Lon Non

Lon Non (18 April 1930(?) – 17 April 1975) was a Cambodian politician and soldier who rose to his greatest prominence during the Khmer Republic (1970–1975).

Non was the younger brother of Prime Minister (and later President) Lon Nol. As a result, he was often referred to as "Little Brother" (French: Petit frère) in political circles, in which he was regarded as a somewhat machiavellian figure who was determined to protect his brother's monopoly on power. Non was executed by members of the Khmer Rouge after the Communist seizure of Phnom Penh in April 1975.

Non was the son of Lon Hin, a Cambodian district administrator from Prey Veng. He attended Collège Norodom Sihanouk in Kampong Cham; his best friend there was a youth called Saloth Sar, who would later become better known as Pol Pot. Later, sponsored by his successful older brother, he completed his education in France, where he studied criminology.

Under the administration of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Non served as an officer of the military police, reaching the rank of Major. Subsequent to the Cambodian coup of 1970, in which Sihanouk was ousted by Lon Nol, then serving as Prime Minister, Non was rapidly promoted. Despite a lack of substantial military experience, he was soon given the rank of Colonel, and then General: the 'elite', American-trained militias of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom and Khmer Serei, flown into the country after the coup, were placed under his command. The massacres of Vietnamese residents of Cambodia in the period subsequent to the coup are thought to have been carried out by the military under Lon Non's direction.

Non's political motivation seems to have partly derived from an unswerving loyalty to his brother, and his machinations against the coup's other main figure, Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak, caused serious divisions in the Cambodian administration. While Lon Nol was in poor health during 1970 and 1971, his brother and the army made it clear they would accept no other leader and made efforts to sideline Sirik Matak, who was given the title of "Prime Minister-Delegate". In 1971 Non raised his political profile by directing a moderately successful military operation, Akineth Moha Padevuth, driving Communist guerrillas from villages around National Route 3 (Akineth was a wizard and hermit in the Reamker on whom Non seems to have modelled himself).

...
Wikipedia