Wednesday, 30 May 2012
By Bridget Di Certo
Phnom Penh Post
Khmer Rouge
ambassador to the UN Thiounn Prasith [far right wearing glasses] gives a tour of the Kingdom to an
unidentified foreign delegation. Photograph: DC-CAM
The forced evacuation of Cambodia’s city dwellers to the countryside was
a plan doomed to failure, the brother of Khmer Rouge senior leader Son
Sen revealed yesterday.
Ny Kan, the younger brother of the man
who masterminded Phnom Penh’s notorious S-21 prison, told the court that
there were nationwide food shortages before the Khmer Rouge evacuated
the urban centres and conceded that it would be very difficult for any
of the co-operatives to achieve the target of two to three tonnes of
produce per hectare.
“The land condition would not allow farmers
to do farming three times a year, because the land was not that fertile;
and in addition, there was a water shortage as well,” said Ny Kan, who
worked in the protocol department of the ministry of foreign affairs led
by Case 002 co-accused Ieng Sary.
“We had to encourage people to
comply by the instructions, but it depended on the agriculture location
that the majority could not achieve the target set,” he said, at one
point adding “no matter what happened, there would never be enough food
to feed all the people”.
Part of his duties in the protocol
section included greeting and guiding foreign delegations and
subsequently reporting about this visits to the “upper echelons”.
Current
Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh and Minister of Economy and Finance
Keat Chhon were also involved in greeting these foreign delegations and
reporting back, he said.
Ny Kan told the court that he and Keat
Chhon, whose alias under the regime was “Muth”, drafted a report
detailing a series of requests made by a visiting delegation of
journalists and academics that included Elizabeth Becker and professor
Macolm Caldwell, who was murdered during that visit.
Ny Kan said
the requests of that group – to visit work sites, border areas and
political prisoners, among others were not “significantly entertained”.
The
now-adviser to the Ministry of National Defence was adamant and
insistent on deflecting any insinuation that he was in a position of
real responsibility or leadership and multiple times pointed out that he
was merely an official in one sub-department of the protocol unit at
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has been called the “ante-chamber
of death”.
He further testified that it was then-King Norodom
Sihanouk’s call to join the revolution that motivated the masses to
participate in the Khmer Rouge cause.
Ny Kan continues his testimony today, when he will be questioned by defence counsel for Brother No 2 Nuon Chea.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bridget Di Certo at bridget.dicerto@phnompenhpost.com
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