KHMER ROUGE TAKEOVER OF CAMBODIA AND RELATED REPORTS: DISPATCHED BY SYDNEY H. SCHANBERG, THE NEW YORK TIMES, 9 MAY 1975.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-01194A000100390001-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 13, 1975
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA
Khmer Rouge Takeover of Cambodia and Related Reports: Dispatches by
- Sydney H. Schanberg, The New York Times, 9 May 1975.
Attached are eyewitness accounts by Sydney H. Schanberg on developmen s
in Cambodia, beginning with the 17 April takeover by the Khmer Rouge, whic
was marked by widespread plundering by Can mist troops, arrests and repor ed
executions of high-level members of the Lon Nol government. The principal
dispatch covers the forced evacuation of millions of Cambodians, including
the elderly and the sick and wounded, from the city to the countryside,
exodus that some observers equate to genocide. This complete upheaval of
life for the Cambodians, and the human grief and suffering it is causing are
highly exploitable for replay and commentary. However, we feel they are
mainly useful for discussions with, or for passing to, liaison, agents of -
fluence and other influential local contacts who may not have read first-
hand accounts of the Khmer Rouge takeover.
The related articles are mainly human interest accounts that provide
additional, graphic details on other aspects of the situation. Please
note that the article entitled "Grief and Animosity in an Embassy Haven"
is tor your background i orma ion on y.
This issuance contains articles from domestic and foreign
publications selected for field operational use. Recipients are
cautioned that most of this material is copyrighted. For repub-
lication in areas where copyright infringement may cause prob-
lems payment of copyright fees not to exceed $50.00 is authorized
per previous instructions. The attachment is unclassified when
detached.
13 May 1975
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 Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA-RDP79-01194A000100390001-3
7arnbodia Reds Are Uprooting Millions
AsThey_Impose a `Peasant Revolution
The writer of the following dispatch remained in Cam-
hodia after the American evacuation and was among the
foreigners who arrived in Thailand last Saturday. His dis-
patches were withheld, under an agreement among all the
confined correspondents, until the remaining foreigners were
transported to safety yesterday.
By SYDNEY H. SCHANBERG
CPYRGHT special to The New Yort-mmn
Thailand, ay 8 11
The victorious Cambodian
Communists, who marched into[
Phnom Penh on April 17 and,
ended five years of war in Cam-
bodia, are carrying out a peas-,
ant revolution that has thrown
the entire country into upheaval.
Perhaps as many as three or
four million people, most of:
them on foot, have been forced'
out of the cities and sent on a'
mammoth and grueling exodus
into areas deep in the country-1
side where, the Communists
say, they will have to,become
peasants and till the soil.
No one has been excluded-
even the very old, the veryl
young, the sick and the wounded
have been forced out onto the
roads-and some will clearly,
not be strong enough to sur-
vive.
Old Economy Abandoned
The old economy of the cities,
has been abandoned, and for,
the moment money means,
nothing and cannot be spent.
Barter has replaced it.
All shops have either been
looted by Communist soldiers'
for such things as watches and
transistor radios, or their goods
have been taken away in an
organized manner to be stored;
as communal property. I
Even the roads that radiate,
out of the capital and that car-I
ried the nation's commerce have
been virtually abandoned, and',
the population living along the!
roads, as well as that in all l
cities and towns that remained!
under the control of the Amen-
can-backed Government, has
been pushed into the interior.!
-Apparently the areas into w is
the evacuees are being herded,
are at least 65 miles from
Phnom Penh.
In sum the new rulers-be-
fore their overwhelming victorythey were known as the Khmer
Rouge-appear to be remaldng
Cambodian society in the pew
ant image, casting aside every.
thing that belonged to the old
system, which was generallt
dominated by the cities and
towns and by the elite and merZ
chants who lived there.
