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p Y. Vasilkov

p New Times, No. 4, 1979

p The cities, towns and villages of Kampuchea are again glowing with the bright festive colours that were all but forgotten in the dark days of tyranny. Red flags with five golden towers—the symbol of Angkor Wat, the ancient Khmer temple—are to be seen everywhere. “We wholeheartedly support the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Council!" and “Long Live the People’s Republic of Kampuchea!" are painted on house walls and on streamers stretched across the streets.

p The mediaeval nightmare that had lasted for more than three and a half years is over.

p It is amazing how swiftly the events on the Kampuchean fronts developed, how quickly—and virtually without offering any resistance—the dictatorial regime nurtured by Peking crumbled. Under the blows of the insurgent people, the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary regime collapsed like a house of cards. It had so discredited itself by its brutality, vandalism and massacres, and become so odious at home and abroad, that when the hour of retribution came, nothing could save it.

p The success of the nation-wide uprising was precipitated by the declaration of the Kampuchea United Front for National Salvation the provisions of which accorded with the aspirations of the Kampuchean people. It was thanks to the appeal of the Front’s political programme that town after town and village after village was liberated without a single shot being fired. Whole units of Pol Pot soldiers, with Front leaflets in their hands, went over to the side of the patriots. The Kampucheans’ hatred of the bloody dictators was so great that officers of the Pnom Penh army surrendered and begged the Revolutionary Armed Forces to save them from the people’s wrath.

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p Reporting on the first days of freedom, the Kampuchean Information Agency (SPK) told of the people’s suffering in the recent tragic past. A young soldier from a self-defence unit said the Pol Pot cutthroats had killed his father, mother, brothers and sisters. A peasant woman, her face deeply lined though she is far from old, saw the Pnom Penh bandits toss her children into the air and catch them on their bayonets. A 75-year-old woman and a five-year-old child were the sole survivors from one village; all the others had been tied together with a rope, marched out of the village and clubbed to death.

p A great many such barbaric acts, which had become a system with the reactionary Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique could be presented. Here are some chilling figures by way of illustration. In the five war [years (1970-75), Kampuchea lost 600,000 people but, according to the world press, in the three and a half years of “peaceful” rule by the regime, about three million people died or were killed. Such was the terrible price paid by the people for the dark night of the Chinese “cultural revolution" on Kampuchean soil. In Kampuchea, the inhuman Maoist experiment assumed even more monstrous forms than in China, perhaps because here Chinese “advisers” did not have to be fastidious about the choice of means.

p From the very outset, the Pol Pot regime’s socio-economic policy also bore the imprint of mediaeval barbarism. Virtually the entire urban population was forcibly resettled in the countryside where, together with the peasants, they formed Chinese-style “agricultural communes”. It soon became obvious, however, that these communes were actually concentration camps. Personal belongings, including household utensils, were “socialised” along with private property. Educational institutions, cinemas and television were closed, and only one news bulletin was published for the whole country. The people were completely cut off from the outside world, except for regular radio reports about “how wonderful it is now in great China".

p In short, the world public was presented with a Peking model of political organisation of society based on the 138 wholesale extermination of people, a society totally without elementary human rights, a society in which social and economic experiments were taken to absurd extremes. Needless to say, the people would never consent to tolerate such a “model” for long. An explosion was inevitable, and eventually it came. The wave of popular wrath took only a few days to sweep out the hated gang of usurpers.

p The tragedy of Kampuchea is a stern warning to all those who still harbour illusions about the nature and the true aims of Peking’s political doctrines and activities abroad. In Kampuchea, the Chinese leaders showed themselves up as neocolonialists and reactionaries. Their actions pose a serious danger to the people’s struggle for national and social liberation, especially since, as the Kampuchean experience shows, their deeds were committed under the banner of socialism, thereby discrediting this progressive socio-political system in the eyes of millions of people. This is something Communists and all those fighting for democracy and social progress must never forget.

