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Ta Mok
Ta Mok is the nom de guerre of the most notorious military commander
of the Khmer Rouge. His true name is Chhit Choeun and he held senior
military positions in the early 1970s during the successful challenge to
the government of Lon Nol. He was seriously wounded in the fighting,
losing a leg which was replaced with a wooden limb. Little is known of his
personal background. His notoriety arises from his role as party secretary in
the southwestern region in conducting murderous purges after the Khmer Rouge
came to power in April 1975, which is when he took the name Ta Mok, meaning Old
Man. After their ouster by the Vietnamese, Ta Mok became vice-chairman of the
supreme commission of the national army of Democratic Kampuchea and
established a military fiefdom along Cambodia's northern border with Thailand.
That position began to be challenged by the government which came to office in
Cambodia in October 1993 after general elections held under United Nations aegis
(see UNTAC). In a military encounter in February 1994, the government
forces temporarily seized Ta Mok's base camp of Anlong Veng, but he had been
able to move his headquarters some weeks before, so keeping intact his guerrilla
force which then successfully counter attacked. He remains an active military
commander of the rump of the Khmer Rouge.
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