Foreigners and foreign aid
are not wanted--at least not
for now. It is even unclear hove
much influence the Chinese and
North Vietnamese will have,
despite their considerable aid td
the Cambodian insurgents
against the Government of Marr
shat Lon Nol. The new authori:
ties seem determined to do
things themselves in their own
way. Despite the propaganda
terminology and other trap-
pings, such as Mao caps and Ha
Chi Minh rubber-tire sandals;
which remind one of Peking
and Hanoi, the Communists
seem fiercely independent and
very Cambodian.
Isolation From World Seen-
Judging from their present
actions, it seems possible thab
they may largely isolate their
country of perhaps seven mils
lion people from the rest of
the world for a considerable
time--at least until the period
of upheaval is over, the agrarian
revolution takes concrete shape
and they are ready to show
their accomplishments to for-
eigners.
Old and Sick Included;
Economy Is at Standstill
Some of the party officials irl
Phnom Penh alcn talkari ahnut
changing the capital to a more
traditional and rural town like
Siem Reap, in the northwest.
For those foreigners, includ-
ing this correspondent, who
stayed behind to observe the
take-over, the events were an
astonishing spectacle.
In Phnom Penh two million
people suddenly-.moved out of
the city en masse in stunned
silence -'tiralking, bicycling,
pushing cars that had run out!
of fuel, covering the roads like
a human carpet, bent under;
sacks of belongings hastily
thrown together when the heav
ily armed peasant soldiers came
and told them to leave immedi-
ately, everyone, dispirited and
frightened by the unknown that
awaited them and.many plainly!
terrified because they were soft
city people ind were sure ' the!
trip would kill'them.
Hospitals jammed with
wounded were emptied, right
down to the last patient. They,
went - limping, crawling, on
crutches, carried on relatives'
backs, wheeled on their hospital
beds.
The Communists have few
doctors and meager 'medical
supplies; so many of these pa-
tients had little chance of sur- 1
viving. On April 17, the day I
this happened, Phnom Penh's
biggest hospital had over 2,000'
patients and there were several
thousand more In other hos-
pitals; many of the wounded
were dying for lack of care.
Silent Streets, Eerie Ughts
A once-throbbing city became
an echo chamber of silent
streets lined with abandoned
cars and gaping, empty shops.
Streetlights burned eerily for
a population that was no longer
there.
The end of the old and the
start of the new be an earl in
the morning or the e
cable office the line went
dead for mechanical reasons at
6 A.M. On the previous day,
amid heavy fighting, the Com-
munist-led forces had taken the
airport a few miles west of the
city, and during the night they
had pressed to the capital's
edges, throwing in rockets and
shells at. will.
Thousands of new refugees
and fleeing soldiers were-filling
the heart of the capital, wander-,
ing aimlessly;:looking for shat-
ter, as they awaited the city's'
imminent collapse.
Everyone--Cambodians and'
foreigners alike-'.-thought this
had to be -Phnom Penh's most
miserable hour after long days
of fear and ,privation as the,
Communist forces drew closer.
They looked ahead with hopeful
relief to the collapse of the city,
for they felt that when the
Communists came and the war
finally ended, at least the suf-
fering would largely be over.
All of us were wrong.
That -view. of the future of
Cambodia-as a possibly flex-
ible place even under Commu
nism, where changes would not!
be extreme and ordinary folk;
would be left alone-turned out
to be a myth.
Inadequate Descriptions
American officials had de-
scribed the Communists as in-
decisive and often ill-coordi-!
nated, but they turned out to'
be firm, determined, well-
trained, tough and disciplined.
The Americans had also said'
that the rebel army was badly'
riddled by casualties, forced to
fill its ranks by hastily impress-
ing young recruits from the
countryside and throwing them
into the front lines with only'
a few days' training. The thou-
sands of troops we saw both
in the countryside and in
Phnom Penh while they in-'
Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA-RDP79-01194A000100390001-3
 CPYRGHT
cluded women sA roved
militia, spme of om seemed
no more than 10 years old,
looked healthy, well organized,
heavily armed and well trained.
