Career
He became Prime Minister of the People"s Republic of Kampuchea from 1981 to 1984. Chan Sy was a Cambodian of Chinese descent who early in his life became a military figure by joining the Khmer Viet Minh forces in 1950s. Chan Sy left Cambodia in 1954 after the Geneva Conference that recognized Prince Norodom Sihanouk"s government as the sole legitimate authority in independent Cambodia.
Chan Sy, who was opposed to ultra-nationalist Political Pot, by whose partisans he was detained in 1973.
He reappeared on the scene in 1978, with the forces of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (KUFNS) and with the Vietnamese that toppled the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. When Pen Sovan was replaced as party general secretary by Heng Samrin, Chan Sy took over the premiership.
Considered a steadfast adherent to Vietnam"s Kampuchean policy, Chan Sy had made visits to Bulgaria, East Germany as well as to the Soviet Union. In the National Assembly he represented his native province.
After the establishment of the People"s Republic of Kampuchea, he became chief political commissar of the armed forces, and eventually becoming Prime Minister by February 10, 1982.
Chan Sy died in a Moscow hospital, where he was being treated for a cardiac ailment, in December 1984. His death was reported by the Vietnamese information agency on December 31, 1984, although he was believed to have died some days earlier. The circumstances of his death were mysterious.
