114

Heng Samrin, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation, Chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Council

HENG SAMRIN’S SPEECH
AT THE VICTORY MEETING
IN PHOM PENH (REPORTED BY
THE KAMPUCHEAN INFORMATION
AGENCY (SPK)

p Comrade commanders, delegates from provinces, districts and revolutionary bodies throughout the country!

p Camrade commanders and soldiers of the entire country, who represent three categories of the armed forces—regular troops, regional troops and partisans, the finest sons of the Kampuchean people!

p Fellow countrymen!

115

p Today we are all gathered here like our people, our commanders and soldiers have gathered all over the country, to celebrate, with boundless joy and excitement, and in a festive atmosphere, the great victory of January 7, 1979. This victory liberated Pnom Penh and the entire country, toppled the military dictatorship of the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary reactionary clique that had doomed the people to annihilation, and freed our Kampuchea from it forever.

p On January 7, 1979, more than on any other day, the entire Kampuchean people—boys and girls, old people, officers and men—experienced limitless joy; this was a day of historic importance, a day when they overthrew the reactionary and cruel social system headed by the insane clique of the traitors Pol Pot and Ieng Sary, and saved our nation, completely liberating Pnom Penh and the entire country for the second time since victory of April 17, 1975.

p January 7, 1979 is truly a glorious day for the Kampuchean people, as well as for our countrymen who have taken refuge in various countries. It is a glorious day because the entire people of Kampuchea were freed from cruel shackles and escaped the barbarous extermination being wreaked by the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary cutthroats. From now on people can live together with their families and relatives, can reunite and restore family happiness in the national community, exercising their genuine freedoms as citizens of Kampuchea; they can be true masters of society, masters ,of the fruits of their labour; never again will anyone be able to plunder or exploit them.

p Comrade commanders and soldiers! Dear countrymen!

p The red banner, bearing five golden towers, waves majestically over the whole country and before our eyes. It is a true symbol of the will and sacred aspirations of the Kampuchean people, as this banner could only come into existence thanks to the countless sacrifices made by commanders, soldiers and our entire people, these patriots and true revolutionaries, whose blood has been spilled all over our beloved land.

p On this great holiday, all of us—commanders, soldiers and civilians—bow our heads in deep respect and sorrow in honour of the millions of our finest comrades, commanders, soldiers 116 and civilians who fell fighting for national liberation, the liberation of the people, and for class liberation. It is with deep respect and admiration that we bow our heads to honour the memory of the millions of commanders, soldiers and revolutionary patriots who perished tragically under the blows of the criminal, reactionary Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique, the accomplices of Peking’s great-power expansionism.

p Let us remember one indelible fact: the blood of our commanders and soldiers, of our people, flowed like a river and drowned our land. Their bodies have filled almost all bomb craters, lakes and swamps all over our country.

p Dear fellow countrymen and friends!

p As our countrymen know, during the war to repulse the aggression of US imperialism and its reactionary accomplices Lon Nol, Sirik Matak and Son Ngok Thanh, a war that lasted five years, our people, our officers and men sustained tremendous losses defending our nation and its people.

p Following the country’s complete liberation on April 17, 1975, our people should have received the right to live in peace, genuine democracy and prosperity in accordance with its aspirations. After national liberation, however, all social strata of our people, in the cities as well as the villages, experienced even greater misfortunes. The hopes and enthusiasm of the people were turned into mass suffering, and Kampuchea became a sea of blood under Pol Pot and Ieng Sary, kowtowing puppets of Peking expansionism and traitors to their country, to the people, the revolution, and MarxismLeninism.

p The reactionaries Pol Pot and Ieng Sary are traitors with extremely barbarous and cruel characters, passing themselves off as revolutionaries and Marxists-Leninists. After usurping the highest leadership of the party and the government and taking power into their own hands, they began carrying out their treacherous plan that they had worked out long ago. Claiming to be revolutionaries and fighters for the nation’s cause, they committed countless and indescribable crimes of barbarism and insanity against the people, against genuine patriots and revolutionaries. Specifically, these crimes are the following:

117

p 1. In the political sphere, under the label of “socialist revolution" and preaching the so-called complete abolition of classes and social vestiges, they eliminated cities, markets, and money; they forced the urban population to leave the cities and sent them into the countryside, to the mountains and forests. As a result, millions of people were doomed to a wretched existence; vast numbers of them perished either from hunger or disease, or were simply executed.

p Theirs was reactionary, dictatorial, militarist and nazitype policy. They seized all power in the party and the government for themselves and their families, taking cruel measures against the people and patriots of Kampuchea. During the past three years our people have been living under unusually difficult conditions of oppression and coercion.

