Ke Pauk

Ke Pauk (* 1934 in Chhouk Ksach, Baray District, Kampong Thom Province; † February 15, 2002 in Anlong Veng , Oddar Meanchey Province ), born Ke Vin , also known as Kae Pok , was a Cambodian military leader of the Khmer Rouge . He rose from deputy secretary and commander of the Northern Zone to its secretary (head of government), then, after the formation of the Central Zone in 1977, to its secretary and deputy chief of staff, and finally to a permanent member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea . Pauk is considered a particularly brutal leader of the Khmer Rouge. His ties to the government and his death saved him from being held accountable for his actions.

Early life

Vin was born in northern Cambodia. His parents had 13 children from previous marriages, Vin being the only common one. His father, Ke Keo, a lower middle class farmer with three to four hectares of rice-growing land, died in 1940. Vin received his only schooling for a year at a wat .

In 1949, after a raid on his village by French troops, Vin joined the Khmer Issarak independence movement . After the Geneva Conference of 1954 and Cambodia's independence from France , he stepped out of hiding in the jungle in 1954 and was arrested soon after. He was sentenced to six years in prison and sent to prisons in Phnom Penh and Kampong Thom . After three years he was released in 1957.

He then returned to Chhouk Ksach and married Sou Soeun. They had six children. His autobiography says that he was contacted by the secretary of the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party , precursor of the Kampuchea Communist Party , Siv Heng, who asked him to join the young burgeoning communist movement. Vin joined the party in Svay Teab, Chamkar Leu District, Kampong Cham Province .

Ke Vin remained practically illiterate. A neighbor recalls that to supplement his income from one hectare of rice-growing land, Vin sold alcohol, bought chickens and was politically active in his home village.

Khmer Rouge guerrilla warfare

In 1964, after being a victim of police violence, Vin went back to the jungle to wage guerrilla warfare. A witness reported the beginnings of the local Khmer Rouge uprising. Fifty-four men and women who only had two rifles gathered secretly in the jungle in the cave of Bos Pauk. Vin took the pseudonym “Pauk” in memory of the cave . On one night in April 1968, the rebels beat and killed seven people in three villages. Pauk had thus started a career that would lead him to the top of the hierarchy of one of the bloodthirsty regimes of the 20th century.

When the Vietnam War spread from North Vietnamese positions to Cambodia with the bombing by the US in 1970 , Koy Thuon, a former journalist and teacher, led the Khmer Rouge in the Northern Zone. Pauk became his deputy and the military commander of the zone. He attacked Lon Nol's US-backed troops , as well as the Vietnamese communists and Cambodian civilians. A witness, Pon, reported that Khmer Rouge forces came to Baray in 1971, threw grenades into houses suspected of being Vietnamese, and in some cases murdered entire families. Lon Nol's troops found 62 graves and mass graves with 180 bodies. The bombing of the American B-52 , which killed more than 150,000 Cambodian civilians, peaked in 1973. Pauk used them to consolidate his power. He became Thuon's rival.

In the Kampong Thom area , the organization was extremely rigidly led by Pauk's commanders. Their discipline requirements were very tough; there were many executions. One of Pauks soldiers described the rules laid down by him: The Buddha statues and the pagodas had been destroyed. There were separate camps for women and young men, and others for children. The meals, only rice soup, without meat, were eaten together. Children were forbidden to show their parents respect, to pray to monks, to husbands to live with their wives. These rules corresponded to those later introduced in Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea .

In 1973 the Khmer Rouge occupied the northern zone of Kampong Cham and deported the 15,000 inhabitants to the country. In early 1974, Pauk's units were relocated to Phnom Penh and Oudong , the former royal capital. Thousands of farmers took the opportunity to flee back to Kampong Thom. "We had to work very hard and we didn't get anything in return," said one witness. Black dresses were compulsory and executions were regular. Ethnic minorities had to be "dissolved". Troops of the Khmer Rouge shot at a crowd of Cham fishermen, killing or wounding more than 100 people. A decree intended for the Northern Zone forbade the Muslim Cham to “concentrate in one place”.

In 1974 the troops occupied Pauks and the southwest zone under Ta Mok Oudong. One farmer recalled: “40,000 people were sent in all directions. The Khmer Rouge burned down all the houses. ”The victory of the Khmer Rouge was certain with the capture of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. Pauk's troops took part in the evacuation of the two million inhabitants, which was forced by force of arms.

