Ieng Thirith
| Ieng Thirith | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Minister of Social Affairs | |
|
In office 9 October 1975 – 7 January 1979 |
|
| Prime Minister | Pol Pot |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Khieu Thirith 10 March 1932 Battambang, Cambodia |
| Died | 22 August 2015 (aged 83) Pailin, Cambodia |
| Spouse(s) |
Ieng Sary (m. 1951–2013; his death) |
Ieng Thirith (née Khieu;Khmer: អៀង ធីរិទ្ធ; 10 March 1932 – 22 August 2015) was an influential figure in the Khmer Rouge, although she was neither a member of the Khmer Rouge Standing Committee nor of the Central Committee. Ieng Thirith was the wife of Ieng Sary, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Democratic Kampuchea's Khmer Rouge regime. She served as Minister of Social Affairs from October 1975 until the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
She was the sister of Khieu Ponnary, who was the first wife of Pol Pot. She was arrested by the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in November 2007 with her husband, Ieng Sary, on suspicion of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Born Khieu Thirith in northwestern Cambodia's Battambang Province, she came from a relatively wealthy and privileged family, and was the second daughter of a Cambodian judge who abandoned the family during World War II, running off to Battambang with a Cambodian princess.
Thirith graduated from the Lycée Sisowath in Phnom Penh, and while still in Cambodia she became engaged to Ieng Sary, who attended Lycée in the year above her. She went on to Paris with her sister, where she studied English literature, majoring in Shakespeare at the Sorbonne. She became the first Cambodian to achieve a degree in English literature. Thirith married Ieng Sary in the town hall of Paris' 15th arrondissement the summer of 1951 and took her husband's name, becoming Ieng Thirith. Her older sister, Khieu Ponnary, later became the wife of Pol Pot. Together, the two sisters and their husbands later became known as "Cambodia's Gang of Four", a reference to the radical group led by Jiang Qing (Chiang Ching), the widow of Mao Tse-tung.
...
Wikipedia