Another prediction made by
the Americans was that the
Communists would carry out
a bloodbath once they took
over-massacring as many as
20,000 high b-fficials and intel-
lectuals. There have been un-
confirmed reports of execu-
tions of senior military and
civilian officials,` and no one
who witnessed the take-over
doubts that top people of the
old regime wilt be or have been.
punished and perhaps killed or
thit a large numher of people
will die 5of the hardships on
the march into'#he countryside.
But none of this. will apparently
bear any resemblance to theI
mass execution%.that had been,
predicted by Westerners.
[In a news conference
Tuesday President Ford re-
iterated reports-he termed
them "hard intelligence"-
that 80 to 90 Cambodian of-
ficials and, their wives had
been executed.]
Refugees Poured In
On the first day, as the sun
was rising, a short swing by
automobile to the northern'
edge of the city showed soldiers
and refugees pouring in. The,
northern defense, line had ob-
viously collapsed.
By the time I reached tie
Hotel Le Phnom and climbed ~
the two flights of stairs to my
room, the retreat could be
clearly seen ;from my window,
and small-atrils fire could be
heard in the city. At 6:30 A.M.
I wrote in my ? notebook: "The
city is falling," .-
Over the .. pent couple of
hours there were periodic ex-
changes,-of fire' as the Com-
munists $ncot tered pockets
resistangg But most Govern-
ians. White flags suddenly
sprouted frdtn housetops and)
from armor personnel car-1
riers, which !?semble tanks. !
Some soldiery were takin?I
the clips o of. their rifles;
others werec anging into civil-
ian clothes. ;Rome-Government
office workers were hastily den-
nine the black naiam;i-like
clothes worn by Indochinese
Communists. 1
Shortly before 9 A.M. thei
first rebel ?.troops approached
the hotel, coming from the
north down Monivong Boule-
vard. A crowd of soldiers and
civilians, including newsmen,
churned forth to greet them-
cheering and, applauding and
embracing and linking arms to
form a phalanx as they came
along.
The next few hours saw quite
a bit of this celebrating, though
shooting continued here and
I Communists had mari(ea ror .-..notedly: t`We would like'lyou I
there, some of it only a few a cruel and sadistic imposition;. except for Lieut. Gen. Sirik 1ican people whn haw lt`14
ruuwed yaicia frum the hotel. of the law of the u le, in r n r wno. p rteo e
ig W1 a _4 i
Civilians and 1 p e* For ReFeas i#99SMffl2r: CIS ~ i1 ~r @3100"W nd to all le
For eIe sen1OWO /O2e: CtAeRDR79t:Q1494AOOA10 900'01J3ench Embassy, around town-in? jeeps, atop seen throotigh the'.eyes of the where he had taken refuge.
personnel carriers and in cars
-shouting happily. %
Most civilians stayed nerv-
ously indoors, however, not yet
sure what -was going on or who
was who, What was the fight-
ing inside the city all about?
they wondered; was it between
diehard Government troops and
the Communists; or between
rival Communist. factions fight-
ing over the spoils? Or. was it
mostly exuberance?
Some of these questions, in-
cluding the nature of the fac-
tionalism, have still not been
answered satisfactorily, but on
that first day such mysteries
quickly became academic, for
within a few hours, the mood
changed.
The cheerful and pleasant
troops we first' encountered-
we came to call them the soft
troops, and we learned later
that they were discredited and
disarmed, with their leader de-
clared a traitor, they may
not even have been authentic
-were swiftly displaced by
battle-hardened soldiers.
While some of these were
occasionally friendly, or at least
not hostile, they were also all
business. Dripping with arms
like overladen fruit trees-
grenades, pistols, rifles, rockets
-they immediately began clear-
the city of civilians.
Using loudspeakers, or sim-
ply shouting and brandishing
weapons, they swept through
the streets, ordering people out
of their houses. At first we
thought the order only applied
to the rich in villas, but we
quickly saw that it was for
everyone as the streets became
clogged with a sorrowful ex-
odus.
Cars stalled or their tires
went flat, and they were aban-
doned. People lost their sandals
in the jostling and pushing, so
they, lay as a reminder of the
throng that had passed.
Nb Reasons Given
In the days to follow, during
the foreign colony's confine-
ment in the Prench Embassy
compound;:, we heard reports
on international .pews broad-
casts that the Communists rj- d.
evacuated the city by tellli g
people the United States-was
about to bomb it. However,
all the departing civilians I
talked with said they had beet)
given no reason except that
the city had to be reorganized.
They were told they had to
go far from Phnom Penh.
In almost every situation we
encountered during the more
than two weeks we were under
Communist control, there was
a sense of split vision-whether
to look at events through West-
peasant soldiers and revolu- Mr. Long Boret's eyes. wore'
tionaries, the forced evacuation puffy and red, almost dow-i to
of the-cities is a harsh necessi- slits. He had Probably beez+ p
ty? Perhaps they are convinced, all night- and perhaps he ad
that there is no way to build; been weeping. His wife d1
a new society for the benefit two children were also sti I in
of the oitlinary" mean, hitherto the country; later they SO' L ht
exploited, without literally refuge at 'the French Embe y,
starting from the beginning;, only to be rejected as per; ns
in such an unbending -view who might "compromise" he,
people who represent the old rest of he refugees.
ways and those considered Mr. Long Bonet, who adI
weak or it and would be
expendible'and would be weed- talked volubly and articula ly,
ed out. Or was the policy both on the telephone the nigh: a-I
cruel and ideological? fore, had difficulty spe;ng
A foreign doctco; offeri'ad this coherently. He could o ly~
explanation. for the expulsion mumble yes; no and thank u,I
of the sick and wounded from so conversation was in s-1
the hospital: "rfiey coul,a 41ot sibie. There is still no hard i . r-I
cope with all the` patigmts - motion on what has ha pr,
pr'
they do not have the doctors--1
so they apparently decided to', to him. Most people who t ve j
throw totem all out and blame talked with the Commis i sts;
any deaths on the old regime, believe it a certainty th her
That way they could start from will be executed, if indee,- he
scratch medically." - execution has not air dy
'Pure and. Simple Genocide' - taken place.
Some western observers con- One of the Communist d-
sidered that the exodus ap- ers at the Information Mire try
proached genocide. One of that day-probably a gel. al,
them, watching from his refuge though his uniform bon no
in the French Embassy com- markings and he decline 1 to
pound, said: "They are crazyl give his name-talked s th-
This -is pure and simple geng, ingly >tn the 50 prisoner: He
cide.'They will kill more.people assure: them that there re
this way than i'f there had only seven traitors and at'
been hand-to-hand fighting inI other officials of the oi, re-'
hecity'fi gime would be dealt with ui-
Anot:her f0meftgn doctor, who tably. "There will be n? re-
had- bjeery ford-.: at gunpointl prisals," he said. Their str.-i ed
to abandon a seriously wound- faces suggested that ey
ed patieift'in'midoperation. ad-i would like to believe hir but
del in a dark voice: "They) (lid not.
have not got a humanitar'an. As he talked, a ad
thought in their heads!" crouched in combat-ready si-
Whatever the Communists' tions around him, almost a if,
pufpose, the exodus did note it was guarding him at a nst
grow heavy until dusk, and harm.
even then onlookers were slow
ttf realize that the people were The officer who app- red
no more than age 35, p ed
being forcibly evacuated. I to chat with foreign new en.'
For my own part, I had His tine was polite and e
problem that preoccupied ma e
that aftbrnoon: I with others, times he smiled, but even, ing
was held tened with execut on, threa-1 he said
foreigners, meant that
nothi to
After our release, we went! him and that our int. r stsf
to the InfQrmation Ministry,! were alien to his. I
because we had heard about a? Asked about the fate o' the!
broadcast directing high offi- 20 or so foreign journ r istsl
cials of the old regime to re- missing in Cambodia sine: the
port there. When we arrived,) early days of the war, hF aid
about 50 prisoners+,were stand-; he had heard nothing. Eked,
ing outside the bugdis'r& among I if we would be permitt to l
them Lon Non, the younger file from the cable offic , he!
brother of President Lon Nol, smiled sympathetically and
who went into exile on April 1,i said, "We will resolve all > ob-
and Brig. Gen. Chim chhuon, )ems in their proper order."
who yeas close to the fotmer Clearly an educated ma i of
President. 'Other generals land no more than 35, he al ost
Cabinet' ministers were also Irertainly speaks French, the
there--very nervous but trying lanr'uage of the nation hat
'to to appear untroubled. ruled Cambodia' for nea I al
Premier Long Boret, who the century until the ninetet fif-!
day before had made an offer, it;es, but he gave no hi;. of'
of surrender with certain con- this colonial vestige, spe.r ing,
ditions only to have it imme-j only in Khmer through a in
diately rejected, arrived at the teroreter.
ern eyes or through what we, ministry an hour later. He s In the middle of the cc> er-'
 eT
ease v is
message to the world."
Purpose: End the War
Noting that Congress had;
halted aid.to the Phnom Penh
Government, he said "The pus-j
i~rOe was to- stop the war,"
but he quickly added: "Our
s*ru,!oie would not have
stopped even if they had given
more aid."
Attempts to find out morel
about who he was and about
political and military organiza-I
tion led only to imprecision.
The officer said: "I represent;
the armed forces. There are
many divisions. I am one of
the many."
Asked if there were factions,
he said there was only one
political organization and one
government. Some top political
and governmental leaders are
not far from the city, he added,
but they let the military enter
first "to organize things."
Most military units, he said,
are called "rumdos," which
means "liberation forces."
Neither this commander nor
any of the soldiers we talked
with ever called themselves
Communists or Khmer Rouge
(Red Cambodians). They al-
ways said they were liberation
troops or nationalist troops and
called one another brother or
the Khmer equivalent of com-
rade.
The nomenclature at least
is confusing, for Western intel-
ligence had described the
Khmer Rumdos as a faction
loyal to Prince Norodom Sihan-
ouk that was being downgraded
by Hanoi-trained Cambodians
and losing power.
The Communists named the
Cambodian leader, who was
deposed by Marshal Lon Nol
in 1970 and has been living
in exile in Peking, as their
figurehead chief of state, but
none of the soldiers we talked
with brought up his name.
One over - all impression
emerged from our talk with
the commander at the Informa-
tion Ministry: 'The military will
be largely in charge cf the
early stages of the upheavc.l,
carrying out the evacuation,
organizing the new agrarian
program, searching for hidden
arms and resstern, repairing
damaged bridges.
The politicians-or so it
seemed from all the evidence
during our stay-have for the
moment taken a rear seat. No
significant political or adminis-
trative apparatus was yet visi-
ble; it did not seem to be a
government yet, but an army.
The radio announced April;
28, that a special national.con-
gress attended by. over 300'
delegates was held in Phnom
Penh from April 25 to 27. It
was said to have been chaired
by the Deputy Premier and
ni eIeason1899/891O2
Samphan, who has emerged-
at least in public annoimce-
srrents-as the top leader. De-
spite that meeting the military
*tiU. seemed, to be running
things as we emerged from
Cambodia. on Saturday.
One apparent reason is that
politicians and bureaucrats are
not equipped to do the dirty
work and arduous tasks of the
early phases of reorganizaton.
Another is that the military,
as indicated in conversations
with Khmer-speaking foreign-
ers they trusted somewhat,
seemed worried that politicians
'Cr soft-living outsiders in their
movement might steal the : ic-
tory and dilute it. There could
be severe power struggles
ahead.
After leaving the prisoners
and the military commander
at the ministry, we headed for
the Hotel Le Phnom, where
another surprise was waiting.
,The day before, the Red Cross
,turned the hotel into a protect-
ed international zone and
,draped it with huge Red Cross
flags. But the Communists were
not interested.
At 4:55 P.M. troops waving
guns and rockets had forced
their way into the grounds and
ordered the hotel emptied with-
in 30 minutes. By the time
we arrived 25 minutes had
elapsed. The fastest packing
job in history ensued. I even
had time to "liberate" a type-
writer some one had abandoned,
since the troops had "liberated"
mine earlier.
We were the last ones out,
running. The Red Cross had
abandoned several vshicles in
the yard after removing the
keys, so several of us threw
our gear an the back of a
Red Cross Honda pickup truck
and started pushing it up the
boulevard toward the French
Embassy. .
Several days before, word
was passed to those foreigners
who stayed behind when the
Americans pulled out on April
12 that, as a last resort, one
could take refuge at the embas-
sy. France had recognized the
new government, and it was
thought that the new Cambo-
dian leaders would respect the
embassy compound as a sanc-
tuary.
As we plodded up the ro7d,
big fires were burning on the
city's outskirts, sending smoke
clouds into the evening sky
like a giant funeral wreath en-
circlin the capital.
The cmb ss,,, as only sever-
al hundred yards away, but
what was happen'ng on the
road made it seem rnu'-h farth-
er. All around us people were
fleeing, for there was no refuge.
for them. And coming into the
city from the other directior-
was a fresh battalion marchiifg
in single file. They looked cur=
L9u?1?P4~O1 OO49,~~Qt11 st need seed to
QIA' ROPthem.
vows y at
In the 13 days of confinement,
that followed, until our evacua-'
tion by, military truck to ti,
That border, we had only a
peephole onto what was going
on outside, but there were still
many things that could be seen
and many clues to the revol--
tion that was going on.
We could hear shooting,
sometimes nearby but mostly
in other parts of the city. Often
it sounded like shooting in the
air, but at other tames it seemed-
like small battles. As on the
day of the city's fall we werE
never able to piece together 'ii'
satisfactory explanation of the':
shooting, which died down aft,'
ter about a week.
We could see smoke from.
the huge fires from time to
time, and there were reports:
from foreigners who trickled,.
into the embassy that certain'-
quarters were badly burned and,
that the water - purificati4ii
plant was heavily damaged. ~?,
The foreigners who for var5-
ous reasons came in later cart
vied stories, some of therm eyem
witness accounts, of suafl
things as civilian bodies along
the roads leading out of the'
city - people who had ap?
parently died of illness or ex"
haustion on the march. Bttt
each witness got only 'r-
glimpse, and no reliable esti-
mate of the toll was possibler
Reports from roads to the
south and southeast of Phnoib
Penh said the Communists
were breaking up families by
dividing the refugees by sex
and age. Such practices were
not reported from other roads
on which the refugees floodOd
out of the capital.
Executions Reported
Reports also told of execur,
tions, but none were eyewif-
ness accounts. One such repoct
said high military officers were
executed at a rubber plantation
a couple of miles north of
the city.
In the French Embassy coin.
pound foreign doctors and re
lief agency officials were pessi
mistic about the survival chain
ces of many of the refugees.
"There's no food in the country-
side at this time of year," an
international official said.
"What will they eat from now
until the rice harvest in Noverpi
ter?"
The new Communist officials.
in conversations with . United
Nations and other foreign re-
presentatives during our con-
finement and in statemeJnf:s
since, have rejected the
of foreign aid. "whether it is
military, political, economic,
social, diplomatic, or whether
it takes on a so-called humani-
tarian foran." Some foreign o~)-
servers wondered whether this
included China, for they specyy-
lated that the Cormunists
served before we entered tht
'French compound continued fs'
difficult to say. In any case,
it is essential to understand
who the Communist soldiers
are to understand the behavior
of some of them in disciplinary
matters, particularly looting.
They are peasant boys, pure
sand simple - darker skinned
than their city brethren, with
gold in their front teeth. To
them the city is a curiosity,
an oddity, a carnival, where
you visit but do not live. The
.city means next to nothing
in their scheme of things.
