Hu Nim

Hu Nim, alias "Phoas" (1930 or 1932–1977) was a Cambodian Communistintellectual and politician who held a number of ministerial posts.His long political career included spells with the Sangkum regimeof Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the Communist guerrilla resistance,the GRUNK coalition government-in-exile, and the administration ofDemocratic Kampuchea, when the country was controlled by theCommunist Party of Kampuchea (the Khmer Rouge).

Nim had a reputation as one of the most independent-minded andoutspoken members of the Khmer Rouge, and was eventually to bearrested, tortured and executed at Tuol Sleng security prison in1977 during a Party purge.

Early life

Hu Nim was born in 1930 (25 July 1932 according to some sources) in the village of Korkor, Kampong Siem District, Kampong Cham Province; unlike many of his later colleagues in the Party intelligentsia, he came from a poor background. In his 'confession' I would like to report to the Party about my history, extracted under torture at Tuol Sleng, Nim was torelate that "my father, Hou, died in 1936 when I was just six years old. I then lived in the care of my mother, named Sorn, a poor peasant. She earned her living by offering household services topeople". His mother, who remarried a landless peasant farmer, eventually sent him to live with Sam Khor at a pagoda in Mien, Prey Chhor District.

Bought up by Sam Khor, Nim was given the chance to...
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