Pol Pot (107 page)

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

Peschoux,

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

Thiounn Thioeunn, interview. See also Pol Pot,

.

Kong Duong and In Sopheap, interviews. Kân also remembered Pol telling stories of his childhood (interview).

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).

In Sopheap, interview. Khieu Samphân also remembered Pol drinking whisky when they were in the maquis (interview).

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

in Pailin in 2001.

In Sopheap, interview.

436

–7

Except where specified elsewhere, this account relies on Kong Duong, Mey Mak, Phi Phuon, and Phann interviews.

437

interview.

438

Interview with Mok’s driver, Chhun, Anlong Veng, Dec. 12 2001; In Sopheap, interview.

Kân, Moeun, interviews.

In Sopheap, interview.

439

Letter from Long Sarin to Prince Ranariddh, May 18 1997 (Nhek Bunchhay personal archive, Phnom Penh).

440

Nhek Bunchhay, interview.

440

–1

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’,

see also

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 (

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 Pot,

442

Chandler,

p. 186. I have taken the liberty of changing the translation,’cow shit’, into ‘cowpat’.

444

Ponchaud, interview. He used the French term

Drago Rancic, writing in

Belgrade, excerpted in

May 19 1978.

445

Mar. 21-Apr. 3 1997.

446

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,

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

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

accused the Prime Minister’s wife, Bun Rany, of ordering her execution. She threatened to sue

but did not do so. No police investigation of Pelika’s murder was ever undertaken (

July 23-Aug. 5, Oct. 15–28 and Oct. 29-Nov. 11, 1999, and July 7–20 2000).

448

Lee KwanYew,

p. 328.

Mar. 21—Apr. 3 1997.

Ros Chantrabot, p. 149.

449

The simile is Lee Kwan Yew’s (

p. 327).

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

;

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:

71

Berlin Festival (1951)

60

–1,