Sosthene Fernandez

Who is Sosthene Fernandez?

General Sosthène Fernandez was the commander-in-chief of the Khmer National Armed Forces and chief of general staff after Norodom Sihanouk was deposed as head of state in 1970. Prior to 1970, he was a prominent politician and a former chief of the police.

Fernandez was born in Phnom Penh to Filipino father and an ethnic Khmer mother born in Vietnam. Fernandez briefly joined the teaching service and was naturalised as a French subject in 1915. Fernandez took up law studies, and by 1928 was appointed as a local magistrate. In the 1940s, he co-founded the Liberal Party along with Norodom Norindeth, and was elected to parliament in 1951. Fernandez served under various ministry portfolios in the 1950s and 1960s.

General Sosthène Fernandez and Lon Nol left the country before the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in 1975. All the republicans wanted to stop the 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. They mistakenly thought that they would be spared through the intercession of Norodom Sihanouk, but were executed by the Khmer Rouge.