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Nuon Chea

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Nuon Chea
President of the Standing Committee of the
Kampuchean People's Representative Assembly
In office
April 13, 1976 – January 7, 1979
DeputyNguon Kang, as first vice president of the Standing Committee of the KPRA
Prime minister of Democratic Kampuchea
In office
September 27, 1976 – October 25, 1976
Preceded byPol Pot
Succeeded byPol Pot
Personal details
Born (1926-07-27) 27 July 1926 (age 98)
Battambang, French Indochina
Political partyCommunist Party of Kampuchea
SpouseLy Kimseng[1]
ChildrenNuon Say,[2] 2 other children[1]

Template:Contains Khmer text Nuon Chea (Khmer: នួន ជា), also known as Long Bunruot (Khmer: ឡុង រិទ្ធិ), (born July 7, 1926)[4] is a Cambodian former communist politician and former chief ideologist of Khmer Rouge. He was commonly known as "Brother Number Two" second in command to Pol Pot who was leader during the Cambodian Genocide 1975-1979. Nuon Chea is in detention awaiting a United Nations trial for crimes against humanity for his role in the genocide; two other former Khmer Rouge top-tier leaders are also awaiting trial with Nuon Chea: Khieu Samphan, and Ieng Thirith.[5]

Early life

Nuon Chea was born as Lau Ben Kon (Chinese: 劉平坤),[6] at Voat Kor, Battambang in 1926. Nuon's father, Lao Liv, worked as a trader as well as a corn farmer, while his mother, Dos Peanh, was a tailor. Lao Liv was of Chinese ethnicity while his mother was the daughter of a Chinese immigrant from Shantou and his Khmer wife.[7][8][9] As a child, Nuon Chea was raised in both Chinese and Khmer customs. The family prayed at a Theravada Buddhist temple, but observed Chinese religious customs during the Lunar New Year and Qingming festival. Nuon Chea started school at seven, and was educated in Thai, French and Khmer.[3]

In the 1940s, Nuon Chea studied at Thammasat University in Bangkok and worked part-time for the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He began his political activities in the Communist Party of Siam in Bangkok.[10] He was elected Deputy General Secretary of the Workers Party of Kampuchea (later renamed as the Communist Party of Kampuchea) in September 1960.[11] In Democratic Kampuchea, he was generally known as "Brother Number Two." Unlike most of the leaders of Khmer Rouge, Chea did not study in Paris.

Career

As the recently-proclaimed state legislature, the Kampuchean People's Representative Assembly held its first plenary session during April 11–13, 1976, Chea was elected President of its Standing Committee. He briefly held office as acting Prime minister when Pol Pot resigned for one month, citing health reasons.[12] He was forced to abandon his position as President of the Assembly, along with all others as the Vietnamese captured Phnom Penh in January 1979.

On December 29, 1998, following a bargain with the government, Chea surrendered as part of the last remnants of Khmer Rouge resistance and in a press conference after the deal expressed a terse statement of sorrow for the suffering of Cambodians. The government under Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a former member of the Khmer Rouge, agreed to forsake attempts to prosecute Chea; a decision that was condemned by sections of Cambodians and the international community. Although implicated by former subordinates and documents in crimes against humanity, he lived for years as a free man in a modest home in Pailin with his wife near the Thailand border.

Arrest and Trial

On September 19, 2007, Nuon Chea was arrested at his home in Pailin and flown to the Cambodia Tribunal in Phnom Penh where he was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.[13] He has since been held in detention, from which he has sought to be released. Speaking in court in early February 2008, he said that his case should be handled according to international standards, arguing that the proceedings should be delayed because his Dutch lawyer, Michiel Pestman, had not yet arrived.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Provisional Detention Order (Ordonnance de placement en détention provisoire), Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, retrieved August 7, 2009
  2. ^ Top Khmer Rouge leader arrested in Cambodia, 19 September 2007, The Independent
  3. ^ a b The Young Nuon Chea in Bangkok (1942 1950)and the Communist Party of Thailand: The Life in Bangkok of the Man Who Became “Brother No. 2” in the Khmer Rouge, Eiji Murashima, Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (Waseda University) No. 12 (March 2009)
  4. ^ Nuon Chea Said To Have Ordered Torture
  5. ^ Associated Press, U.N. court likely to try Khmer Rouge leaders in mid 2011,[1], September 7, 2010.
  6. ^ Daniel Chirot. Modern Tyrants. Princeton University Press. p. 226. ISBN 0-691-02777-3.
  7. ^ Death by ‘a mistake’, JANUARY 19, 2004, MIRANDA LEITSINGER, Tulsa World
  8. ^ A chilling visit with Pol Pot's `brother', Evan Osnos, Tribune foreign correspondent, February 17, 2006, genocidewatch.org (cached 2007-09-27 by web.archive.org)
  9. ^ FACTBOX: Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's right-hand man, Sep 19, 2007, Reuters
  10. ^ Frings, K. Viviane. Rewriting Cambodian History to 'Adapt' It to a New Political Context: The Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party's Historiography (1979-1991) in Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 31, No. 4. (Oct., 1997), pp. 807-846.
  11. ^ Chandler, David P., Revising the Past in Democratic Kampuchea: When Was the Birthday of the Party?: Notes and Comments, in Pacific Affairs, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Summer, 1983), pp. 288-300.
  12. ^ Susan E. Cook, Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda: new perspectives, Transaction Publishers, 2005, page 62
  13. ^ "Top former Khmer Rouge leader arrested in Cambodia", Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), September 18, 2007.
  14. ^ "Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, detained for trial, taken to hospital", Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), February 4, 2008.
  • Lynch, David J. (March 21, 2005). "Cambodians hope justice will close dark chapter". USA Today, p. 14A - 15A
  • Watkin, Huw (December 30, 1998). "Guerillas 'sorry' for genocide". The Australian, p. 8
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