When the War Was Over (104 page)

399 From the moment our Chinese aircraft landed . . . The following section based on author notes and photographs from two-week visit to Democratic Kampuchea in December 1978.

433 “We only packed a few of our clothes . . .” Author interview.

433 “He was more popular than before . . .” Author interview.

435 “I encouraged the Chinese . . .” Author interview.

437 The Soviet Union's Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked Igor Rogachev . . . This and all other Rogachev material and all direct quotes based on author interviews with Rogachev: Paris, October 22, 1991, and New York, September 23, 1992.

438 his spoken Chinese was “so exceptional, so beautiful.” Author interview with Yassen N. Zassoursky, Dean, Faculty of Journalism, Moscow University, Washington, D.C., 1994.

438 Roy felt Rogachev was easier to get to know. . . . Author interview with Stapleton Roy, Washington, D.C., July 1, 1991.

439 “He is noted for his unorthodox thinking, but also for his gentle . . .” Author interview with Yevgniy V. Afansyev, September 17, 1991.

441 Since the age of sixteen, when he dropped out of high school . . . Unless otherwise stated, all Hun Sen direct quotes and biographical material based on author interviews: Phnom Penh, January 8, 1983; Soisson, France, November 10, 1988; Phnom Penh, March 20, 1989; Paris, July 28, 1989, and August 30, 1989; Phnom Penh, May 5, 1992.

441 “I was lucky,” he said. Author interview, 1983.

442 so he boarded at Wat Tveak Kavorn. . . . Author interview, March 1989.

443 “. . . a danger not only in Asia but from Asia to the world.” Prince Norodom Sihanouk at the United Nations, author, “Sihanouk Center Stage,”
Washington Post
, January 15, 1979.

444 “my life is one of ironies . . .” Ibid.

445 In an uncharacteristically clumsy gesture. . . . Nayan Chanda,
Brother Enemy: The War After the War
(San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1986), p. 365.

445 “We told him.” Author interview with Richard Holbrooke, 1983.

445 “In January, 1997, in New York, I found myself poor as Job . . .”
Souvenirs doux et amers.

447 “given the preoccupations of the Vietnamese government with security. . . .” Author interview with Robert B. Oakley, June 26, 1979.

447 “There is no way you're going to get the . . .” Author interview with Richard Holbrooke, November 29, 1983.

449 Cambodia remained at the bottom of the list . . . See Eva Mysliwiec,
Punishing the Poor: The International Isolation of Kampuchea
(Oxford: Oxfam Publishers, 1988), p. 77.

449 “I have one recurring nightmare. . . .” Author interview with Sihanouk,
Washington Post
, February 27, 1980.

450 At thirty-five years of age, Martin was young. . . . This and all other quotes and information regarding Martin are based on author interviews: Paris, November 1989, July 1990, December 1991; in letters and phone conversations from Beijing, November 1990 and July 1992; and from Hong Kong, May 1991.

452—453 Based on newspaper accounts and author interviews on the border.

453 “There was overspending here, without question.” Author interview,
Washington Post,
February 1, 1981.

454—455 Description of Phnom Penh based on William Shawcross,
The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust and Modern Conscience
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984).

455—456 See Report of the International Conference on Kampuchea, New York: United Nations, July 13—17, 1981.

458 “Rolls Royce of diplomacy.” Author interview, October 1984.

459 The prince invited the Brooklyn Democrat. . . . Author interview with Stephen Solarz, July 1991.

462 “We made it clear,” Ms. Griffith said. Author interview with Ann Mills Griffith, May 1991.

463 When Gorbachev took the reins. . . . The account relies extensively on Michael Dobbs,
Down with Big Brother, The Fall of the Soviet Empire
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997).

464 Gorbachev went to the Soviet port city of Vladivostok. . . .
Vital Speeches of the Day,
pp. 706—11.

464 Chronology based on newspaper accounts from the
New York Times, Washington Post, Bangkok Post,
and Patrick Raszelenberg and Peter Schier,
The Cambodia Conflict: Search for a Settlement, 1979—1991, an Analytical Chronology
(Hamburg: Mitteilungen des Instituts für Asienkunde, 1995).

