BANGKOK, Thailand -- In November 1975, seven months after Pol Pot
seized Cambodia, then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asked
Thailand's representatives about Pol Pot's brother-in-law, Ieng Sary.
Thailand's Chatichai Choonhavan had recently met Ieng Sary in Bangkok.
"Did Ieng Sary impress you?" Mr. Kissinger asked.
"He is a nice, quiet man," replied Mr. Chatichai who was then foreign minister.
"How many people did he kill? Tens of thousands?" Mr. Kissinger responded.
"Nice and quietly!" exclaimed the State Department's then-Assistant
Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Philip Habib.
"Not more than 10,000," said Mr. Chatichai, who later became
Thailand's prime minister.
"That's why they need food. If they had killed everyone, they would
not need salt and fish. All the bridges in Cambodia were destroyed.
There was no transportation, no gas. That's why they had to chase
people away from the capital," Mr. Chatichai told the Americans.
"But why with only two hours' notice?" Mr. Kissinger asked referring
to the immediate, forced evacuation of all Cambodian cities in April
1975.
Mr. Chatichai then silently "shrugs," according to the transcript of a
previously "secret" State Department "Memorandum of Conversation"
quoting their "informal lunch" in Washington.
The transcript was made available by Washington-based George
Washington University.
(
Transcript)
"You should also tell the Cambodians that we will be friends with
them," Mr. Kissinger said at the end of the lunch.
"They are murderous thugs, but we won't let that stand in our way. We
are prepared to improve relations with them. Tell them the latter
part, but don't tell them what I said before," Mr. Kissinger said.
But the Khmer Rouge lost power in January 1979 when Vietnam unleashed
an invasion, chasing Pol Pot, Ieng Sary and other top officials into
jungle camps.
Vietnam spent 10 years occupying the country before withdrawing,
partly because of intense U.S.-backed pressure.
Ieng Sary died on Thursday (March 14) after refusing to testify at his
trial for genocide and other war crimes, marking the United
Nations-backed tribunal's second failure to bring justice to five
former top Khmer Rouge officials.
The Khmer Rouge are held responsible for killing 1.7 million
Cambodians by executions, torture, slavery and other official policies
during their 1975-1979 back-to-the-jungle dictatorship, which also
allowed starvation and disease to ravish the Southeast Asian nation.
"I knew Ieng Sary quite well, and met and dined and interviewed him
numerous times over the years," U.S.-based journalist and author Nate
Thayer wrote on his Facebook page shortly after Ieng Sary's death was
announced.
"I even slept in his house a couple times. He was guilty as sin of
being a mass murderer," said Mr. Thayer, who also interviewed Khmer
Rouge leader Pol Pot in a Cambodian jungle just before Pol Pot died in
1998.
Ieng Sary's "indictment for those crimes came 30 years after he
committed them, which was followed by being funded, armed, and
diplomatically supported by the world community, then pardoned for all
crimes by King [Norodom] Sihanouk, and then appointed to a senior
government position by the current dictator, Hun Sen, who served Mr.
Sary loyally as an officer in his army, when he [Ieng Sary] was said
to do what he did," Mr. Thayer said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen was a Khmer Rouge regiment commander during the
guerrilla war that enabled Pol Pot to seize power in 1975.
In 1977, Hun Sen fled to Vietnam, apparently fearing deadly purges
among the Khmer Rouge, while Ieng Sary remained loyal to Pol Pot.
Ieng Sary was sometimes described as Pol Pot's "Brother Number Three,"
as third in command.
Ieng Sary was born on October 24, 1925 in an area now in southern
Vietnam, which may have helped prompt the Khmer Rouge's failed claims
on Vietnam's territory.
Ieng Sary's mother was a Chinese immigrant, and his father was ethnic
Khmer Krom, but that did not stop Ieng Sary and Pol Pot from
persecuting the Khmer Krom minority during their regime.
Along with other future Khmer Rouge leaders, Ieng Sary studied in
France's Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris during the early 1950s,
and helped create a Marxist Circle of Khmer Students.
Ieng Sary co-founded the Khmer Rouge when they began as insurgents led
by Pol Pot.
After teaching history and geography in Cambodia, he and other Khmer
Rouge hid in neighboring Vietnam during the early 1970s, when the U.S.
war against Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos peaked before America lost and
retreated from all three nations.
Ieng Sary, 87, "died at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital this
morning after having been hospitalized since March 4, 2013," the
U.N.-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)
tribunal announced "with regret" on Thursday (March 14).
"The co-prosecutors will determine the cause of death," the ECCC said.
"He was arrested on November 12, 2007 and was on trial before the ECCC
on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and grave breaches of
the 1949 Geneva Conventions," it said.
Ieng Sary refused to testify.
The ECCC tribunal was established to determine the guilt of five
former top Khmer Rouge officials.
They include foreign minister Ieng Sary, Ieng Sary's wife Ieng
Thirith, Kaing Guek Eav who is also known as Duch, head of state Khieu
Samphan, and ideologue Nuon Chea.
Today, only Nuon Chea -- who was Pol Pot's "Brother Number Two" in
rank -- and Khieu Samphan await trial.
The ECCC allowed Ieng Sary's once-powerful wife, Ieng Sarith, to be
excused in 2012 because she appeared demented.
She was social affairs minister during Pol Pot's reign and is
currently receiving medical care.
Kaing Guek Eav was the only official who went through an entire trial.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment for commanding the S-21 Tuol
Sleng torture chamber and prison in Phnom Penh, which transported
12,000 to 16,000 people to their executions in nearby "killing
fields."
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Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,
California, reporting news from Asia since 1978, and recipient of
Columbia University's Foreign Correspondent's Award. He is a co-author
of three non-fiction books about Thailand, including "Hello My Big Big
Honey!" Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing
Interviews; 60 Stories of Royal Lineage; and Chronicle of Thailand:
Headline News Since 1946. Mr. Ehrlich also contributed to the final
chapter, Ceremonies and Regalia, in a new book titled King Bhumibol
Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's Monarchy in Perspective.
His websites are
Asia Correspondent
Photos
Hello My Big Honey
(Copyright 2013 Richard S Ehrlich)
