Ta Mok

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Ta Mok ( Khmer តា ម៉ុ ក , German grandfather punch ) is the pseudonym of Chhit Choeun (* 1926 ; † July 21, 2006 in Phnom Penh ), a leading figure in the leadership of the Khmer Rouge . His real name is uncertain, some sources give Ek Choeun or Oeung Choeun .

Life

He participated in the anti-French and later the anti-Japanese resistance in the 1940s. He originally started an apprenticeship as a priest in Pali , which he broke off in 1964 after joining the anti-French movement Khmer Issarak . Soon after, he left Phnom Penh and joined the Khmer Rouge .

Officer of the Khmer Rouges

The former home of Ta Mok

In the late 1960s he was a general and the chief officer of the Khmer Rouge. In 1970 he lost half of a leg in a fight. It is believed that he directed the massive purges during the brief period of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979), which earned him the nickname "the butcher". Despite the regime's disempowerment in 1979, Ta Mok retained almost unrestricted power and controlled the northern areas of the country from his base in Anlong Veng , which were still under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. In 1997 the Khmer Rouge split into several factions, one of which Ta Mok continued to rule as supreme commander. In that year he disempowered the ailing ex-dictator Pol Pot , brought him before a Khmers Rouges tribunal and sentenced him to life imprisonment for treason. From then on, he was the “No. 1 brother” of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot died under arrest in 1998 under unknown circumstances. A suicide is not excluded as Ta Mok probably wanted to hand him over to the Americans.

Escape and capture

After Ta Mok's faction broke up, he had to flee to Anlong Veng in 1998 . On March 6, 1999, the Cambodian army arrested Ta Mok near the border with Vietnam and took him to Phnom Penh, where he and his former companion Kang Kek Leu (battle name “ Dëuch ”) were taken to the prison for military offenders, T-3 , brought. Ta Mok was one of the last Khmer Rouge leaders to be detained. Others, such as Nuon Chea , Khieu Samphan or Ieng Sary , had either died or had entered into immunity agreements with the government of Hun Sen , which allowed many leaders to remain unmolested by their past and without having to answer for their crimes during the genocide in Cambodia To play roles in the new government.

Process delays

Although Cambodian law requires a prisoner to be tried within six months, Ta Mok's detention was extended several times without a trial until he was charged with crimes against humanity in 2002 . The general should have played a key role in the planned process of coming to terms with the crimes of the Khmer regime.

At the end of June 2006, the former military commander of the Khmer Rouge was hospitalized seriously ill. Ta Mok passed away on the morning of July 21, 2006 after being in a coma for several days, according to his lawyer.

literature

  • François Bizot: The Gate. Translated by Euan Cameron. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2003, ISBN 0-375-41293-X .
  • Elizabeth Becker: When the War was Over. Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. Public Affairs New York, 1998, ISBN 1891620002 . ( When the War Was over. The Voices of Cambodia's Revolution and Its People ) Simon and Schuster, New York, 1986, ISBN 0-671-41787-8 .

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Leader of the Khmer Rouge: "Butcher" Ta Mok is dead. In: n-tv . July 21, 2006, accessed August 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Cambodia: Ex-military chief of the Khmer Rouge died. In: Spiegel Online . July 21, 2016, accessed August 6, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Ta Mok
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chhit Choeun; Ek Choeun; Oeung Choeun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cambodian resistance fighter, main figure in the leadership of the Khmer Rouge
DATE OF BIRTH 1926
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 2006
Place of death Phnom Penh