p Luckily for Kampuchea, the tragedy is over. As stated in the Front’s declaration and laid down by the People’s Revotionary Council, genuine people’s government is being established in the country, steps taken to democratise all spheres of society, and the anti-national laws of the overthrown regime abrogated. The system of disguised concentration camps has already been abolished and people have been assisted in returning home. Discrimination and division of the population into “pure” and “impure” have been forbidden. The authorities have proclaimed freedom of religion and respect for Buddhism and other religions. Equality for women is guaranteed, elementary schools are being re-opened and active steps taken to provide the population with foodstuffs and other necessities. Revolutionary reforms in town and country are to be carried out by people’s self-administration committees that are being set up everywhere and enjoy the people’s confidence and friendly support.

p The liberation of Kampuchea has, at long last, enabled it to begin pursuing a positive foreign policy and working with other peace-loving nations for peace, international 139 security and co-operation. Under the previous regime the country was made to act as trouble-maker in South-East Asia for intimidating anyone who sympathised with the struggle waged by the peoples of Indochina for independence and freedom or urged good-neighbourly relations and co-operation with them. There was perhaps a certain logic in this, considering that the Pol Pot regime made the fratricidal border war against Vietnam the main thrust of its foreign policy. It did not, however, confine itself to this aggressive act alone, Its constant armed provocations also created a tense situation on the country’s borders with Thailand and Laos.

p The Chinese leaders obviously regarded the Pnom Penh clique as a convenient instrument for realising their greatpower, expansionist plans at the expense of the South-East Asian nations.

p The collapse of the anti-national clique has radically changed the situation in the region. The People’s Revolutionary Council has declared that, together with the people, it will strive to put an immediate end to provocations and border wars and to restore good-neighbourly, friendly relations with Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and other South-East Asian countries. The new Kampuchea will base its relations with other countries on the principles of peaceful coexistence, will strengthen solidarity with the socialist countries, newly-independent states and national liberation movements, and help consolidate the non-aligned movement.

p The joy at Kampuchea’s liberation is consequently shared by all peace-loving nations that build their relations on the principles of peace, co-operation and mutual respect. The calm, realistic reaction of the South-East Asian countries to the changes in Kampuchea testifies to their belief that this country and its new leaders will play a positive role in the region and in the world.

p Yet, however complete the patriots’ victory may be, their trials are not over. This is evidenced, for instance, by the fuss raised by the enemies of peace and freedom. The Chinese press provocatively writes that the leaders of the former regime intend to wage a protracted guerrilla war and that China will support it in every way. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who 140 had been under house arrest in the days of the Pol Pot regime, was unexpectedly brought back into the limelight and forced to attack the new government. He in fact admitted as much at a press conference in Peking. Lastly, the enemies of Kampuchea made a wholly unjustified attempt to interfere in its affairs by asking the UN Security Council to meet and discuss the slanderous complaints by the former Pnom Penh rulers.

p The unobjective stand taken by the Security Council on the Kampuchea issue can only be detrimental to its prestige all over the world, reads a statement by the Foreign Ministry of People’s Republic of Kampuchea, released by the Kampuchean Information Agency. The Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Council has already informed the Chairman of the Security Council that the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary regime was overthrown by the people of Kampuchea and no longer exists. The Foreign Ministry has stated that the People’s Revolutionary Council is the sole lawful representative of the Kampuchean people and the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary gang has no right to speak on behalf of Kampuchea at any forum.

p Outside attempts to exacerbate the situation in Kampuchea and create an unfavourable climate for it in the world are doomed to failure. What happened in Kampuchea was inevitable and irreversible.. . . Pol Pot and his accomplices were overthrown by their own people for the vile crimes they committed against them.

Together with all progressive people, those of the Soviet Union welcome the proclamation of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. The Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin stressed in their congratulatory telegram to Heng Samrin, Chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Council and Chairman of the KUFNS Central Committee, will continue to develop and strengthen its traditional bonds of friendship and co-operation with Kampuchea and support the Kampuchean people’s efforts to build a peaceful, independent, democratic and non-aligned Kampuchea advancing towards socialism.