Nuon Chea (R) reading a speech when he was the chairman of the Cambodian parliament in the late 1970s.Nuon Chea: the most senior surviving Khmer Rouge leader
Sunday, 25 December 2011
Posted by Serath
Read Nuon Chea's interview about the reason he joined the Khmer Rouge.
PHNOM PENH, (Cambodia Herald) - When Nuon Chea was born in Battambang province in 1926, no one could have expected that the boy would be accused more than three quarters of a century later of crimes that did not even exist at the time.
Yet crimes against humanity, genocide, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 are the charges now faced by the former Khmer Rouge leader, one of five surviving leaders held responsible for the death of two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.
Following the death of Pol Pot in 1998, Nuon Chea is seen as the most important of the five Khmer Rouge leaders now on trial at the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. As the most senior former Khmer Rouge leader alive today, he is also considered a possible source of information that could shed some light onto the dark history of the Kingdom.
As deputy secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, Nuon Chea is known as Brother Number Two since he was second only to Pol Pot, the party secretary.
But during the trial of the three former leaders, which started last month and is now in recess until the new year, he rejected the title. "In the Communist Party of Kampuchea, there was no such a thing as Brother Number One, Number Two or Number Three," he said. "Brother Number Two seems too high for me.
Even though he was deputy secretary, he asserted that Pol Pot alone was responsible for the overall management and leadership of the party".
During his testimony, Nuon Chea spent much time reflecting on the uneasy relationship between Cambodia and Vietnam during the American war in Vietnam, which ultimately extended to both Cambodia and Laos.
Nuon Chea, also known as Long Bunrot, said his name at birth was Lao Kimrong. Born in Voat Kor village, Wat Kor commune in Sangke district in Battambang province, he came from a Chinese-Khmer family. His father, Lao Liv, was a Chinese trader and corn farmer while his mother, Dos Peanh, a seamstress, was the daughter of a Chinese immigrant from Shantou.
Raised in both Chinese and Khmer customs, he started school at seven, and was educated in the Thai, French and Khmer languages.
Nuon Chea did not study in Paris, unlike most of the other Khmer Rouge leaders, notably Pol Pot. Others who studied in France include the two other leaders now on trial, Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister, and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state.
At the age of 16, in 1942, Nuon Chea left Cambodia for Thailand, according to Thet Sambath, a journalist who has interviewed the former leader and recently co-produced a documentary known as "Enemies of the People". In Bangkok, he stayed with a friend of his father, a Cambodian monk who lived in the famous Marble Temple, known as Wat Benchambopit.
In 1950, after communist parties in Thailand and Vietnam selected him to build up a secret independence movement in Cambodia, Nuon Chea returned home, taking a bus to the sleepy provincial town of Samlot at the foot of the Cardamom Mountains.
In September, 1960, Nuon Chea was elected deputy general secretary of the Workers Party of Kampuchea (originally founded as the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party in 1951 and later renamed under Pol Pot as the Communist Party of Kampuchea).
Apart from being deputy party secretary between 1975 and 1979, Nuon Chea also served as chairman of the 250-member Kampuchean People's Representative Assembly, the Khmer Rouge parliament formed in 1976 which met only once.
After the country's liberation in 1979 and a protracted civil war with the Khmer Rouge and other resistance groups, Nuon Chea surrendered on December 29, 1998 under a bargain with the government. Among the last remnants of the Khmer Rouge, he held a news conference after the deal and made a terse statement of sorrow for the suffering of Cambodians.
In September, 2007, Nuon Chea was arrested at his home in Pailin on the border with Thailand. Brought to the tribunal in Phnom Penh, he was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has since been held in detention, unsuccessfully seeking to be released.
Read Nuon Chea's interview about the reason he joined the Khmer Rouge.
PHNOM PENH, (Cambodia Herald) - When Nuon Chea was born in Battambang province in 1926, no one could have expected that the boy would be accused more than three quarters of a century later of crimes that did not even exist at the time.
Yet crimes against humanity, genocide, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 are the charges now faced by the former Khmer Rouge leader, one of five surviving leaders held responsible for the death of two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.
Following the death of Pol Pot in 1998, Nuon Chea is seen as the most important of the five Khmer Rouge leaders now on trial at the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. As the most senior former Khmer Rouge leader alive today, he is also considered a possible source of information that could shed some light onto the dark history of the Kingdom.
As deputy secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, Nuon Chea is known as Brother Number Two since he was second only to Pol Pot, the party secretary.
But during the trial of the three former leaders, which started last month and is now in recess until the new year, he rejected the title. "In the Communist Party of Kampuchea, there was no such a thing as Brother Number One, Number Two or Number Three," he said. "Brother Number Two seems too high for me.
Even though he was deputy secretary, he asserted that Pol Pot alone was responsible for the overall management and leadership of the party".
During his testimony, Nuon Chea spent much time reflecting on the uneasy relationship between Cambodia and Vietnam during the American war in Vietnam, which ultimately extended to both Cambodia and Laos.
Nuon Chea, also known as Long Bunrot, said his name at birth was Lao Kimrong. Born in Voat Kor village, Wat Kor commune in Sangke district in Battambang province, he came from a Chinese-Khmer family. His father, Lao Liv, was a Chinese trader and corn farmer while his mother, Dos Peanh, a seamstress, was the daughter of a Chinese immigrant from Shantou.
Raised in both Chinese and Khmer customs, he started school at seven, and was educated in the Thai, French and Khmer languages.
Nuon Chea did not study in Paris, unlike most of the other Khmer Rouge leaders, notably Pol Pot. Others who studied in France include the two other leaders now on trial, Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister, and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state.
At the age of 16, in 1942, Nuon Chea left Cambodia for Thailand, according to Thet Sambath, a journalist who has interviewed the former leader and recently co-produced a documentary known as "Enemies of the People". In Bangkok, he stayed with a friend of his father, a Cambodian monk who lived in the famous Marble Temple, known as Wat Benchambopit.
In 1950, after communist parties in Thailand and Vietnam selected him to build up a secret independence movement in Cambodia, Nuon Chea returned home, taking a bus to the sleepy provincial town of Samlot at the foot of the Cardamom Mountains.
In September, 1960, Nuon Chea was elected deputy general secretary of the Workers Party of Kampuchea (originally founded as the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party in 1951 and later renamed under Pol Pot as the Communist Party of Kampuchea).
Apart from being deputy party secretary between 1975 and 1979, Nuon Chea also served as chairman of the 250-member Kampuchean People's Representative Assembly, the Khmer Rouge parliament formed in 1976 which met only once.
After the country's liberation in 1979 and a protracted civil war with the Khmer Rouge and other resistance groups, Nuon Chea surrendered on December 29, 1998 under a bargain with the government. Among the last remnants of the Khmer Rouge, he held a news conference after the deal and made a terse statement of sorrow for the suffering of Cambodians.
In September, 2007, Nuon Chea was arrested at his home in Pailin on the border with Thailand. Brought to the tribunal in Phnom Penh, he was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has since been held in detention, unsuccessfully seeking to be released.
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