Translated from French by Luc SârA bitter “souvenir”
LAY INN, my friend from Chasseloup-Laubat
LAY INN, my friend from Chasseloup-Laubat
1- Between 1937 and 1941, I was student at the Chasseloup-Laubat high school in Saigon. In this high school, there was a handful of Cambodians, sons of senior princes or rich commoners from Cambodia.
Lay Inn was the son of one of these rich Khmer commoners. His father owned a “fief” [piece of land held under the feudal system] for forest farming. This fief was located in Chhlong (Kratie province).
2- In Chasseloup-Laubat (Saigon), Lay Inn “adopted” me as “his best friend” and acted as my “Political and Democracy Professor” – sic! –. He told me that the Khmer People did “not need a feudal Monarchy, but a liberal democratic Cambodia like the Republic of France instead.”
3- In 1941, Marshall Pétain’s France made me “King of Cambodia.” Between 1955 and 1969, the SRN [Sangkum Reastr Niyum] was the national regime of Cambodia.
Known in Kratie (Chhlong) as being my best friend, Lay Inn took the opportunity to have a tremendous leverage on the People of Kratie.
In the 60s, he became a very active and influent Lonnolian. He took the liberty to rent Kratie-Chhlong forests to the Vietcongs and North Vietnamese (unbeknownst to me). These Viets needed sanctuaries in Cambodia, in an area close to South Vietnam.
4- He participated, in a very visible manner, to the 18 March 1970 Putsch.
The day after the anti-Sihanouk Putsch by Lon Nol, the Sihanoukist People of Kratie-Chhlong “caught” Lay Inn and hanged him because of his “feudal dictatorship” in Kratie-Chhlong, and (also because) of his betrayal to his “best friend, N. Sihanouk.”
(Signed) N. Sihanouk
May 2008
Lay Inn was the son of one of these rich Khmer commoners. His father owned a “fief” [piece of land held under the feudal system] for forest farming. This fief was located in Chhlong (Kratie province).
2- In Chasseloup-Laubat (Saigon), Lay Inn “adopted” me as “his best friend” and acted as my “Political and Democracy Professor” – sic! –. He told me that the Khmer People did “not need a feudal Monarchy, but a liberal democratic Cambodia like the Republic of France instead.”
3- In 1941, Marshall Pétain’s France made me “King of Cambodia.” Between 1955 and 1969, the SRN [Sangkum Reastr Niyum] was the national regime of Cambodia.
Known in Kratie (Chhlong) as being my best friend, Lay Inn took the opportunity to have a tremendous leverage on the People of Kratie.
In the 60s, he became a very active and influent Lonnolian. He took the liberty to rent Kratie-Chhlong forests to the Vietcongs and North Vietnamese (unbeknownst to me). These Viets needed sanctuaries in Cambodia, in an area close to South Vietnam.
4- He participated, in a very visible manner, to the 18 March 1970 Putsch.
The day after the anti-Sihanouk Putsch by Lon Nol, the Sihanoukist People of Kratie-Chhlong “caught” Lay Inn and hanged him because of his “feudal dictatorship” in Kratie-Chhlong, and (also because) of his betrayal to his “best friend, N. Sihanouk.”
(Signed) N. Sihanouk
May 2008
