
Commands heldChief of Police

General Sosthène Fernandez (

deposed as head of state in 1970
. Prior to 1970, he was a prominent politician and a former chief of the police.

Life and career

General Fernandez was born in

Filipino descent, and an ethnic Khmer mother born in Vietnam.[2][3]

A grandson of a band master in the royal court, General Fernandez's Filipino roots traces back to

Prince Norindeth, and was elected to parliament in 1951 and served under various ministry portfolios, notably became the Health and Justice Minister of Cambodia in the 1950s and 1960s.[4][5]

General Fernandez graduated and commissioned in the French military in 1947, and was assigned in Battambang where he met his wife.[6] In the 1960s Colonel Fernandez served as Secretary of State for National Security.[7]

In 1975, because of the cutting of US aid, the republican government's leaders wanted to stop the war unconditionally. However, Fernandez refused to negotiate with the Khmer Rouge if the government ordered FANK to lay down their arms during the negotiation; for this reason, he resigned as army chief. Fernandez and

Civil War in Cambodia. Several others officials such as Long Boret, Lon Non and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak remained in office until the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, thinking that they would be spared through the intercession of Norodom Sihanouk
, who had sided with the communists. However, Long, Lon, and Prince Sirik Matak and other Khmer Republic officials were summarily executed by the victorious Khmer Rouge.

In 1998, General Fernandez returned to Cambodia to meet his former soldiers. He wrote a book about his life as the Commander-in-Chief of the Khmer National Armed Force.

He left the country to become a roving ambassador.

He died in France in 2006 due to complications from diabetes.[8]

References

  1. ^ "ទីភ្នាក់ងារ CIA ចាត់ទុកប្អូនប្រុសរបស់លោក លន់ នល់ ថាជា "មេបង្ បញ្ហា" នៅប្រទេសកម្ពុជា" (in Khmer). The Cambodian Daily. January 25, 2017. Archived from the original on May 31, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  2. ^ Becker (1998), p. 15
  3. TIME
  4. ^ Preston et al. (2007), p. 305
  5. ^ "Biography: The Life & Times Of General Sosthène Fernandez". 28 February 2006. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  6. ^ "Biography: The Life & Times Of General Sosthène Fernandez". 28 February 2006. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  7. ISBN 9780939526079
    .
  8. ^ "The Gecko: 11 August, 2006". The Phnom Penh Post. 11 August 2006. Retrieved 30 May 2015.

Bibliography

Further reading
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sosthène_Fernandez&oldid=1176767833"