Kbal Ansoang
:
The following sketch of Kbal Ansoang draws on my own visit in November 2001 and on In Sopheap’s recollections of life there (interview). Both Sopheap and Kor Bunheng used the word ‘idyllic’ to describe the area.
434
–5
Every time . . . replace him
:
Peschoux,
‘Noiweaux’ Khmers Rouges,
p. 140. Although the speaker, a former Khmer Rouge cadre, was describing Pol’s seminars in the 1980s, those who attended seminars at Kbal Ansoang, including In Sopheap, said his gifts of oratory were undiminished.
435
He also developed . . . left side
:
Thiounn Thioeunn, interview. See also Pol Pot,
Thayer interview
.
He spent more time . . . youth in Phnom Penh
:
Kong Duong and In Sopheap, interviews. Kân also remembered Pol telling stories of his childhood (interview).
Later he got . . . disappeared
:
Tep Khunnal, interview. Khunnal said he filled nine notebooks with Pol’s reminiscences, but they were lost, along with other papers, when Mok overturned Pol’s leadership in June 1997. Some were subsequently recovered and are now in posession of Stephen Heder (private communication).
Whisky
:
In Sopheap, interview. Khieu Samphân also remembered Pol drinking whisky when they were in the maquis (interview).
He appreciated . . .technique
:
Kong Duong, interview; interview with Meas Somneang, Pailin, Mar. 27 2001. At Office 131, in the early 1980s, a traditional orchestra was assembled to play for the Khmer Rouge radio station, and Pol would invite them to play for him. One of the group, a man then in his early eighties, was living at a
wat
in Pailin in 2001.
Paris-Match
:
In Sopheap, interview.
436
–7
Their agent was . . . never recovered
:
Except where specified elsewhere, this account relies on Kong Duong, Mey Mak, Phi Phuon, and Phann interviews.
437
‘Like a fish’
:
Kân,
interview.
438
Nuon Chea and Son Sen . . . cloud
:
Interview with Mok’s driver, Chhun, Anlong Veng, Dec. 12 2001; In Sopheap, interview.
Rapidly deteriorating
:
Kân, Moeun, interviews.
‘Crossing of a river’
:
In Sopheap, interview.
439
May 16 1997
:
Letter from Long Sarin to Prince Ranariddh, May 18 1997 (Nhek Bunchhay personal archive, Phnom Penh).
440
The plan was to seize
:
Nhek Bunchhay, interview.
440
–1
At about midnight . . . was right
:
Unless otherwise stated, the following account is taken from interviews with Seng (Pailin, Mar. 14 2001), In Sopheap, Kân, Keo Yann, Meas Somneang and Phann, all of whom were at Kbal Ansoang on the day Mok’s forces attacked. The chronology is confused. Pol’s order for the killing of Son Sen shortly after midnight on the night of June 9 is confirmed by Tern’s statement on June 24 1997 (‘Anlong Veng Papers’,
supra;
see also
Phnom Penh Post,
Aug. 15–28 1997). Mok said he started organising his forces at the Anlong Veng district centre on the morning of June 10 (‘Anlong Veng Papers’, meeting of Sept. 9 1997) and continued on the 11th. The Khmer Rouge radio at Kbal Ansoang broadcast for the last time on the morning of June 12. Pol must therefore have fled that afternoon. In Sopheap remembered spending ‘three or four nights’ on the run—i.e. until June 15 or 16—by which time it appeared to him that Pol had already been captured. Mok said the crisis had been resolved on June 14 (
Phnom Penh
Posf, June 27-July 10 1997), implying that Pol had been caught that day. Meas Somneang’s account also suggests that Pol must have been captured on June 14 or 15 (interview).
440
Pol later told
:
Pol Pot,
Thayer interview.
442
Pol Pot has died
:
Chandler,
Brother,
p. 186. I have taken the liberty of changing the translation,’cow shit’, into ‘cowpat’.
AFTERWORD
444
‘Explosion’
:
Ponchaud, interview. He used the French term
sursaut.
‘Quiet, introverted’:
Drago Rancic, writing in
Politika,
Belgrade, excerpted in
Seven Days,
May 19 1978.
445
Yos Hut Khemcaro
:
Phnom Penh Post,
Mar. 21-Apr. 3 1997.
