Hun Sen's son takes office as army chief of staff
Hun Manet, the first Cambodian to attend the US Military Academy at West Point, was appointed chief of staff of the army.
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Lieutenant General Hun Manet, deputy commander of the Cambodian armed forces, has just taken over as chief of the general staff of the Royal Cambodian Army, replacing General Kun Kim, who is on sick leave, Cambodian Defense Ministry spokesman Chhum Socheat announced today, according to Reuters.
Born in 1977, Lieutenant General Manet was the first Cambodian to attend the US Military Academy at West Point, New York. The eldest son of Prime Minister Hun Sen later became the head of the Cambodian Ministry of Defense's counterterrorism department. Manet also earned a master's degree in economics from New York University in 2002 and a PhD in economics from the University of Bristol, UK in 2008.
In January, Prime Minister Hun Sen also appointed his son-in-law as deputy national police chief, and in December last year, the Cambodian prime minister's youngest son was promoted to colonel in his father's bodyguard unit.
The promotion comes ahead of a general election in July, which many expect Mr Hun Sen to easily win after the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved by the Supreme Court in November 2017 at the government’s request.
