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p G. Damba

Unen, January 10, 1979

A journalist’s notes

p Under the pressure of a strong popular movement, the puppet regime in Kampuchea, a centre of alarm and danger in Indochina, has collapsed.

p The Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique had seized power by taking shameful advantage of the fruits of the Kampuchean people’s many years of heroic struggle against US imperialism, for the sake of national salvation and in defence of their country and freedom. This clique committed a multitude of crimes arousing anger and disgust both in the country itself and abroad. Pol Pot and his associates turned their country into a huge prison, unleashed an armed aggression against neighbouring Vietnam.

p In the summer of 1978, when I arrived as a journalist in socialist Vietnam, I visited the Anzyang Province in the 79 southwest of the country. There I saw the village of Batyuk, which had been plundered and destroyed by the Kampuchean murderers. One could not but shudder at the traces of this truly nazi massacre.

p All the women and children had been burned alive in the village temple. Those that survived were killed on the spot. In one night the murderers exterminated 2,000 villagers, destroyed the school, the hospital and all the houses. The acrid smoke of the huge fires, the burnt fields, the ruined buildings and the fragments of household items were all that remained of this Vietnamese village, which not so long ago was alive and flourishing. This is only one example, however, of the multiple incursions made by the Kampuchean army into the Vietnamese border regions. The Kampuchean leaders promised their assistants: “For each dead Vietnamese you’ll get a kilo of rice. For one live prisoner—three kilos.” So the halfstarved soldiers of the Pol Pot regime tried to kill as many as possible, and cut off their victims’ noses and ears in order to claim their “reward”. A starving people, murder, looting and foodstuffs as a reward for murder—such is the portrait of the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary regime.

p There is hardly any need to speak in detail about how human rights and freedoms were trampled under foot in Kampuchea. Here are just a few indicative facts.

p “From early morning to late at night we were forced to dig canals. For this they gave us a little bit to eat—just enough to keep us alive. Anyone who unbent his back for even a second was whipped. Any resistance meant instant death. The Pol Pot men told us that communism was being built in Kampuchea. Communism meant a society without a state, without the family, without a market or money, without religion. The military were, they said, special people. They could travel by car. They could drink spirits. They could kill people. The ordinary people had no rights at all, only that to work and work and work, and not everyone even had anything to eat. There were thirteen of us in our family. I just don’t know whether any of them are still alive. I wasn’t allowed to see my wife. The children worked in labour ’communes’ and lived in barracks. At fifteen they were recruited into the army. 80 Marriage was only allowed when sanctioned by the ’commune’¹ authorities.” This blood-curdling account I heard from 60-year-old peasant Ung On in a refugee camp for those who had managed to survive by getting to Vietnam.

p Kuai Tai from the village of Kha Ao in Takeo Province told me the following. “I am a teacher, but there aren’t any schools in Kampuchea now. For two years I dug trenches in stinking swamps. I was beaten many times and tortured until I would lose consciousness (he showed me terrible welts and scars on his body). I lost my health there. I got here almost naked and literally on my last legs. The Vietnamese doctors treated me, and the local authorities gave me work and housing. If it weren’t for them I would have died.”

p Looking at all these people who had to flee their country in order to stay alive, I wondered whether the authorities that had turned Kampuchea into a real fiery hell could keep hold of the power for long. The Mongolians have a saying that a dying dog barks even at its master, and I often thought later that the days of those who were playing with the lives of their people were numbered. Now, today, the reactionary Kampuchean regime has collapsed. The long-suffering people of this country, under the leadership of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation, have risen and won a historic victory welcomed by all progressive and peace-loving humanity. Our people joyfully heard the announcement that the People’s Revolutionary Council had been set up in (Kampuchea to take charge of the life of the country.

p Again and again I recall what I saw and heard last summer on the Vietnamese-Kampuchean border and think about the fact that there are, of course, forces abroad and people outside Kampuchea whose hands are stained with the blood and tears of this peaceful country’s people. The origins of the terrible events in Kampuchea, like the tragedy of the Indonesian patriots, are to be found in one and the same place. My wonderings were answered in that same refugee camp. An old man called Su Jin recounted with abhorrence: “There were many Chinese instructors in our country. First they said they were going to teach us to dig trenches, grow rice and build ’ communism’. In fact they taught only one thing—to kill people.”

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p I saw the weapons taken from captured Kampuchean attackers. Those weapons, weapons of murder and plunder, were clearly marked Chinese made.

p Today everything is again as it should be. The Chinese leaders who unceremoniously played with the fate of Kampuchea, have suffered the same shameful defeat as the puppet government. But they are seeking new victims.

It is unlikely, however, that any country will now adopt the fatal course of building “communism” Peking-style. Even so, the nations must remain alert, and that is the main lesson among all the bitter lessons of Kampuchea.