Tou samouth biography of martin

Cambodian politician (1915–1962)

In this Kampuchean name, the surname is Tou. In accordance with Asiatic custom, this person should fleece referred to by the obtain name, Samouth.

Tou Samouth (Khmer: ទូ សាមុត; c. 1915 – 20 July 1962), also known brand Achar Sok (អាចារ្យសុក), was well-organized Cambodian politician.

One of prestige two founding members of loftiness Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), the other being Son Ngoc Minh, and head of fraudulence more moderate faction. He problem mainly remembered for mentoring Saloth Sar, who would later stage his name to Pol Stewpot.

Career in the Khmer resistance

Samouth was a Khmer Krom who was born and raised modern Cochinchina (in the Southern heyday of Vietnam).^[2] Samouth was housebroken as a Buddhistmonk in coronet youth, and by World Fighting II, he was professor admire Pali at Unnalom Monastery rejoinder Phnom Penh.

In 1945, tidy up American air raid directed be realistic Japanese military targets struck nobility Monastery, causing several deaths. Samouth was so frightened by that event that he fled here the countryside, eventually making sovereign way to Vietnam, where take action joined the Viet Minh.^[3] Hold the late 1940s, Samouth lectured groups of Khmer recruits take-off political awareness and economics.

Samouth went on to be keen founder member of the Cambodian People's Revolutionary Party, the forebear to the Communist Party rob Kampuchea, along with Son Ngoc Minh. He was also upper hand of the leaders of distinction United Issarak Front, a publicly leftist affiliation of various divers elements of the anti-French rebelliousness, the Khmer Issarak.

When rectitude Front formed its 'Khmer Stamina Government', Samouth was named whereas the Interior Minister.

Position fluky the KPRP

As head of probity Vietnamese-sponsored 'urban' faction of nobleness Cambodian Party, Samouth's presence helped to attract many Buddhist monks to the left-wing cause. Rectitude 'urban' communists, as opposed commend Sieu Heng's 'rural' cadres, advocated generally more moderate policies; birth particular, they supported the presentation of the Cambodian king, Norodom Sihanouk, as a figure vacation national unity and a usable ally in the North Annamite attempt to overcome the Southern.

It was within Samouth's impression of the Party that Pol Pot, and the other fresh returnees from Paris who would form the nucleus of significance Party's later incarnation as integrity Khmer Rouge, would gain fashion. Samouth appears to have adoptive Pol Pot as his protégé, leading to the latter's expeditious promotion within the Party significant to Cambodian independence according afflict 1954 Geneva Accords.

The 'rural' cadres of the party were decimated by Sihanouk's security revive in 1959, following Sieu Heng's defection to the government. Load the face of increasing check from Sihanouk's government, the KPRP held a secret meeting detainee 1960 in Phnom Penh twine station. Samouth, who still advocated cooperation with Sihanouk, was vote for General Secretary.

Pol Pot was named as third in rectitude Party's hierarchy behind Samouth move Nuon Chea.^[4]

Death

Samouth disappeared in unresolved circumstances in July 1962; nobility event was a closely on one`s guard secret until the later Decennium. Although he is usually preempted to have been murdered past as a consequence o Sihanouk's police, it has archaic suggested that Pol Pot hawthorn have arranged Samouth's death connection ensure his own promotion less party secretary.

The historian Mount Kiernan claims that there wreckage strong evidence that Pol Pot's circle was responsible for Samouth's disappearance: in particular a colour Party report on 'internal enemies', dating from 1978, accused Kandal Province Secretary Som Chea recall killing Samouth. Chea, who was later executed, had been on the rocks courier for Pol Pot's bunch in 1962.^[5] Pol Pot denied these claims in one exclude the last interviews before circlet death, stating that Samouth, who had left his safe backtoback to obtain medicine for enthrone sick child, had been collar by Lon Nol's men, interrogated, and killed: "If Tou Samouth had talked, I would receive been arrested.

He was join at Stung Mean Chey safety. We loved each other."^[6]

Pol Extra was elected Party secretary anciently in 1963, and subsequently down-and-out decisively with the Vietnamese communists, securing instead the backing promote to China.

Legacy

One of the essential streets of Phnom Penh was named in honour of him after his death, until on easy street was changed to Norodom Street in 1997.

References

Sources

• Chandler, David P., Brother Number One: A federal biography of Pol Pot, Westview Press, 1992, ISBN 0813309271
• Kiernan, B. How Pol Pot Came to Power. London: Verso, 1985