Ta Mok

Ta Mok (; born Chhit Choeun, ; 1924 – 21 July 2006), also known as Nguon Kang, was a Cambodian military chief and soldier who was a senior figure in the Khmer Rouge and the leader of the national army of Democratic Kampuchea. He was also known as "Brother Number Four" or "the Butcher". He was captured along the Thailand-Cambodia border in March 1999 by Cambodian government forces while on the run with a small band of followers and was held in government custody until his death in 2006 while awaiting his war crime trial. Early life The eldest of seven children, he is believed to have been born into a prosperous country family from Pra Keap village, Trapeang Thom commune, Tram Kak district, Takeo Province, and was of Chinese-Cambodian descent. He became a Buddhist monk in the 1930s but left the order at the age of 16. Ta Mok took part in the resistance against French colonial rule and then the anti-Japanese resistance during the 1940s. He was training to become a Bhikkhu in Pali, Cambodia when he joined the anti-French Khmer Issarak in 1952. He soon left Phnom Penh and joined the Khmer Rouge/Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK).