Read Pol Pot Online

Authors: Philip Short

Pol Pot (98 page)

. . .
us to do
:
‘Zhou Enlai and Pham Van Dong’, Beijing, Mar. 21 1970, CWIHP Archives.
199
Monarchical-communist
:
Interview with
RC,
quoted in Gorce to MAE, No. 37/CX, Jan. 26 1960, c. CLV 11, QD.
Also met Sâr: Black Paper,
p. 38.
The problem was
:
Sâr wrote later that the Prince was ‘on the defensive’ during his first two days in China (
Black Paper
, p. 35).
We should . . . Kompong Som
:
‘Zhou Enlai and Pham Van Dong’, Mar. 21 1970,
supra.
The CIA reported the same day that Lon Nol had instructed his forces ‘to avoid friction with [Viet Cong/North Vietnamese] forces . . . as talks are continuing with [their] representatives in Phnom Penh’ (quoted in Shawcross,
Sideshow
, pp. 124–5). The Chinese Ambassador in Phnom Penh, Kang Maozhao, told Lon Nol in April that China would recognise his government if he maintained the communist sanctuaries, allowed weapons’ transit and aided the Viet Cong in their propaganda; not surprisingly, Lon Nol refused (Qiang Zhai,
Vietnam Wars
, pp. 189–90).
‘On oath’
:
Etienne Manac’h, Pékin, to MAE,Telegram Nos. 1194–9, Apr. I, and Nos. 1264–72, Apr. 6 1970, c. A-O-1965–78 442, QD.
199
–200
Two days later . . . near and far
:
Sihanouk,‘Message to Compatriots’, in Grant et al.,
Widening War
, pp. 105–9.
200
As the language
:
The reference to ‘the pure working people’ bears the hallmark of Sâr’s style. ‘Pure’ was one of his favourite adjectives; it was not a word Sihanouk used, nor was it Chinese communist jargon. See also the commentary in
RC
, May 28 1971.
References to socialism
:
Sâr claimed in the
Black Paper
(pp. 35 and 38) that he ‘examined and modified’ the text (which he called the FUNK ‘political programme’ because it contained what the Khmer Rouge described as a ‘five-point programme’ of action), and that this was why ‘there was no question of socialism or communism in that document’. The claim is credible. The Khmers Rouges went to great lengths throughout the civil war to hide their communist goals. See also Sihanouk,
Calice
, Ch. 6, p. 45.
During the meeting . . .no persuading
:
Zhonghua renmin gongheguo waijiaoshi
, p. 74. This source says that Sâr met ‘many members of the CPC Centre’. Sâr himself speaks only of meeting Zhou Enlai (
Black Paper
, pp. 35 and 38). While in China in 1970, he also had frequent contact with Kang Sheng (Ieng Sary, interview), but this took place before the coup.
Never told
:
Sihanouk,
Calice
, Ch. 6, p. 44.
200
–2
Political matters . . . to the interior
:
This account relies essentially on the recollections of Thiounn Mumm (
supra
). For details of the Indochina Summit, see Xinhua News Agency, Apr. 25 and 26, and
Renmin ribao
, Apr. 26 1970; for the GRUNC cabinet, see
Peking Review
, May 18 1970, and Jennar,
Clés,
p. 70.
204
‘They told us . . . have nothing’
:
‘Rapport [oral] du camarade Khieu Minh’,
supra.
This was confirmed by Kuong Lomphon, who spent nine months with Ith Sarin in the Special Zone in 1972 and early 1973. Arguing that the Khmers Rouges did not want a quick victory, he wrote:‘They realise that the people do not yet know them . . . Thus they are preparing for a long drawn-out struggle. If they won quickly it would be meaningless’ (quoted in Kiernan,
How Pol Pot
, p. 399 n.133).
205
Some Vietnamese . . . supervision
:
Former Khmer Rouge commune chief who wished to remain anonymous (hereafter ‘Mekhum’), interview, Phum Chinik, Prek Kabas district, Takeo, Mar. 10 2001.
Sâr complained
:
Black Paper
, pp. 54–7.
No choice
:
Siet Chhê, then CPK Secretary of Region 22 in the Eastern Zone, recalled that after the coup, ‘The Vietnamese came in all over the place, everywhere in the Zone . . . with working groups for this and that. They had letters of authorisation from the Zone [Secretary, So Phim] . . . They organised some village authorities, but I did not recognise them . . .’ (confession, May 11 1977). Sdoeung, in Region 25, remembered: ‘In April 1970, the Vietnamese organised the village and commune authorities . . . The district chief of Koh Thom was a Yuon [Vietnamese] . . . and he assigned me to be a member of te commune committee’ (confession, May 4 1978). According to the
Black Paper
(p. 56), Vietnamese-installed local administrations were widespread in the Eastern Zone and existed to a lesser extent in the South-West. See also Mey Mak, interview.
COSVN urged
:
‘The Vietcong March-April 1970 Plans for Expanding Control in Cambodia’, US Mission, Saigon, Vietnam Documents and Research Notes, No. 88, Jan. 1971, quoted in Kiernan and Boua,
Peasants and Politics
