Sam Rainsy vs Hor Namhong

Recent remarks by Sam Rainsy have yet again raised debate over to what degree current Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong was a bloodthirsty Khmer Rouge executioner.

In a ceremony to commemorate the fall of Phnom Penh to Khmer Rouge guerrillas in 1975, Sam Rainsy said Thursday at least two ministers in the current government were cadres of the regime.

“One of them was secretary and interpreter of Pol Pot and who is senior minister and Minister of Economy and another current deputy prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs was director of Beoung Trabek prison,” Sam Rainsy said. “The director of a prison can point someone and this person will be disappeared.”

Director of a prison? What? Nobody, not even Sam Rainsy, believes that Hor Namhong was director of anything, much less the Beoung Trabek detention center, known as B-32. The “B” stands for borateh, the Khmer word for foreigner. From 1967 until his return in 1975, Hor Namhong was stationed outside the country, making him, in the eyes of the KR leadership, a foreigner, and thus an extremely unlikely candidate for insider status in the Khmer Rouge brotherhood. But the implication, as Khmerization so helpfully illustrates, is clear.

Sam Rainsy said that Hor Namhong was a director of the Boeng Trabek Prison, which was true. And, as a chief of the prison, he was responsible for the tortures, murders and disappearances of many Cambodian and foreign diplomats, the likes of Sarin Chhak, Chau Seng etc. who were imprisoned at Boeng Trabek and who have disappeared mysteriously without a trace.

Such an interpretation goes light years beyond all available evidence. To the word it is wrong.

For starters, Beoung Trabek was not a “security” center like S-21. It was a labor camp used by the KR to determine the loyalty of Khmers returning from overseas. Conditions were no doubt grueling, with little to eat and long hours of hard labor daily, but it is widely accepted that people were not tortured or murdered there.

More importantly, calling Hor Namhong the “director” of Beoung Trabek is wantonly misleading, as Sam Rainsy is certainly aware even if Khmerization is not. A more accurate title would be “inmate,” then later “deputy inmate” and lastly “chief inmate.” The amount of power that people in Hor Namhong’s position wielded is evidenced in the demise of the two “directors” who preceded him.

Chau Seng, it’s no mystery, was tortured to death at Tuol Sleng. So was his successor, Van Pinay. Hor Namhong, who was appointed to succeed Van Pinay, would have surely met the same fate had Vietnam not invaded in December 1978. Appointments made by the KR, it should be noted, were not something one generally refused.

And what about Sarin Chhak?

The fate of Sarin Chhak remains a mystery. Khmerization should know. He “syndicated” a biography about Sarin Chhak written by Julio Jeldres just last month. To say that Sarin Chhak disappeared from Beoung Trabek is a deliberate misreading of Jeldres’ research.

The whole thing is a pack of lies. The truth is that no evidence exists anywhere to even vaguely suggest that Hor Namhong had something to do with Sarin Chhak’s disappearance, or Chau Seng’s, or murders or torture. To suggest otherwise sinks pretty low.

…..

So, will Hor Namhong actually sue Sam Rainsy? He sued Norodom Sihanouk in a Paris court over similar remarks in 1990. And he sued a slew of journalists at the Cambodia Daily for a pair of stories in 2001. In both cases the court ruled in Hor Namhong’s favor. So legal precedence is on his side if he does.

POSTSCRIPT: VOA reports that Hor Namhong on Tuesday filed a defamation suit against Sam Rainsy in Phnom Penh court. Hor Namhong told VOA that if Sam Rainsy apologizes he will withdraw the suit.

ADDITIONAL READING: For a well-researched, well-written look at the claims against Hor Namhong and Keat Chhon, and the available evidence, see the Kelly McEvers and Thet Sambath Cambodia Daily piece from July 2001.