Nuon Chea

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Nuon Chea, also known as Long Bunruot, (born Lau Ben Kon,^[1] July 7, 1926,^[2] village of Voat Kor, Battambang Province) is a retired Cambodian communist politician and former chief ideologist of Khmer Rouge. He is of Chinese ancestry.^[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.^[4] He was elected Deputy General Secretary of the Workers Party of Kampuchea (later renamed as the Communist Party of Kampuchea) in September 1960.^[5] In Democratic Kampuchea, he was generally known as 'Brother Number Two'. Unlike most of the leaders of Khmer Rouge he did not study in Paris.

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 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.

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

[edit] References

^ Daniel Chirot. Modern Tyrants. Princeton University Press, 226. ISBN 0691027773. ; Genocide definition
^ Nuon Chea Said To Have Ordered Torture
^ Death by ‘a mistake’; A chilling visit with Pol Pot's `brother'; Debating Genocide; FACTBOX: Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's right-hand man
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ "Top former Khmer Rouge leader arrested in Cambodia", Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), September 18, 2007.
^ "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