Koy Thoun
កុយ ធួន
Born1933
French Indochina
Died1977(1977-00-00) (aged 43–44)
Democratic Kampuchea
OccupationPolitician

Khoy Thoun (Khmer: កុយ ធួន, 1933–1977) was a Cambodian politician, intellectual and a member of the Central Committee of the Khmer Rouge.[1][2][3] A former high school teacher, he had joined the revolutionary movement in the 1960s and had risen to the Finance Minister of Democratic Kampuchea and leader of the Northern Zone before being arrested along with of all his colleagues and associates in 1977, sent to the infamous S-21 concentration camp.[4] He was replaced by Ta Pok for leadership of the Northern Zone and executed the same year he was arrested.

According to a refugee interviewed by François Ponchaud, the new people were treated decently before the purge.[5] However, according to another refugee interviewed by Michael Vickery, conditions generally deteriorated afterwards. Executions widely increased in scope, formerly being restricted in general to ex-soldiers of the Khmer Republic and high officials, to target new people, local peasants, and party cadres.

References

  1. ^ Chon, Gina; Thet, Sambath (3 June 2011). Behind the Killing Fields: A Khmer Rouge Leader and One of His Victims. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812201598.
  2. ^ Bartrop, Paul Robert (2012). A Biographical Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide: Portraits of Evil and Good. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780313386787.
  3. ^ Chandler, David (1999). Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison. University of California Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-520-22005-6.
  4. ^ Vickery, Michael (1984). Cambodia: 1975-1982. South End Press. p. 123. ISBN 0-89608189-3.
  5. ^ Ponchaud, François (1977). Cambodia Year Zero. Penguin Books. pp. 72–73.
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