KHIEU SAMPHAN: OUT OF THE JUNGLE

Cambodia's conquerors are as shrouded in mystery as the jungles in which they operated for so long. Western experts have not even been able to determine whether the movement is basically Cambodian nationalist, Cambodian Marxist or doctrinaire Communist. What is already clear, however, is that Khieu Samphan, 43, will probably wield the most power in the new regime. During the war he was Deputy Premier to Prince Norodom Sihanouk as well as Minister of Defense and commander in chief of the Khmer Rouge fighting forces. TIME'S Stephen Heder interviewed Samphan's younger brother Khieu Seng Kim in Phnom-Penh early this month and cabled this profile of the new Cambodian leader:

Samphan's radicalism dates from his days on a government scholarship at the University of Paris. Then in his early 20s and earning a doctorate in economics, he joined a group of Cambodian leftists led by Hou Youn (who might also play a key role in the new regime).

Three years after Samphan returned to Cambodia in 1959, Sihanouk appointed him Under Secretary of State for Commerce. Samphan's reason for accepting, according to younger brother Khieu Seng Kim: "From the Cabinet, he felt he could protect his leftist group." Samphan soon found himself courted by wealthy businessmen. The brother recalls: "One day a Sino-Khmer merchant came to our house with a package for him. It was full of money. Later at dinner, he said that 'if you take money from the capitalists, you have to work for them. Then you're a traitor to the people because the capitalists are the enemies of the people.' After that, businessmen would complain, 'No matter how we approach your brother, we get nowhere. He's hopeless. He'll never get anywhere in this government.' "

True. In 1963, Sihanouk blamed Samphan for the rising cost of consumer goods. Samphan resigned, but remained in the National Assembly for four more years and also taught at the new Faculty of Law. As his popularity soared, he became a hero to the young intellectuals opposing the corruption of the existing government. In early 1967, Sihanouk accused Samphan and two leftist colleagues of being Communist agents and starting peasant unrest. "There are those who want me to kill these three men," the Prince declared. "But I won't do it. I'll let them kill themselves."

The next evening, after telling his family that he was going for a stroll, Khieu disappeared, fading into the jungle and joining the fledgling Khmer Rouge. Now, the head of a victorious army, Samphan can return to Phnom-Penh master of all Cambodia.

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