From the beginning, Nuon Chea stated that he did not expect to struggle with this court, but he struggled to explain to the people what had happened, why he was involved in the revolutionary movement and why. Cause this tragedy.
He valued the compilation of the debate:
“That legacy is a very important treasure. Save a little, we help each other, I help see and help correct. Not to help correct the word, but to help me think, I lack where I think. It is very difficult, nephew, there is nothing more difficult than to make war, there is nothing more difficult than to make a revolution, and there is nothing harder than to win your heart, it is the most difficult. Overcoming them is easy, but overcoming oneself is that individualism and communism are fighting. Today, individualism wins. Anyway, I always think that if you die, you will not be buried because no one came to say anything. ”
Children
Nuon Chea was originally named Lao Kimon, later named Lao Dy and later known as Nuon Chea Te Knoch, his mother’s favorite name. He was the third child in the family, born on July 7, 1926 in Watkor village, Watkor commune, Sangke district, Battambang province.
Since kindergarten, he has not been very good at learning, but he has never failed. He was fearful and not very brave. At school, he was afraid of the Wei teacher, and his mother often warned him to be afraid, as he always warned, “Alone with him, I am Wei.” This kind of advice scared him. When he got to school, he was afraid of people, especially good students who like to bully poor students. He likes to treat the children of the rural people in the same countryside and hates the people and the people of the city.
The atmosphere that made Nuon Chea think about oppressing the poor
This is a tragic event that makes Nuon Chea think of the lives of people who have been oppressed and abused. In his village, there is a neighbor who works as a clerk in Battambang Provincial Hall, who is a cruel person. He hires people to run tuk-tuks. He ran away without paying his wages, so he ordered the servants to come and meet him. The mercenary sat down, apologized to the boss for being wrong, and apologized. The clerk hit the servant on the head with a whip, causing him to bleed profusely. He and other children in the village have seen this event, which has fascinated the poor ever since.
Study in Thailand
In 1941, Thailand came under the rule of Phi Bun War. When Thailand came to Cambodia, Thailand was a little bit democratic, but it was also a territorial invader, but still a little better than France. So some locals are happy because they have a little bit of freedom. Nuon Chea went to study in Thailand in 1942, living at a pagoda. He was renamed Ronglet Loddy. He was always worried about not being able to study. Lao Di started 5th grade by learning Thai.
Laodicea then took the entrance exam for the Dhammasath College of Political Science. There was only one person in the class who was Khmer from Battambang province. In the past, he wanted to study medicine, but his family did not have enough money because he thought of studying medicine to serve the people. But because he thinks that if he studies at the seminary and is ready to join the students, he can work and study, which will give him the capital to study. Laodicea started having revolutionary ideas while studying this preparation because he had friends and he started reading Chamroeun newspaper, Communist Party newspaper and so on.
Lao Di read the Prosperous newspaper and also awoke to the realm of oppression. Among them was Saptor Thornton, the author of the book he read, but he was saddened by the fact that he later became a fanatic. These readings are the reason why he did not learn much, often listening to people make speeches to elect members of parliament. From then on, the political atmosphere began in his mind.
Laodicea then took the entrance exam for the Dhammasath College of Political Science. There was only one person in the class who was Khmer from Battambang province. In the past, he wanted to study medicine, but his family did not have enough money because he thought of studying medicine to serve the people. But because he thinks that if he studies at the seminary and is ready to join the students, he can work and study, which will give him the capital to study. Laodicea started having revolutionary ideas while studying this preparation because he had friends and he started reading Chamroeun newspaper, Communist Party newspaper and so on.
Lao Di read the Prosperous newspaper and also awoke to the realm of oppression. Among them was Saptor Thornton, the author of the book he read, but he was saddened by the fact that he later became a fanatic. These readings are the reason why he did not learn much, often listening to people make speeches to elect members of parliament. From then on, the political atmosphere began in his mind.
When he entered college, he had to write essays on the evolution of human society. He wrote about the evolution of society from the ancient communist society, which became feudal, then to capitalist and socialist societies, and eventually to communist society. He analyzes the general social evolution. He wrote that the primitive communist society was that everything was collective and ruled by all warlords. In terms of people’s livelihood, it is very cruel, it is very dictatorial, but when they get food, they share it and do not care. Then people evolved to know how to work. Thus, labor is the basis of the evolution of human society to people who know how to work, make progress, which leads to the preservation of crops, and then to the private sector, which subsequently became a feudal regime, which evolved into a capitalist regime.
There was a trade that created the rich and the poor, which led to the division of the classes, the slave class and the feudal class. When a capitalist society has a factory, it leads to freedom. After all, the capitalist society has progressed to socialism, that is, equals, those who do less eat less, those who do more eat more, those who do not do not eat. By socialism, it progressed to an all-inclusive communist society. The socialist society collects all the farmland to work together as a social cooperative, this class is almost gone. The oppressed class became more and more degraded and then became communist. He did not know about this communist, because during the time of Democratic Kampuchea, there was only the name of the Communist Party, but he did not reach the communist yet because he had not yet decided on the People’s Democratic Revolution, so it was called the People’s Democratic Society. As for democracy, there was democracy of the people and democracy of the aristocracy, but in his time there was only democracy of the people, an era between feudalism and socialism. Nuon Chea passed the law exam at Thammasat University, but he did not finish his first year even because he decided to join the communist movement.
