Hou Yuon

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Hou Yuon (* 1926 in Peam Chi Kang ; † 1975 ) was a Cambodian politician and was considered one of the leadership cadres of the Khmer Rouge .

Life

After finishing school, Hou Yuon went to Phnom Penh and attended the Lycée Sisovath . He was considered a good football player and was politically active and left-wing at an early age as a student.

In the early 1950s, Hou Yuon was one of the group of Cambodian students who received a scholarship from Prince Sihanouk to study in Paris . This group included the later leaders of the Khmer Rouge, such as Pol Pot , Khieu Samphan or Ieng Sary . He received his doctorate in 1955 on the subject of the peasantry of Cambodia and its modernization projects .

After his return from Paris, Hou Yuon taught at the Kamputh School and the Law Faculty in Phnom Penh . From 1960 he belonged to the Central Committee of the underground Communist Party of Cambodia , whose Politburo hid behind the name Angkar . At the same time, Hou Yuon served legally as a member of the Sangkum Party in Parliament and was Minister of Planning from 1962 to 1963. On April 24, 1964, he finally joined the communists and followed Khieu Samphan into the jungle to actively support the revolutionary struggle of the Khmer Rouge from there. In 1970 the Communist Party appointed him Minister of the Interior .

Shortly before Pol Pot came to power in Cambodia, Hou Yuon expressed himself at a national congress in February 1975 critical of the CP's plans for the forced evacuation of the population and the concept of Stone Age communism . Directly following his criticism, he was the victim of an initial wave of purges carried out on the orders of the Angkar. To date, nothing is known about the exact circumstances of his death.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ariane Barth, Tiziano Terzani : Holocaust in Cambodia. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1980, ISBN 3-499-33003-2 , p. 219 (short vita).