Hu Nim

Hu Nim (1932–1977), alias Phoas, was a Cambodian politician and public official, and was of Sino-Khmer descent. [* cite book|title=The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas|pages=148, Cambodia–The Khmer Rouge, 1970-78|author=Lynn Pan|url=http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Chinese-Overseas-Lynn-Pan/dp/0674252101/ref=sr_1_1/002-4601878-9323256?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191934412&sr=1-1|origyear=1998|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=0674252101] Nim was from a poor peasant background. He was, however, a brilliant student and rose to the position of Director of the Treasury at the age of 26. He served under Prince Norodom Sihanouk as the Director of Customs and was elected to Cambodia's Parliament in 1958.

Prince Sihanouk, in preparation of 1958 parliamentary elections and in an effort to control the right wing of his Sangkum party, recruited Nim and four other young, outspoken leftist candidates to run unopposed for parliament. Following their election, they would hold ministerial positions in Sihanouk's government during the following several years.

He fled to the resistance forces in 1967. After King Sihanouk was deposed and established his government in exile in Beijing, the Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea (GRUNK), Nim acted as the Minister of Information, a position he subsequently held with Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government of Democratic Kampuchea after the fall of the Lon Nol government in 1975. At the time he was a Central Committee member of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. He was purged from the party and killed at Tuol Sleng in 1977.

References

*cite book |last=Short |first=Philip |title=Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare |year=2004 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |location=New York |id=ISBN 0-8050-6662-4