One Kept, the Rest Given
When they looted jewelry
shops, they kept only one
watch for themselves and gave
the rest to their colleagues or
passersby. Transistor radios,
cameras and cars held the same
toy-like fascination-something
to play with, as children might,
but not essential.
From my airline bag on the
day I was seized and threat-
ened with execution they took
only some cigarettes, a pair of
boxer underwear shorts and a'
handkerchief. They passed up a
blue shirt and $9,000 in cash
in a money belt.
The looting did not really
contradict the Communist im-
age of rigid discipline, for Com-
manders apparently gave no
orders against the sacking 4'P
shops, feeling, perhaps, that
this was the least due their men.
after five years of jungle fight-'
ins.
Often they would climb into,
abandoned cars and find that,
they would not run, so they
would bang on them with their.
rifles like frustrated children,
or they would simply toot the
horns for hours on end or keep.
turning the headlights on and.
off until the batteries died.
One night at the French Ems
bassy, I chose to sleep on the
grass outside; I was suddenly
awakened by what sounded. like.
a platoon trying to smash down}
the front gates with a battering
ram that had bright lights and
a loud claxon. It was only
a bunch of soldiers playing
with and smashing up the cars
that had been left outside the,
gates.
Though these country soldiers
'broke into villas all over th'
(city and took the curious thing
they wanted-one walked past,
the embassy beaming proudly.
in a crimson-colored wool overt,
coat that hung down to hiss
Ho Chi Minh sandals-they
never stayed in the villas. With
big, soft beds empty, they slept:
in the courtyards or the streetgw
Almost without exceptioR-
footsoldiers I talked with, when;
asked what they wanted to,-
do, replied that they only wan,-,,,
ed to go home.
Approved For Release 1999/09/02,,,: CIA-RDP79-01194AO00100390001-3
 caries anti Anrmosr,
InanEmbassyHaven
CPYRGHT
The following dispatch by Sydney H. Schanberg ac-
companied his account of the upheaval in Cambodia.
Special to The New York Times
BANGKOK, Thailand, May 8
-For the 800 foreigners, in-
luding this correspondent,
who spent two weeks in the
French Embassy in Phnom
enh after the Communists
ook over, the time seemed
ike a chaotically compressed
generation of life.
A baby was born, another
died. A dozen marriages were
performed-all marriages of
convenience to enable Cam-
bodians to get French pass-
ports so that they could es-
cape the country and its
peasant revolution.
There were days of deep
sorrow. Cambodians without
foreign papers had to go on
the trek into the countryside.
Friends were torn apart.
Families broken up as Cam-
bodian husbands were separ-
ated from their European
wives. On those days sobbing
could be heard in every cor-
ner of the compound.
And there were
hopes rose, days
rumors said that
was imminent.
days when
when the
evacuation
emerged
than the
Heroes and knaves
-more of the latter
blankets, slept on the floor
of a large living room-
surrounded by humming air-
ping water and food was and more and hardly an hour
limited, and out of this grew went by without an ar-
tween groups. compou, usually over some-
and French civilians living in after which we had to rely
the driveways and gardens on water tapped from our
French and the Fre;ffh staff livered periodically in barrels
of Calmette Hospital, who "y "" 8
__ 1___-There was never enough for
foreigners, including the fa- Nothing Funny About It
write targets - Americans
With food limited and with
than sharing. A minor exam- the evidence of which filled
pie: Put a pack of cigarettes every walkway and gar-
d
th
d
e compoun
.
en to
on a table for 10 seconds
The compound was difficult
and turn around, and it
at times, but never as diffi-
after 13 days in the embassy our situation was "more and
lf more precarious." Sometimes
.. _ h
d .. ..-
-
a
an
says on use To Lam nnroved For It".e I' PQ/6
The forced evacuation as
part of an apparent camp 'gn
to make it clear to n
Dyrac, the consul and se for
French official at the emias-
bassy, and , to everyone els in
the compound that the ew
Government, not foreign rs,
was in charge-and unde its
own rules.