Start work
Nuon Chea said that his life was normal, he did not have much pride, but while studying, he immediately found a job, so at the same time he studied and worked.
Initially, he worked in irrigation dams, but he checked that it was not related to law, so he decided to resign after working for only one month. In that first job, he mostly wrote circulars, small letters, and checked where water was needed. He did this just to get a salary because he did not have the skills of a law student, then he entered the Ministry of Finance in the middle list group. He continued to work there for three years and then quit. This job is also not related to the law, so he quit and went to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The last time he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was assigned to prepare documents in charge of Indochina, plus another. At that time, he already had a progressive mind. One day he came across a document from the Cambodian embassy about the French shooting the Laotians on the Mekong River and then shooting the Cambodians again. He was upset and thought that his country and its people were being abused, so he had no idea who he was working for. Serve only the ruling class. Thus, his mind is divided into two parts. The first is veganism. Second, if he can solve only personal interests, but if he goes to fight for national liberation, he can serve the people a lot. He looked at the newspaper and saw that good communism in 1949 and communist China were coming to power. After a while, he decided to resign from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and contact the Thai party to fight for his national liberation. The Thai party then contacted the Vietnamese party. He first came to Cambodia in Samlot district of Battambang province.
The policy of the Thai Communist Party at that time was to oppose any country that invaded and feudalism to build from socialism to communism. This party has been big since the Japanese era, but this party has no rural base and has not entered the countryside. By the time the ruling class cracked down and destroyed everything, just like in Indonesia. Nuon Chea experimented with this and thought that without farmers it would not be possible. Learning from the way to compare to Cambodia to have the way to national liberation, this is his goal. He continued to read communist books, mostly about Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong. One book he was interested in was The Communications of Persecution, written by Ling Xiaoxi, a former Chinese president who was arrested for allegedly racist but was later released. The good thing about him is that he gets rid of his individuality and thinking, but his book is criticized for not talking about caste. Getting rid of individualism means getting rid of personal interests, not just my personal interests, not just me. If I have, I have, if I have, I have ownership, so it is called I am selfish, thinking only of my own interests, not of the national interest. Whatever I am for my benefit, my face, my honor. They tell me, they praise me. Ah, it goes liberal, does not respect the assignment. And this pessimism refers to not standing on the peasant workers, wanting to stand on the intellectual forces, but Malininism is based on the peasant workers, but we do not abandon the sub-intellectuals, but these are the front forces.
Reading this theory book is just a light, but the actual practice depends on the state of the country. According to the book of Lenin, it is called biblicalism, but if it is discarded, it will be liberal. So it is only a light for us to compare the situation of the country and it is just an idea to consider. It’s like the Buddha’s theory, the Buddha just wants you to do good, but doing bad is your thing. As he read, he saw the right situation in Cambodia.
There is a magazine written by drawing a tree, Vietnam, Laos, Khmer help each other to water the trees, keep the roots of the trees and then write that only the unity of Khmer, Vietnam, Laos can liberate the nation. That’s when he started thinking, and there was no conflict between him and Vietnam as an individual. But later he went to Vietnam and saw that the Indochina Federation was not really communist. Vietnam always says that we work only to share, but according to Indochina, we seem to be the only one, so we start to know the Vietnamese concept.
The struggle to liberate the country
Nuon Chea left Thailand in 1950 without any duty as a cadre, only in charge of propaganda, so-called propaganda department, which had Khmer and Vietnamese, but Vietnamese control. The main job is to open educational schools in villages, communes, educate patriotic women, educate commune cadres.
The educational document is about five steps: intelligence, propaganda, education, leadership, resistance.
At that time, he observed that the relationship between Vietnam and the Khmer was still good, but they just tried to be the boss over the Khmer. It was not until the revolution in the forest that he realized more clearly that his two ideas at the beginning, veganism and revolution, were clearly separated and realized that revolution was the right idea.
In 1953, the Central Vietnamese Party chose Nuon Chea to study in North Vietnam. Vietnam chose him because he had the best education and the cleanest. The revolutionary movement at that time was more anti-French, while the socialist monarchy was not much opposed, just thought of as a French entity, and the revolution did not recognize independence in 1953. This learning is about a global perspective divided into two factions, the communist and the imperial.
While studying, he looked at the conditions within the party and saw that after the liberation of the three countries from the French colonial rule and the administration of the Indochina Federation, Nuon Chea woke up to see that Vietnam was really in charge. Party secretary Treung Jing often said that Khmer, Vietnamese, Lao, like a house with three rooms under one roof. It was then that he began to suspect Vietnamese intrigue.