p The Pol Pot clique deprived the people of any freedom, shutting their eyes, closing their mouths, plugging their ears, hopping off their arms and legs. They forbade any relations among people and freedom of movement from place to place. The people did not have the right to express their opinions, to complain, to demand, to listen or to read. There was no freedom of religion, no right to control one’s own life or property, the fruits of one’s labour. At the same time, they forbade all contacts between people, between spouses, between children and their parents, between brothers and sisters. Not only did they break all emotional ties, they also divided the people up into different categories and undermined the people’s fine traditions, engendering conflicts between parents and children, between brothers and sisters, provoking hatred between them, making it impossible for them to even look one another in the eye, thus deepening the abyss of hatred that was tearing the people apart.

p The saddest problem, however, the one that aroused the most searing hatred, was the fact that they lied, moreover always under the pretext of liquidating the CIA agents and spies who were supposed to be working for Vietnam. On the basis of these reactionary contentions, they also began arresting civilians, commanders and soldiers, throwing them into jail, torturing them and physically liquidating them. They concocted lies, and arrested and murdered people at will.

118

p Their order to arrest or execute someone had to be carried out without demur. Anyone who protested or refused to obey was automatically condemned to death. They manufactured all kinds of pretexts, claiming a person was guilty of treason, and thus forced revolutionaries to kill revolutionaries. They ordered revolutionaries to commit crimes against the people according to the principle of killing two birds with one stone. They poisoned the minds of the young people and evoked in them a thirst for crimes. They turned the armed forces, the sons of the people, into a weapon serving their own dictatorial policies.

p In just three years they killed millions of our commanders and soldiers, and patriots, men and women alike. They murdered them in the vilest of ways—with hoes, bamboo sticks, hammers, bayonets, etc. Thus our people, young and old, men and women, perished under the cruellest of conditions.

p In some places they wiped out whole villages, communes and families, including pregnant women or those who had just given birth, the elderly, newborn babies, even the mentally ill. They deliberately separated husbands from wives, children from parents, brothers from sisters, and all in the most cruel fashion.

p Such was the genocide carried out by the reactionary Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique on the orders of their Peking masters.

p 2. In the economic sphere, on the pretext of “eliminating classes and private property”, they concentrated the means of production in their own hands, condemning the people to the most squalid existence, forcing them to go about in rags and to do forced labour under conditions the Kampuchean people had never seen in their entire history.

p They scorned the workers and peasants and treated them worse than cattle, simply turning them into the lowest of slaves, whom they could dispose of at will. Throughout the day, the month, the year, in the dry as well as the rainy season, our people were forced to work full out, without a break, for such were the norms imposed by the clique. All the fruits of the people’s labour, which were obtained by their sweat and blood, were taken away from them, and they 119 were doomed to aimlessness, back-breaking labour, to hunger and extreme deprivation.

p At the same time, Pol Pot and Ieng Sary squandered the country’s natural riches, particularly in the cities, which were turned into ashes and ruins, into a garbage dump, where almost nothing remained; they also brought the country’s economy to ruin.

p Yet they were forced to make heart-rendering incantations, such as “to love our people with our whole heart, and serve them well" while in fact Pol Pot and Ieng Sary treated these people inhumanly.

p 3. In the cultural sphere, they pursued a policy of complete obscurantism to make it easier for them to exploit the people. Not only did they not build new schools so that children, young people and the whole people could gain knowledge, they even destroyed existing schools, turning them into ammunition dumps or fertiliser warehouses, or simply razing them to the ground. They eliminated the entire educational system on all levels, the end result being no schooling for anyone.

p Moreover, they barbarously killed researchers, cultural figures, performers, pupils, students, instructors, professors, all other intellectuals, and so on.

p At the same time, they uprooted a fine civilisation that had existed since ancient times. They turned the wonderful country of Angkor-Wat into a place of sorrow, a sea of blood and mountains of corpses. The ancient temples, gardens and parks built by Kampuchean craftsmen, which were fine examples of our nation’s glorious civilisation were destroyed by them and turned into wastelands.

p The customs and glorious traditions of our country and its people were trampled on and stamped out.

p In the most crude manner they violated the freedom of the people, thus proceeding counter to socialist principles. They did not allow our people any religious freedom.

p In the social sphere, Pol Pot and Ieng Sary paid no attention to the life and health of the people. The health of the population dropped markedly over the last three years. People became thin and anaemic, turned literally into walking 120 skeletons. Their strength was sapped, and they contracted all kinds of diseases. The death rate shot up from the lack of medicines.

p At the same time, Pol Pot and Ieng Sary destroyed all the people’s emotional ties, forbidding parents to live with their children, married couples to live together or neighbours to have contact with one another, etc. Moreover, they took away all freedom, even a young person’s freedom to choose a spouse. They outlawed all national traditions; there were forced and group marriages, running completely counter to national customs.

p 4. The foreign policy pursued by the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique was aimed entirely at serving the interests of a foreign power.