446
Actions of ‘normal’ governments
:
For example, in 1945 the US Army granted an amnesty, in exchange for their research results, to Japanese germ warfare specialists who had carried out thousands of experiments on prisoners of war as horrific as any of the atrocities of Josef Mengele in Auschwitz (see Sheldon H. Harris,
Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–45, and the American Cover-up,
Routledge, London, 1994). Granting an amnesty in those circumstances was certainly a ‘crime against humanity’ and would be prosecuted as such under an international system of justice worthy of the name.
447
Culture of impunity
:
On July 6 1999, a film actress named Piseth Pelika was shot in Phnom Penh and later died of her injuries. It transpired that she had been the mistress of Hun Sen. The French weekly
l’Express,
accused the Prime Minister’s wife, Bun Rany, of ordering her execution. She threatened to sue
l’Express
but did not do so. No police investigation of Pelika’s murder was ever undertaken (
Phnom Penh Post,
July 23-Aug. 5, Oct. 15–28 and Oct. 29-Nov. 11, 1999, and July 7–20 2000).
448
‘Utterly merciless’
:
Lee KwanYew,
Third World to First,
p. 328.
‘Millions of Cambodians’
:
Phnom Penh Post,
Mar. 21—Apr. 3 1997.
‘Since the fall of Angkor’
:
Ros Chantrabot, p. 149.
449
Like a porcelain vase
:
The simile is Lee Kwan Yew’s (
Third World to First,
p. 327).
Index
Page numbers in
bold
refer to the dramatis personae section, pages 450–8.
AEK (l’Association des Etudiants Khmers)
48
–50,
58
sets up study circles
51
–2
links with left-wing
60
,
62
–3
confronts Sihanouk
78
,
81
,
83
–4
Afghanistan
412
,
424
Albania
332
Albright, Madeleine
447
Alfonso, Denise
371
Algeria
364
,
446
Anduong Meas
177
Angkar
256
,
309
,
330
–1,
347
;
see also
CPK
term first used
121
in 1960s
153
–4
remoteness of
234
,
295
–6,
338
,
366
and evacuees from Phnom Penh
278–9
treatment of population
314
–16,
322
–5,
347
,
368
admits communist identity
361
,
375
Angkor Wat
24
,
35
as model
7
,
21
,
293
,
341
,
351
,
365
,
444
–5
brahmins
26
Cambodia retains temples (1941)28
Pol Pot visits (1945)
32
–3
as Issarak refuge (1946)
35
on Khmer Viet Minh flag
54
occupied by Viet Cong
205
Sihanouk visits (1973)
244
Khmers Rouges and
313
n,
381
Anlong Veng
432
,
434
,
439
Aragon, Louis
69
Aural, Mt
178
,
184
,
186
,
408
,
412
,
436
Auriol, Vincent
90
–1
autarky
289
,
349
B–1
311
,
345
,
358
,
366
B–5
262
B–50
426
Baker, James
426
banditry
35
,
87
Bandung summit
113
Bangkok
39
,
303
,
381
,
405
‘Bangkok Plot’
125
Bank Buildings, Phnom Penh
312
,
355
Banteay Chhmar
232
,
268
–9
Bantei Srey temple
244
Bao Dai
198
,
331
Bassac river
26
,
274
Battambang
88
,
101
–2,
398
Lord Governor
17
and Thailand
28
,
35
,
119
,
125
and Khmers Viet Minh
39
,
120
armed uprising (1967–8)
164
–5,
167
,
169
,
173
–5
during 1970–5 civil war
216
,
251
,
270
evacuation of (1975)
277
–8
guerrilla war against Vietnam
408
,
421
Bavel
436
Bay Damran
174
Beausse, Jean de
153
Becker, Elizabeth
393
,
394
Beijing
Pol Pot visits
1965
159
1970
188
,
197
,
199
–200,
202
1975
298
–303
1976
363
1977
375
–7
1978
388
–90
1981
415
–16
1987
423
–4
Sihanouk exiled in
8
,
198
–202,
239
–42,
329
–31
Democratic Kampuchean ambassador to
334
Son Sen visits
388
Nuon Chea visits
388
Bek Chan
276
Belden, Jack:
China Shakes the World
71
Berlin Festival (1951)
60
–1,