A Change of Guard

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Monday 16 August 2010

Khmerization vs. DetailsAreSketchy on Hor Namhong’s role in Khmer Rouge crimes

By Khmerization
16th August 2010

The subject of Hor Namhong’s role in the Khmer Rouge regime, in particular his role as chief of Boeng Trobek Re-Education Centre, has been controversial and contentious that sometimes led to ignominious debates among his supporters and detractors.

While Googling for articles about him a few weeks ago, I stumbled into an article in DetailsAreSketchy blog critiquing me about my earlier article about the man. The author called my article “a pack of lies” and that my claim about Hor Namhong in the article “sinks pretty low”.

The author of DetailsAreSketchy had gone into extraordinary length to defend Hor Namhong’s role at Boeng Trobek by portraying him as a victim and called his Boeng Trobek’s role as “inmate", “deputy inmate” or “chief inmate”.

The author had attempted to exonerate Hor Namhong from any Khmer Rouge crimes because Hor Namhong is a “foreigner”. “Nobody, not even Sam Rainsy, believes that Hor Namhong was director of anything, much less the Beoung Trabek detention center, known as B-32. The “B” stands for borateh, the Khmer word for foreigner”, said the author.

In the same paragraph, the author went further to portray Hor Namhong as not “in the Khmer Rouge brotherhood”, but one of its victims. “From 1967 until his return in 1975, Hor Namhong was stationed outside the country, making him, in the eyes of the KR leadership, a foreigner, and thus an extremely unlikely candidate for insider status in the Khmer Rouge brotherhood.”

Well, DetailsAreSketchy, how do you define the word “deputy inmate” or “chief inmate” in this context?

The Khmer Rouge was a very secretive organisation and they do not appoint anyone to any position if they do not trust that person and if that person is not “in the Khmer Rouge brotherhood”. In the Khmer Rouge regime, even a leader of a small mobile group called Korng Chalat has the power of life and death. He/she has the power to send anyone to execution. The fact that Hor Namhong was appointed “deputy inmate” or “chief inmate” as you have claimed, suggests that he is a person whom the Khmer Rouge can trust. By the way, many “inmates” from Boeng Trobek were sent to be tortured and executed at Tuol Sleng. Who sent them there? It has to be the “chief inmate” of the centre, the same as inmates in Tuol Sleng were sent to their tortures and executions by Duch, the chief who had just been convicted of crimes against humanity by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

The author claimed that Hor Namhong was a victim and was not part of the KR’s Angkar Leu because he had lost many relatives during the KR period. Well, Duch, Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea and even Pol Pot had claimed they were the victims and have lost many relatives during the KR regime. So who was the real Angkar Leu then? And who were responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians?

DetailsAreSketchy’s angry critique of my article warrants my explanation below:
“It might be true that Hor Namhong and his family were originally the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, he had been immediately favoured by the Khmer Rouge leadership and appointed “chief” of Boeng Trabek. To be favoured by the KR, someone has to be one of them. As the author is not a Khmer and had not lived through the KR period, I don’t think he/she understood in depth about the Khmer Rouge modus operandi and the power wielded by its officials. Hor Namhong, whether he was a “chief”, “liaison officer” or “chief inmate”, has the power of death. During the KR period, chief of a village, leader of a small group (10 people) and anyone who has connections with the KR officials has the power to send anyone to their deaths. Many inmates of Boeng Trabek who had been sent to their tortures and deaths at Tuol Sleng have to be finger-pointed by chief of the centre. The chief of the centre was the one who know who was the “enemy” and who was not.

It is true that the word “boratess” means “foreign”. In the Khmer Rouge terminology, the word “boratess” or the abbreviation “Bor” was used to denote “foreign Ministry” or “foreign Affairs”, not foreigners like American, French, or Vietnamese or Thai. The abbreviation “Bor” (Bor-32 or B-32) used to call Boeng Trobek was used to denote a centre that housed diplomats who served in foreign countries or inmates who returned from overseas.

Many former inmates such as Ong Thong Hoeung and Mrs Keo Bunthouk had testified that Hor Namhong was chief of Boeng Trabek. Read here: http://khmerization.blogspot.com/2008/05/hor-namhong-his-wife-and-his-son-were.html.
and here: http://khmerization.blogspot.com/2008/06/testimonials-on-hor-nam-hongs-role-at.html”.

My explanation had incurred the wrath of the author who fired these comments:
“I do not believe that Nor Namhong was part of the Angka. I believe he was selected to be the coordinator whose job was to tell people to get up or to line up. If Nor Namhong did not do what he was told he would have been executed. No doubt. People who lived in that situation did not think about who would be the next one to go to the killing fields but rather thinking how many more scoops of rice stew they would get before they died. I am pretty sure everyone was a victim of the Khmer Rouge regime.

I just can not believe that all these years because of political differences these victims of the Khmer Rouge could not get their heads out of the water. They are still trying to accuse one another for their own politics. If Nor Namhong does not have any position in the current Cambodian government other than just ordinary Cambodian (former Khmer Rouge or not) then Khmerization who support Sam Rainsy couldn’t care less about Nor Namhong. There would not be any books written about him. The fact is that there are many Khmer Rouge leaders living in Cambodia today. However, Sam Rainsy has made so much effort to focus on one particular person for his own political game.”

Well, Duch had also claimed that he did what he did because he just followed the orders of the Angkar Leu. And that if he did not follow its orders, he too will be executed. The difference between Hor Namhong and Duch here is that Duch got 35 years in prison and Hor Namhong roam freely and actually thrived.

My comments also incurred the ire of one of Hor Namhong’s fans and sycophants. He got personal with my comments with this comment: “khmerization is a jackass and will do anything to defame anybody who is only remotely connected to the CPP. HNH is fodder for his would-be journalism.”

Well, I do not know what drove the author of DetailsAreSketchy, whom I assumed to be a white person, to go into extra length to defend Hor Namhong’s supposed crimes in the KR regime and to accuse me of being a supporter of Mr. Sam Rainsy. One does not get personal with Hor Namhong’s detractors such as me unless that person is a big beneficiary of his current regime whose leadership comprised many ex-KR leaders.

I might be a supporter of some of Mr. Sam Rainsy’s policy, but by no mean a clueless supporter of the man himself. By the same token, I do not despise Hor Namhong, but I do despise of the fact that he and his current regime represents tyranny, corruption, incompetence and human rights abuses in Cambodia. And I hope DetailsAreSketchy sees this side of the man and his past rather than trying to defend him blindly and bitterly.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

mr hor nam hong he is chief bang trabek prison he kill the khmer from oversea around 5000 to 7000 persons he sons chief of youths he wife chief of the womens

Anonymous said...

KI Media, thanks for unmasking the KR criminals and their hypocrite defenders. Those who are defenders of such criminals are defending crimes and encouraging a culture of impunity. They killed 1.7 million Cambodians, so we are not happy with anyone, even outsiders, to come and defend them. We lived through hell during KR regime, so people like Hor Nam Hong, Keat Chhon, Heng Samrin, Chea Sim, Hun Sen and other CPP leaders who were ex-KR leaders should be punished for their crimes.

Anonymous said...

Many survivors of Boeung Trabek Prison testified that Hor Nam Hong was the chief there, so I don't know why the jackasses are defending him and try to prove his innocence. We lived through unspeakable hell during KR period, so we don't need some clueless outsiders to tell us that some KR leaders like Nam Hong are innocent.