p To be more frank, it was a policy shaped to meet the designs of the Peking officials. The clique elaborated and carried out this policy in full accordance with the Peking leaders’ model of reactionary policy. The traitors Pol Pot and Ieng Sary sold out their country and their people to the Peking clique for a pittance, so that it could pursue its expansionist policies in accordance with its most devious hegemonistic designs, its policy of pillaging the natural riches of Kampuchea and murdering the Kampuchean people.

p On the other hand, under the guise of “safeguarding national independence”, they began a propaganda campaign in the country and abroad, based on sectarian nationalism, provocation and slander, fanning hatred between the peoples of Kampuchea and Vietnam, resurrecting ancient history to provoke a border war and forcing the army to perpetrate acts of aggression, killing tens of thousands of Vietnamese. They libellously accused the Kampuchean commanders, soldiers, patriots and ordinary citizens, men and women alike, of supporting Vietnam’s actions.

p This was to make it easier for them to pursue their policy of genocide against the Kampuchean people, a policy that they recently carried out in a most cruel and barbarous fashion. They pursued this policy in accordance with the plans and orders of reactionaries in the Chinese government, to raise an obstacle to freedom and peace all over the world, 121 as well as in South-East Asia, and for the sole purpose of completely annexing Kampuchea; if they had been successful they would, in fulfilling their hegemonistic aspirations on a world-wide scale, have proceeded to annex all of South-East Asia.

p The Pol Pot-Ieng Sary puppet clique and their Peking bosses are, however, doing everything in their power to use their propaganda to conceal their true, treacherous and base designs, claiming that they are honest, upright people, guided by firm and noble aspirations. They later intend to slander our people, contending that all Kampucheans are traitors and that Vietnam is guilty of aggression and the mass destruction of the people of Kampuchea. All these assertions glaringly contradict the real state of affairs. It is Pol Pot and Ieng Sary who have betrayed the country and the people, who have betrayed the national interests. It is they who are reactionary militarists and even crueller barbarians than the nazis. All the Kampuchean patriots, all genuine Kampuchean revolutionaries are clearly aware of the real nature of the treacherous Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique and of the reactionary mien of .the Peking officials.

p Their party was far from a party of the working class and in no way reflected the intersts of the people. The truth is that their party was a pseudo-party, one that betrayed the interests of the working class and all the people, and the interests of socialism. All the top posts in the party were seized by them and members of their families, and the people actually had no power to be the true masters of their own fate.

p The people of Kampuchea, true patriots and revolutionaries, nourishing a deep hatred of them, incessantly rose up against them; although Pol Pot and Ieng Sary resorted to all sorts of manoeuvres and military tricks to destroy, oppress and terrorise the people in the most barbarous fashion, they could not suppress their fighting spirit, because the people were inspired by a noble feeling of self-sacrifice; they were strong with their age-old military traditions, and full of determination to overcome all difficulties and withstand all suffering and deprivation; they were ready to undergo innumerable trials and not give up in the face of the enemy’s 122 cruel and barbarous acts. The more crimes the enemy committed, the greater the hatred the popular masses nourished towards him, the stronger the fighting spirit of the people, who struggled even more courageously.

p Millions of our fellow citizens valiantly gave their lives for their country; their bodies would form mountains; our hills and rivers are running with their blood. Their example is an inspiration to all the people of Kampuchea to rally around the revolutionary and patriotic principles in order to make them their own goals and their own principles of struggle. Thus was founded the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation which, on December 2, 1978, published its political programme consisting of 11 points.

p The birth of the KUFNS was greeted and heartily supported by all our people, and it gave an added boost to the fighting spirit of the people, who were becoming more resolute with each coming day, creating panic within the clique of the traitors Pol Pot and Ieng Sary. It was in this situation that the genuine Revolutionary Armed Forces of Kampuchea launched simultaneous attacks against the traitors’ troops. At that time, the populace rose up all over the country and, acting in conjunction with the Revolutionary Armed Forces, struck crushing blows at the reactionary Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique, whose army was in a state of confusion and completely demoralised, having sustained enormous casualties and suffered disgraceful defeats. Both the Peking traitors and their henchmen sustained shameful and irreparable defeats. This proves that no reactionary force, no matter where it comes from or how cruel it is, can halt the valiant struggle of a people relying on the fine militant traditions and the traditions of firm unity, as has been the case with our Kampuchean people.