466 “We frankly analyze and bravely admit. . . .” Asia 1988 Yearbook,
Far Eastern Economic Review,
p. 252.

468 “Mr. Rogachev was most important for me. . . .” This and all subsequent quotes based on author interviews in Paris, 1989, 1991; Phnom Penh, 1989, 1991; and Washington, 1991.

473 There was a personal line of communication as well. . . . This episode is based on author interview with Jean–Jacques and Khek Galabru, Paris 1989, 1990, and copies of fourteen of the telegrams between Hun Sen and Norodom Sihanouk.

474—476 Based on author coverage of the two meetings between Hun Sen and Sihanouk.

478 In a lengthy written interview. . . . Author interview, July 1988.

481 Chatichai told these two young advisors. . . . Author interviews with Chatichai Choonhaven, Kraisak Choonhaven, and Pansak Vinyaratn, Bangkok, 1990; and further quotes from Pansak based on author interviews in Paris, 1989; Bangkok and Washington, 1991.

482—483 Hun Sen visit based on newspaper reports from the
Bangkok Post
and
The Nation
(Bangkok).

484 Account from James A. Baker III,
The Politics of Diplomacy, Revolution, War and Peace 1989—1992
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995), pp. 72–83.

485—486 Newspaper accounts and Dobbs,
Down with Big Brother.

486—488 Newspaper accounts and Donald Morrison, ed.,
Massacre in Beijing: China's Struggle for Democracy
(New York: Times, Inc., 1989).

489—492 Based on author coverage of the event and official Paris Conference documents.

494 Meeting with Nguyen Co Thach and General John W Vessey, Jr. based on author interviews with Vessey, Washington, D.C., 1991.

496 At the meeting Soloman told Martin of Baker's plans. . . . All quotes from Richard Soloman and reports on his diplomatic meetings based on author interviews, 1991 and 1992.

497 On January 2, 1990, Secretary of State James Baker sent a letter. . . . Based on private diary of senior American official who took part in these negotiations.

497 The idea of calling together the five permanent members of the UN security council. Author interviews with Soloman and John Bolton.

497—501 Description of the Perm Five meetings based on interviews with Soloman, Rogochev, Martin, Bolton, and anonymous official's diaries.

503 “There was a group of people in the Administration. . . .” Author interview with Robert Kimmit, Washington, D.C., December 1990.

508 Vath Roeum settled into a one-room hut. Author interview published in
New York Times
, August 25, 1992.

510—515 Description of UNTAC mission based on three author reporting trips in 1992 and 1995 and on Asia Watch and Physicians for Human Rights,
Land Mines in Cambodia, the Coward's War
(New York: Human Rights Watch, 1991); William Shawcross,
Cambodia's New Deal
(Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment Publications, 1994); and Timothy Carney and Tan Lian Choo,
Whither Cambodia? Beyond the Election
(Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993).

In Chapter 3 I tell the story of Bu Phat, known as Phat, alias Hang, which is based entirely on his file at the Tuol Sleng Incarceration Center. Tuol Sleng is now a museum and library in Phnom Penh. Its archives contain some 10,000 dossiers of former prisoners like Bu Phat as well as other historical documents pertaining to the rule of the Khmer Rouge.

Tuol Sleng records are an invaluable source of information about the history of the Khmer Rouge. They are crucial for reconstructing the serpentine and secret disputes within the party before and after it came to power, for understanding how power was exercised, and for chronicling the destruction of the country.

Yet this material must be treated carefully and cross-checked with other historical records. A prisoner's dossier holds both accurate and inaccurate material. The first biography the prisoner writes is generally honest. At this stage the prisoner still believes there is hope for his release, and when relating his life story, as required, he tries to show his innocence and protest the ludicrous charges brought against him by his jailers. Later, after torture and threats against his family and friends, the prisoner capitulates and confesses to crimes he could not have committed.

