Pol Pot (105 page)

363

Pol Pot,

p. 172, and

p. 191.

Dossier L01500, Oct. 9 1976, DC-Cam.

364

The existence of such centres, long a taboo subject in France, was discussed in a series of articles in

in 2001, and in television documentaries broadcast by Antenne 2 and the Franco-German channel ARTE.

See Hinton,

pp. 95 and 113–15; and Rithy Pann’s film,

transmitted by ARTE on June 2 2003.

365

Peter Scholl-Latour,

St Martin’s Press, New York, 1981, p. 32.

Bunchan Mol,

pp. 177–82.

Thun Saray, quoted in Prasso, p. 20. See also Mabbett and Chandler,

pp. 160—1.

366

Criddle and Butt Mam,

p. 213.

Deuch, interview.

Picq,

pp. 188–90.

367

‘Details of my course at the Annexe CIA college in Loughborough, England’, Dossier D1444, Sept. 5 1978, DC-Cam.

369

Becker,

p. 236;Vickery,

p. 117. Khieu Thirith remembered the visit as being in mid-1976. I suspect it was later —probably in November or early December. Pol alluded to her findings so clearly in his speech of Dec. 20 that one may reasonably deduce he had only recently been made aware of them.

Pol Pot,

p. 207.

‘Resolution of the Eastern Zone Congress, July 17 1977’, Doc. 32(N442)/T8294,VA. See also Kiernan,

pp. 16, 27, 37, 48, 51 and 88; and Kiernan,

pp. 185

370

Minutes of the CPK Standing Committee, Mar. 30 1976, Dossier D693, DC-Cam.

Untitled 1978 notebook with entries by Pon and Tuy, DC-Cam.

Interview with an S-21 guard in Rithy Pann’s film,

370

–1

Haing Ngor,

pp. 217–18 and 222–3.

371

Picq,

pp. 217,230 and 238.

373

Douglas Pike, testimony before the US Congress House Committee on International Relations, Oct. 4 1978, cited in Ablin and Hood,

p. xl.

375

MTI correspondent Gyori Sandor, quoted in Chanda,

p. 194; Pham Van Dong, ‘Interview by Vietnam News Agency’, undated but January

vol. 8, p. 263.

Pham Van Dong, ibid, p. 268.

376

This account of the talks between Pol and Hua is taken from Doc. 32(N442)/T8300,VA.

377

‘Talks with Pol Pot, Ieng Sary and Vorn Vet, Pyongyang, Oct. 5 and 6 1977’. Doc. 32(N442)/T8307, VA; BBC SWB FE5633/A3/2.

378

See Pol Pot’s speech of Jan. 17 (SWB FE5717/A3/2), where he speaks of’a monumental victory . . . [which] may be compared to the great victory of April 17 1975’.

380

Pol Pot,

p. 224.

381

‘Pay attention to pushing ahead with the work of building the forces of the Party and the collectivity and make them strong and stronger’, in

Mar. 1978, pp. 37–53.

Vann Nath,

pp. 42–82 and 86; Testimony of Ung Pech, in De Nike et al., p. 81.

Details of these and similar visits are recorded in BBC SWB FE,

383

Pol Pot,

384

‘Réunion particulière du Comité Central du Parti du 22 Janvier 1978’, Doc. 32(N442)/T8302,VA.

385

–6

By far the best account of So Phim’s fate, and the terrors wrought afterwards on the population in the East, is given in Kiernan,

pp. 392–416, from which the following is largely drawn. The only point on which I take issue with him is the claim that, in the final days, Phim wished to seek help from the Vietnamese. This rests mainly on a 1992 statement by Heng Samrin, who by then had long since thrown in his lot with Hanoi and therefore had his own interests to defend. Samrin s claim is all the harder to swallow because, until the late summer of 1978, he was himself on record as holding strong anti-Vietnamese views (see Heder,

p. 25).

386

Deuch, interview with Nate Thayer; see also Vann Nath,

pp. 79–81.

387

‘Excerpts from the Meeting of 870, August 5 1978’, in De Nike et al., p. 412.

In Sopheap commented: ‘To Europeans, his arguments may sound far-fetched, but for Khmers they made sense . . . In emotional terms, Pol Pot knew exactly how to speak in order to touch Khmer hearts’ (interview).

388

This account of Sihanouk’s reappearance and the events leading up to it is taken mainly from

pp. 209, 212–17 and 259_93. On his isolation from April 1976 to September 1977, see pp. 125–45, 168 and 174–5; and Schier,

pp. 21–2.

Norodom Sihanouk’s unpublished ‘Memoirs’ quoted by Julio A.Jeldres in ‘China’s Growing Influence in Cambodia’,

no. 8, Pisa, 2002, p. 8.

388

–9

Pich Chheang and Moeun, interviews. The date of Pol’s speech marking the CPK’s 18th anniversary is given as Sept. 19 in Doc. 32(N422)/T83i8, VA. For the broadcast version, see SWB FE/5930/C/1–6 and FE/5931/C/1—13. On Sept. 29, Pol received the Chinese Ambassador, Sun Hao, in Phnom Penh (SWB FE/5933/A3/12), and on Oct. 2 he attended a Standing Committee meeting (Doc. 32(N422)/T83i8,

Puzzlingly, neither he nor Nuon Chea was present at the Sept. 30 National Day reception at the Chinese Embassy, but this may have been for other, unconnected reasons. If the Sept. 19 date is correct, it suggests that he was in Beijing from the 20th or 21st until about the 28th. However, it is also possible that the visit took place in early October.

389

–90

‘870 to 12’, Jan. 20 1979, Doc. 32(N442)/T7293,VA.

390

‘Réunion particuliére du Comité Central du Parti du 22 Janvier 1978’,

I have cited these excerpts here since in practice they were not implemented earlier.

‘The National Duties of All of Us’,

1978, pp. 1–3.

391

Picq,

pp. 340–1.

392

BBC SWB FE5962/A3/2–5.

The only known details of the Fifth Congress are contained in a cadre’s notebook, of which a partial translation exists in the VA (Doc. 32(N442)/T8389).A note by the Vietnamese editor, presumably based on an untranslated section, suggests that the notebook may have belonged to Ieng Sary.

394

This account is taken from Becker,

pp. 427–9; Dudman,

Jan. 15 1979; and Phi Phuon, interview. Significantly, Phi Phuon’s account was consistent with those of Becker and Dudman on all important details.

Phi Phuon, interview.

This was the version given to me by British diplomats in Beijing in February 1979.

395

–6

Unless otherwise specified, this account of the invasion relies on Chanda,

pp. 341–3.

396

—7

Sihanouk,

pp. 316–20.

397

Pol Pot, recorded appeal to the Cambodian people, broadcast at dawn on Jan. 5, local time, BBC SWB FE6009/A3/1–3.

Yun Shui,

pp. 499–501.

398

Phi Phuon, interview.

Ibid., Khieu Samphán, interview. David Chandler, relying on Y Phandara’s memoir, describes two helicopters passing over Phnom Penh that morning,’carrying Pol Pot and his close associates to exile in Thailand’. Sadly—the image is so evocative one wishes it were true—reality was more prosaic. According to Mey Mak (interview), who headed the civilian sector at Pochentong Airport, one helicopter left the military sector of the airport on the evening of Jan. 6, but it was never established who was in it. Two of the remaining helicopters were apparently flown out by their pilots on their own initiative the following morning (ibid.; and Ong Thong Hoeung,