p The capital, Pnom Penh, and our entire country was liberated on January 7, 1979, and today the people of Kampuchea and the Revolutionary Armed Forces are organising this holiday to mark the triumph in an atmosphere of great joy and enthusiasm. Very many of our friends all over the world share our joy in this historic victory and decisively condemn the reactionary Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique. We owe this great 123 triumph to the unity of our Kampuchean people and to our revolutionary armed forces, which fought under the banner of our glorious Front. The victory of the Kampuchean people is not only a victory for Kampuchea, but also for all oppressed and exploited people fighting for genuine national independence and peace throughout the world. Our triumph in the struggle to overthrow the dictatorial and militarist Pol Pot-Ieng Sary regime and to derail Peking’s expansionist aspirations is our humble contribution to safeguarding peace and independence in South-East Asia and to the world-wide struggle for national liberation and for the establishment of genuine peace and independence.

p This great victory of the Kampuchean people, of our Kampuchean revolution, is inseparable from the assistance we have received in all spheres by the peoples of the socialist countries, who are at once our comrades and our brothers; it has become a victory for the peoples of all countries who desire peace, a victory for justice the world over.

p On behalf of the Central Committee of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation, the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Council, the Kampuchea Revolutionary Armed Forces, and the entire country, it is with great joy that we express our gratitude to the fraternal countries for their friendship and solidarity with us. In particular, we would like to reiterate our deep love and boundless gratitude to the Communist Party of Vietnam, the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the fraternal Vietnamese people, our comrades-in-arms, who contributed unstintingly in all spheres and in a spirit of genuine proletarian internationalism to the revolutionary cause of the Kampuchean people.

p We pledge to do our utmost to strengthen and develop ties and co-operation with the fraternal socialist countries, our friends, in order, actively and constantly, to further the establishment of friendship and solidarity, thus laying the foundations for joint actions to secure and preserve independence, peace, social progress and the national liberation struggle of peoples all over the world.

p Fellow countrymen!

p Our country is free again; our people have rid themselves 124 of misforture and can now live in freedom and in the pursuit of happiness. The bloody reactionary regime that oppressed the people has been overthrown. Though we all feel joy and excitement, we must realise that our country and its people still face numerous difficulties and obstacles, and we must make every effort to overcome all of them. Moreover, the imperialist and expansionist enemy and the clique of traitors that has just been defeated, as well as all our other enemies, have far from abandoned their vile aspirations and evil designs. They will continue to devise all kinds of plots and intrigues and will stop at nothing in their attempts to undermine our revolution and all that we are trying to do.

p In addition, our country and its economy has been almost completely devastated by the destructive war waged by US imperialism and later by the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary reactionaries and the Peking expansionists. For this reason, our people and our armed forces must preserve their military traditions, overcome all difficulties, withstand suffering and hardship and make any sacrifice necessary to defend the victory of our revolution and the revolutionary government, to restore the economy and the country in order to improve our people’s living conditions as quickly as possible.

p The Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Council calls on all the citizens of our country to begin accomplishing the following specific and urgent tasks:

p 1. To continue heightening revolutionary vigilance and to suppress any attempts by any enemy to undermine our revolution and our cause.

p 2. To continue to repulse the enemies that are fiercely fighting against the revolution and people’s power.

p 3. Systematically and invariably to ensure, consolidate and develop unity in our ranks, in order to defend the country and successfully build the state system.

p 4. To work hard to solve problems pertaining to the people’s living conditions, in order to put an end to poverty as quickly as possible.

p 5. To overcome all difficulties in order to ensure a good harvest this year and to prepare actively for the crop of the coming monsoon season.

125

p 6. Actively to instil, strengthen and develop a feeling of solidarity with friendly countries throughout the world; in particular, to establish good relations with neighbouring states and constantly improve these relations, in order to form a powerful force to fight the common enemy.

p Dear fellow countrymen! Dear commanders and soldiers of our country!

p In an atmosphere of the great joy on this day, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation and the People’s Revolutionary Council, we wish all our countrymen good health, and new and greater success in carrying out all their tasks.

p We wish good health to all officers and men belonging to the three categories of the armed forces, so that they might successfully carry out their task of defending the country and of building a strong and prosperous People’s Republic of Kampuchea.

p We wish good ’health to the delegates from provinces and districts, ministries, committees and departments, and to administrative and office workers throughout the country, so that they might, creatively and successfully, execute the revolutionary tasks entrusted to them by the country and the people.

p Long live the glorious People’s Republic of Kampuchea!

p Long live the great victory of January 7, 1979!

p May the unity of the entire people and all the armed forces grow in strength for the purpose of building an independent, peaceful, democratic and prosperous People’s Republic of Kampuchea, a Kampuchea advancing towards socialism!

p Let us actively strengthen and develop the traditional feelings of solidarity and friendship between the people of Kampuchea and those of the socialist countries, as well as between all peace-loving and progressive forces throughout the world.

p Long live the true Kampuchean revolution!

p Long live the heroic People’s Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea!

p Long live the great people of Kampuchea!

126

p Long live the great victory of the armed forces and people of Kampuchea on January 7, 1979!

Any cruel plot by the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique and their bosses is doomed to failure!