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Tribunal Witness Describes Nuon Chea’s Agricultural Broadcasts


Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea attends a public hearing at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, file photo.
Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea attends a public hearing at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, file photo.

Jailed Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea sought to educate the Cambodian population daily with radio programming and a Chinese book of agriculture.

PHNOM PENH - Jailed Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea sought to educate the Cambodian population daily with radio programming and a Chinese book of agriculture, a witness told the UN-backed tribunal Wednesday.

“He took a thick book of agriculture made by Chinese experts to broadcast page by page,” said Kim Vun, 53, who worked in a printing house and became a Khmer Rouge “journalist.”

Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the regime and Pol Pot’s second, is on trial for atrocity crimes, alongside Khieu Samphan, the regime’s nominal head of state, and Ieng Sary, its foreign minister.

Kim Vun told the court that Khieu Samphan had “no power,” and neither did the ousted monarch, Norodom Sihanouk.

As a reporter for the Khmer Rouge, Kim Vun said, he was allowed to travel the country, where he saw “the famine” of the Cambodian people.

He also said he and his wife discussed among themselves their concerns at so many arrests by Khmer Rouge cadre and the many factions within the regime.
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