In 1956, Nuon Chea completed his studies in Vietnam and came to Cambodia to meet and get to know Saloth Sar for the first time. Saloth Sar explained the situation in Phnom Penh. Nuon Chea has since been responsible for rural affairs. Party building resumed, and in 1960 the General Assembly decided to elect Tou Samuth as secretary and Nuon Chea as party deputy secretary.
In the aftermath of the 1970 coup d’état overthrowing Sihanouk, Samdech appealed to his descendants to enter the Maki forest in support of the Khmer Rouge. Now the revolutionary movement has educated its friends to go down to the base and start taking weapons through the posts. Then the armed struggle began violently.
After the liberation, Nuon Chea remained the Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea and was appointed Speaker of the People’s Assembly for the government of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979, a regime that was alleged to have killed nearly two million people. People died.
Nuon Chea’s reason
He cited the deaths of people as having two separate problems. The first is the death of innocent people and the second is the death of traitors in the party because they are no longer in the party because they have betrayed and are considered foreign agents who must be killed. Discard. He also added that Pol Pot was the final decision-maker for the killings. He also said that Pol Pot and he did not know much about the killing of innocent people, but he acknowledged the killing of traitors. When answering the question, is it right to kill a traitor? He replied, “If you say it, you are cruel, but we think it is appropriate to see how dangerous it is to the nation?” Do not look at individuals if they are in danger of the nation? You have to look at it, you can see the size, it depends on the view. How big is it? The danger is not small. Not a small thing, not a normal thing, not a story of losing one territory, two stories, the story of losing a country … a whole Cambodian nation. And lost for centuries is not easy to move if they remain. Descendants
What is it ? The image is Khmer, but what is the content? We have to weigh before we dare to judge that the solution will be right. But if you don’t look extensively, you can only see narrowly, you can see the sympathy of each other, then the nation is gone. ”That means making me Vietnamese for the forever time. “Until they grasp it and are loyal to them.” Therefore, in order to build a new society, it is necessary to make a revolution. What about the previous leadership? The old regime [is] the village regime, eliminate corruption , prostitution about female at the bar or have many partners . Is that good? Can we follow the pattern? Then, the answer is No . Now you must be handled it cleanly. This must be solved cleanly, not killing . So that we won’t have this problem again . This is called revolution, it is used to grow. Therefore, it is not to change any person [is] to change the regime […], not just to change the leader, but to change the society itself, to make the society a prosperous society, a society leading to socialism, that is, living together, cultivating, there is nothing to help Supporting each other not to oppress each other means to get rid of social oppression, not to have a class that oppresses people, not to have a class that oppresses class. Everyone has food, clothing, this is called a clean regime, a bright regime, a peaceful regime. “This is a destination, but it is not possible. It destroys [by] the espionage war. It destroys us immediately.” Practice means “weak metal uses control power.” Party building is not about using authority or using power. And so forth, don’t be a ladies’ man , do not addicted to alcohol or being too crazy about money . When it comes to money, it means material. If the material dominates, it becomes individualistic. For that reason, nation building is to get rid of individualism, get rid of elements, not get rid of people, get rid of individualism and selfishness. Whatever you did turned out well. “That is very high of you , the benefits are individually , not Common benefits. Moreover, he added that “ if we still let them here. We will lose the nation, lost the people , lose the name of our Cambodia country, there will be no Cambodian left.” He’s killing the nation. Personally, there are always some emotions, but he divides himself and other things be clearly . In general, we take ourselves as emotions, used to know each other, used to interact with each person , so who should the whole nation take? He took the nation first and his personal problems left it to solve later. “ I have no regrets [ about losing them ],” he said. He is only regret his nation more. His nation is dirty so that makes him sadder. “He regrets the path, regrets the position of Democratic Kampuchea, he regrets that they have ruined it.”
Nuon Chea against the court
On the first day of the trial, Nuon Chea expressed his desire to shed light on the facts of Cambodia’s history for an accurate history.
He began by criticizing the court for not being fair to him from the beginning, taking only briefly part of the case. He says that a whole crocodile is only talking about itself, not the head and tail, which are an important part of its daily activities, or in other words, its roots and suffixes. Occurred before 1975 and after 1979, which this court did not consider. The court decided not to bring the whole case to trial Instead, considering the age of the accused, the court split the proceedings the only part of the evaluation people in the first and second stages will be decided. When Case 002/01 was completed and Nuon Chea was sentenced to life in prison, the court prepared a second sub-case, Case 002/02, which covered the displacement facts.People in the second stage, limited to the treatment of Cham people, Tram Kak Cooperative, Trapeang Thmor Dam site, 1 Makara dam site, Kampong Chhnang airport construction site, S-21 security department, Kraing Ta Chan security department, O Kanseng security department, Phnom Krol security department, Buddhist practices On the Cham, excluding the Lime Security Department, the treatment of the Vietnamese, excluding the crimes committed by the Cambodian Revolutionary Army on Vietnamese territory and the imposition of marriage regulations. On 16 November 2018, the Trial Chamber issued a verdict in the final case and sentenced Nuon Chea to life in prison on all charges. At this stage, an appeal against the Trial Chamber’s verdict is being prepared by the defense, which is expected to