, pp. 257–61. The documents betray the same patronising tone toward Khmers as in the 1950s. Then the Viet Minh spoke of the ‘insufficiency of their intellectual level’ (see Ch. 2). Now Viet Cong cadres were told:‘because [the Khmers’] capacity for learning is slow, we must use explanations that suit their level of understanding.’ Although the texts quoted by Kiernan and Boua were from lower-level units, they reflected COSVN guidelines.
207
When cannon fodder . . . were raped
:
Robert Sam Anson,
War News: A Young Reporter in Indochina
, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1989, pp. 116–28 and 135–42; AP, Neak Luong, Apr. 15, quoted in Sihanouk,
My War
, p. 72; and UPI, Phnom Penh, Apr. 10 1970, quoted in Sihanouk,
Calice
, pp. 60–1; Ponchaud,
Cathédrale
, pp. 136–7. See also Dauge to MAE, Telegram Nos. 801–4, Apr. 14 1970, where the Ambassador, whose reporting was generally sympathetic to the new regime, warned of the risk of ‘a real genocide’. The following day, he speculated that the killings were becoming ‘more selective’ because two priests, crossing the Mekong at Neak Luong, had counted 139 male bodies in the water, considerably fewer than on previous days (Telegram Nos. 846–8 Apr. 15). The Judicial Affairs Division of the French Foreign Ministry advised that ‘the acts currently being perpetrated in Cambodia could come within the scope of the UN Convention against Genocide’ (Direction des Affaires Juridiques, Note 420, Apr. 21 1970), all in c. A-O-1965–78 442, QD.
It looked and smelt . . . not the outside
:
Observer
, Apr. 19 1970.
208
Only possible way out
:
Phillips,
Social Contact
, pp. 351–5.
Groslier
:
Quoted in Shawcross,
Sideshow
, p. 127.
Terrible explosions
:
Sihanouk,
Indochine
, pp. 90–1; see also Sihanouk,
Prisonnier
, pp.379–82.
Radio broadcast
:
Lon Nol,’Message to Buddhist Believers’, May 11 1970, in Grant et al.,
Widening War
, pp. 109–12. The original broadcast was in Khmer. A French translation was issued by AKP on May 12 (c.A-0-1965–78 442, QD).
209
There was a price . . . resistance army
:
Kiernan,
How Pol Pot
, pp. 306–10; and
Communist Movement
, pp. 262–3; Shawcross,
Sideshow
, pp. 174–5; Sheldon Simon,
War and Politics in Cambodia: A Communications Analysis
, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1974, pp. 40–1. Sosthène Fernandez was quoted as saying at the end of 1970: ‘South Vietnamese troops rape, they destroy houses, they steal, they loot pagodas and they beat the Buddhist monks’ (Bernard K. Gordon,‘Cambodia’s Foreign Relations: Sihanouk and After’, in Zasloff and Goodman,
Conflict
, p. 163).
210
Sâr bade farewell
:
Black Paper
, p. 55; Pâng, confession, May 28 1978.
So anti-Vietnamese
:
Interview with Chen Xiaoning, Beijing, July 9 2000.
Stretcher
:
Pâng,
supra
.
Schizophrenia
:
Thiounn Thioeunn, interview.
210
–11
Sâr’s cook . . . atrocities
:
Moeun, interview; and ‘Alone among Brothers’,
Cambodia Daily
, Oct. 20 2001.
211
Friends remembered
:
Moeun, interview.
Trigger
:
Ibid.
During the talks
:
Black Paper
, p. 34.
1,500 exiles
:
Kit Mân, interview;Yun Soeun, confession, May 26 1977.
212
Before leaving . . . pocket lights
:
Kit Man, interview.
Sâr himself
:
Phi Phuon, interview; Tiv Ol, confession, June 14 1977 et seq.
On the eve . . . Khieu (‘Blue’)
:
This account of the taking of new revolutionary names is drawn from Phi Phuon, interview. Khmers will also change their names if they are frequently ill, or narrowly escape death, ‘in order to deceive the evil spirits’ that threaten them (Ponchaud,
Cathédrale
, p. 213).
Pol
:
David Chandler (
Tragedy
, p. 370 n.64; and
Brother Number One
, p. 209 n.25) quotes Keng Vannsak as saying that Sâr was known as Pol (or Paul) in Paris and speculates that this might have been the name by which he was known at the Ecole Miche. Vannsak’s memory was at fault in this case: Sâr never used the name Pol in Paris. According to a missionary who taught at the Ecole Miche, it was not the school’s practice to give Christian names to Cambodian children who studied there (‘Bref aperçu sur l’Ecole Miche, 1934–42’by Fr. Yves Guellec, unpublished ms held at the Archives Lasalliennes, Lyons).
213
The resolution . . . to be used
:
Extracts from the text are given in ‘Recherche sur le Parti Cambodgien’ (
supra
) and, more fully, in Doc. TLM/165, ‘Les Perspectives, les Lignes et la Politique Etrangère du Parti Communiste Cambodgien’,VA.
214
Fifteenth salvo
:
Dauge to MAE, Telegram Nos. 2720–5, Oct. 9 1970, c. A-O-65–78 443,QD.
CHAPTER SEVEN: FIRES OF PURGATION
215
–16
Nothing the guerrillas
:
Truong NhuTang,
Memoir
, pp. 167–70 and 177.
218
–219
The French . . . attackers to flight
:
Bizot,
Portail
, pp. 46–51.
219
Um Savuth
:
Shawcross,
Sideshow

Other books

The Year of Living Famously by Laura Caldwell
The Owner of His Heart by Taylor, Theodora
Silent by Sara Alva
Chill Factor by Sandra Brown
Hostage Midwife by Cassie Miles
Reign of Iron by Angus Watson


readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024