These confessions are all written in the Khmer language, with the exception of those of a few foreign prisoners, which are of little historical value. And the language employed is often difficult for the average Cambodian to understand. It requires a knowledge of the new vocabulary introduced by the Khmer Rouge once they came to power and an understanding of the code names, words, and phrases the Khmer Rouge used among themselves. Thus, translation of these documents is nearly impossible for most Cambodians. I employed the American scholar Stephen Heder to translate most of the Tuol Sleng materials I used, and I am forever in his debt. He was far more than a translator; he was a guide through the labyrinth of accusations and secret codes of the Khmer Rouge.

Moreover, he was extremely generous in sharing his own Tuol Sleng material with me. He and human rights investigator David Hawk unselfishly made available records they had gathered in Tuol Sleng, material and information that made it possible for me to write this book. I am also indebted to Timothy Michael Carney, another American scholar of modern Cambodia and a foreign service officer, who was just as generous with his historical records, many of which came from Tuol Sleng, and who is also one of the very few translators capable of rendering the Khmer language of Khmer communism into serviceable English.

The help of Heder, Hawk, and Carney was particularly crucial because I was repeatedly blocked from entering Cambodia and using Tuol Sleng sources myself. The current Heng Samrin regime carefully controls access to these records by requiring special permission to use the archives. The curator of Tuol Sleng told me in 1983 that Cambodians are generally not allowed
to read these files and that few foreigners have been permitted to copy archival material. Access is further controlled by limiting the visas issued to foreigners even to visit Cambodia.

My experience is illustrative. After two years of petitioning I was issued a visa to Cambodia at the end of 1980, but the Vietnamese government blocked my trip by refusing to allow me to pass through Vietnam, the only way then to enter Cambodia. After renewed petitioning I received permission separately from Vietnam and Cambodia to visit the countries in 1983. I made those trips, but I have been refused visas to both countries ever since. Nevertheless, the material I gathered during the 1983 trip allowed me to complete this book.

There is no doubt that the Tuol Sleng materials are genuine. The top scholars—Heder and Carney—attest to the historical consistency of the documents. And in an interview with me in 1981, Ieng Sary, the second-ranking figure in the Khmer Rouge party, confirmed that a sample of a confession was genuine and that the Khmer Rouge were responsible for Tuol Sleng and its atrocities. (I published this confirmation in “The Death Chambers of the Khmer Rouge,”
Washington Post
, August 2, 1981.)

Bu Phat's file is typical. There are eight long items that include four separate autobiographies and four other documents pertaining to the situation in northeastern Cambodia before the war, “moral errors” committed by Phat with women, the murder of a party leader in northern Cambodia during the war, and a summary of Phat's responses to a variety of questions submitted by an unnamed interrogator.

Heder recovered this file from Tuol Sleng in 1981 and translated it for me in 1982. I selected this file for translation because Phat's history, his work within the party, was a nearly perfect representation of the average party member and because his duties and transfers in the party put him in contact with the top leaders—Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, and Pol Pot himself. His fate was exemplary of the Khmer Rouge movement as well. He rose from an orphan underling to a major zone figure and then perished in one of the major party purges.

In compiling Phat's story I used the information available in his file and cross-checked it with other historical documentation—information found in other Tuol Sleng files and in non-communist sources covering the Sihanouk and Lon Nol eras. Within his file, Phat's first handwritten autobiography was of paramount importance. A translation follows so the reader may have an example of a Tuol Sleng biography and confession. It is an edited version; the complete text is too long for publication here.

Original name: Bu Phat; revolutionary name: Hang; age forty years; born in the village of Romenh, Khum Romenh, district of Koh Andet, Takeo province.

Father's name Bu Phok; mother's name Nop Kouv. Made their living working in the fields. Both of them died back when I was small. I don't remember what they looked like. (Literally: I don't remember their faces.)

Had seven siblings. My elder sibling number one was a sister named Theng [now] of approximately almost sixty years of age. . . . And sibling number seven was me.

After I had lost my parents, when I was small, I, like all of my brothers and sisters, remained unmarried and made our living by working in the fields with the elder sibling. . . .