Long Visalo to defend Hor Namhong, his boss

Long Visalaud during the interview (Photo: Narith, Koh Santepheap)

Long Visalo to act as defense witness for Hor Namhong in Sam Rainsy’s accusation case

Monday, May 12, 2008
Koh Santepheap
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

"A committee chief (such as the one occupied by Hor Namhong) must put into application the plans issued by the (alleged Khmer Rouge) Boeng Trabek center chief" - Job description of the Boeng Trabek committee chief as provided by Long Visalo

Phnom Penh – In the afternoon of Friday 09 May 2008, Long Visalo, the state secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, gave a brief interview to reporters at his ministry regarding the Boeng Trabek education center or re-education center under the genocidal Pol Pot regime.

In response to several questions asked by reporters, Long Visalo declared that during the KR regime, he was a prisoner of the Boeng Trabek education center which was divided into 3 centers: B-30, B-31, and B-32, and these centers were reserved for people who returned from overseas. B-30 was reserved for students and intellectuals, B-32 for diplomats and their families, and B-31 was filled by the KR with people who did a good job, at the beginning, people there were ordered to listen to radio station, teach foreign language to KR youths, type or create various documents, and hard labor was also performed.

Long Visalo indicated also that the Boeng Trabek education center is a re-education center to change the classes of those people returning from overseas, and at least to lower their classes also because they cannot be considered as revolutionary. Therefore, they have to be changed to a class of the poor or the class of workers and farmers. In there, people cannot think about fathers, mothers, siblings, or relatives anymore, each person is considered an entity of the Angkar, and there is a lot of work there, such as building houses, roads that must be dug out, pulling out water hyacinth (kamphloak) to plant water bindweed (trakuon) and other vegetables, because the (KR) believe that houses, villas, roads or cars are used by the rich people, and the Angkar does not need them, they must be destroyed, and vegetables must be planted to have food to eat every day. At Boeng Trabek, people was put to work from dawn to dusk, after eating porridge (rice soup), work must be continued until late at night, then meeting would be held, and shifts were set up to stand guard until morning time.

He added that those who returned from overseas, were brought to the Boeng Trabek center. These people were classified into 2 groups: (1) members of the liberation front formed by Sihanouk in 1970, following the Lon Nol coup d’état, and nationalist students and intellectuals from overseas who were members of the front, and (2) those who were not members of the front, but these people thought that since the country is at peace, they wanted to return back to help rebuild the country, or they thought about re-uniting with their relatives whom they were separated from during the war. At the Boeng Trabek center, there were changes among the common chief, but a man by name of Savorn was the one who was the chief for the longest amount of time. In Boeng Trabek, there were 3 subdivisions, the inner center selected a committee along with a committee chief who must put into application the plans issued by the Boeng Trabek center chief, however these chiefs work like all the others and ate the same as the others.

Regarding the accusation made by Sam Rainsy to Hor Namhong, involving the Beong Trabek center, Long Visalo indicated that he saw and knew Hor Namhong as a diplomat who came from overseas just like him. All of Hor Namhong’s family members were brought to the center like everybody else. Later on, he was designated as the B-32 committee chief, after Chao Seng and Van Phiny, the former committee chiefs were taken to be killed. During that time, Hor Namhong was no different from the others in term of work labor and food to eat, and he faced hardship like others also, and (for example), he even tore the bedspread to use as a scarf in lieu of a “kroma” for wiping the face [KI-Media note: Kroma, the scarf-towel, was used a status symbol under the KR regime, it shows that the person donning it belong to the farmer/worker class, i.e. a real communist proletarian. According to Long Visalo, Hor Namhong has to come up with a makeshift kroma during that period. Sleeping on a bedspread is considered very luxurious for common prisoner]. Furthermore, he was almost taken to be killed also because the KR planned to take him out of Boeng Trabek to go to another place, and (usually) those who were taken out, they all faced death, and this, Hor Namhong did not know about.

Long Visalo claimed that Sam Rainsy’s accusation was done for political gain, and those who said this, never saw the KR, never suffered under the KR [KI-Media note: King-Father said the same thing about Hor Namhong also, and he also lived under the KR regime]. He said that when Cambodian people suffered and had no food to eat, were tortured and killed, these people (who accused Hor Namhong) were sleeping quietly in peace in France, and they did not know anything, they dreamt that this person did this, that person did that, they did not participated in the suffering with the people, but when the people are at peace, then they came back to join the people, when the people suffered, they abandoned them. “Regarding Mr. Sam Rainsy’s accusation, I (Long Visalo) agree to act as a witness for Mr. Hor Namhong, and I am not doing this because he (Hor Namhong) works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and I am one of his subordinates, but I want to show the truth of each individuals who were victims at the Boeng Trabek center during the KR regime, and also for the actual truth which I was myself a victim, or for what the other victims also said.”

Long Visalo indicated also that: “For those who survived from the KR regime, I think that it was their great luck, furthermore, those who worked hard under the Angkar and they did not talk and protest about all out hardships, they all survived until now because of the unforgettable 07 January 1979 liberation.” He indicated that he will look for 2 or 3 more witnesses (to defend Hor Namhong) who had survived the Boeng Trabek center also. The Boeng Trabek jail issue will then be revealed to the public.