Career in Democratic Kampuchea

When Thuon was appointed to the Ministry of Commerce in Phnom Penh after the victory of the Khmer Rouge in 1976, Pauk succeeded him as Secretary of the Northern Zone. Thuon fell from grace in 1977 and was executed. Pauk eliminated Thuon's supporters in the Northern Zone and installed a dozen of his own family in key positions in the Zone.

On the other side of the Mekong, in the Eastern Zone, the Cham Muslims rebelled from 1975 onwards. A Zone leader complained to Pol Pot about the impossibility of "carrying out the strategy of disintegration as ordered by you, Brother No. 1". Pol Pot had given orders to relocate 150,000 Cham from the Eastern Zone to the Northern and Northwest Zone. But Pauk's forces drove back the 50,000 Cham who had been sent to the Northern Zone. They categorically refused to accept Muslims and only accepted “pure Khmer”. In a message to Pol Pot, Pauk justified himself by denouncing the Cham as Islamic and thus as enemies. Pauk was then appointed deputy chief of staff under the command of Ta Mok.

In 1977 Pauk moved his troops to the Eastern Zone in view of an invasion of South Vietnam. Pol Pot stepped in front of the troops and delivered his infamous speech, "Every Cambodian must kill 30 Vietnamese". Internal rivalries, however, prevented the invasion plans from being implemented. In mid-1977 part of the Northern Zone was separated as the Central Zone, and Pauk became the zone's secretary, his brother-in-law Oeun deputy. His successor in the reduced Northern Zone was Kang Chap (alias Sae). Pauk was also promoted to deputy chief of staff under Ta Mok.

In May 1978, Pauk's troops, along with the forces of the Southwest Zone, massacred the cadres and residents of the Eastern Zone suspected of collaborating with the Vietnamese. They murdered nearly 100,000 people in the largest mass crime in Cambodia's history. At that time, Pauk also became a candidate for the party's central committee and in November 1978 a permanent member.

The Vietnamese invasion in December 1978 put an end to the terrorist regime of the Khmer Rouge. Her remaining troops fled to the woods near the Thai border. Ke Pauk was blamed for the defeat and removed from all positions. In 1985 he was even told to leave the Khmer Rouge army.

Role in the People's Republic of Kampuchea and Death

In 1996, Ieng Sary , brother No. 3 and brother-in-law of Pol Pot, joined the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea, which had been installed by Vietnam , following a pardon proposed by Prime Minister Hun Sen to the king . Pol Pot feared more deserters, including Son Sen , his chief security officer. He had him and his entire family murdered. Afraid of the same fate, Ta Mok had Pol Pot arrested and charged in a Khmer Rouge court.

In March 1998, Ke Pauk joined the government forces of the People's Republic of Kampuchea and became an advisor to the Minister of Defense before rising to the rank of Brigadier General of the Royal Khmer Armed Forces in January 1999 . When the last factions of the Khmer Rouge fell apart, Pol Pot died on April 15, 1998 at the age of 69, officially of a heart attack, suspected suicide. A year later, the government troops dealt a fatal blow to the Khmer Rouge with the arrest of Ta Mok.

Ke Pauk died at his home in Anlong Veng on February 15, 2002, apparently of natural causes.

literature

• Ben Kiernan : The Pol Pot Regime. Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79. 3. Edition. Yale University Press, New Haven (CT) 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-14434-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Solomon Kane: Dictionnaire des Khmers rouges. Ke Vin (translator: François Gerles, preface by David P. Chandler ). Institut de Recherche sur l'Asie du Sud-Est Contemporaine (IRASEC), Bangkok 2007, ISBN 978-2-916063-27-0 , pp. 188-190.
2. ↑ Kiernan : The Pol Pot Regime. 2008, p. 91.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Ben Kiernan: Ke Pauk. In: The Guardian . February 21, 2002, accessed August 6, 2019 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ke Pauk's Autobiography from 1949–1985. In: Documentation Center of Cambodia. Archived from the original on February 5, 2007 ; accessed on August 6, 2019 . 
5. ^ Henri Locard: Pourquoi les Khmers rouges. L'Angkar (= Révolutions ). Vendémiaire, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-36358-052-8 .
6. ^ J. Richard Caldwell: The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - a “Magic Tree”? (pdf, 237 kB) In: McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry. Hamilton, 2009, p. 73 , archived from the original on March 29, 2012 ; accessed on August 6, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Khmer Rouge commander buried. In: BBC News . February 17, 2002, accessed August 6, 2019 .