The first thing the Co u-
nists did was declare at
they did not recognize he
compound as an em sy,
simply as a regroupment n-
ter for foreigners under t air
control. This shattered he
possibility of asylum for gh
officials of the ousted re e
who had sought sanctu ry.
On the afternoon of A ril
20, in a gloomy driz le,
Lieut. Gen. Sirik Matak, ho
was among those marked or
execution, and a few o tier
leading figures were taken
away in the back of a san ta-
tion truck.
Throughout our stay he
Communists continued t eir
campaign of proving t it
primacy-refusing to le a
French plane land with food
and medical supplies, re s-
ing to allow us to be eva u-
ated in comfort by air inst ad
of by rutted road in he
back of military trucks, a d,
finally, shutting down lie
embassy radio transmit er,
our only contact with he
outside world.
At the same time t key
did not physically harass or
abuse us-fthe only time ur
baggage was searched as
by Thai customs offici is
when we crossed the border
-and they did event illy
provide us with food and
water. The food was usua ly
live pigs, which we had to
butcher.
Another Point of View
Though the new rulers w re
obviously trying to Inflict a
certain amount of diseomf rt
-they kept emphasizing at
they had told us in r o
a foreign newsman watching broadcasts to get out of e
him, he forced a smile, "Our city before the final assa It
morale is up," he said. "It and that by staying we ? d
must be up. Today is the delibe~rabely gone against th it
CI
Approved For Release 4299/019/02 : CIA P1 O1oi8 10039 in-
me. All Cambodians here
thought that when the
Khmer Rouge came it would
be all welcomes and cheering
and bravo and the war would
be over and we would be-
come normal again. Now we
are stunned, stunned."
There was nothing funny
for Mrs. Praet, a Belgian
whose Cambodian husband
was being forced to leave
her and join the march. As
she wept into her handkerch-
ief he embraced her gently.
"Courage, ma cherie. Cou-
rage, ma cherie," he whis-
peerd. She could not control
herself and her small body
shook with her weeping as
their two little girls looked
on uncomprehending.
There was nothing funny
for a Government officer
who cannot be named here
who vainly took refuge in
the embassy. Soon he and
his large family had to leave.
years, wounded several
times, he was reduced to
hopelessness and was crying
like a child.
'Could Have Gotten Out,
empl9Ye? who sat sobbing all Cambodians wit out
under a tree on the morning foreign passports or pa ers,
of April 19. Her mother and which forced about 500
father were missing, and in peope to take to the rod.
two days she would be Family or not. we all lost
forced to take her young someone close to us, and
son and go into the country- when the Cambod ans
side herself. trudged through the gat we
"I was an optimist," she foreigners stood in the f ont
said as the tears coursed yard, weeping unasham ly.
down her cheeks. "Not only Emphasizing Primary
a , bodians left The hgspl al'S
Though some people man- : sheep, tethered to a tiack.
aged not to fare too badly, was bleating mournfully no
for most of those in the one paid any attention.
compound the situation was At one time, about 300
far more than a series of people were living in the
annoyances; there was noth- attractivel landscaped om-
ipg funny about it. pound, which is 200 y rds
*them was nothing funny by 250 yards or so. hen
for Mrs. Nha, an Air France the Communists ordered out
"I could have gotten out
of the country 10 days ago,"
he said "but I believed the
UnitNd States would come
and help, do something for
us. If you get out. please
write about this. Tell the
world what is happening
here."
Some Cambodian women,
realizing that their infants
could not survive the long
trek, earfully gave theirs to
French families for foster
care or adoption.
"My first baby, my only
baby! a mother in shock
shrieked. "Save him! Save
him! You can do it."
In a corner a young Cam-
bodian who Is a Roman Cath-
olic was reading a passage
from his Bible: "It is necessa-
ry to entirely renounce one-
self to obtain freedom of
 CPYRGHT
air point of viq~pprt~ar~ed FO O A
ng fed and h much because he was too drunk
tter than their foot soldiers had an epileptic seizure. The
ere and should not com-
lain.
But complain we did -
bout the food, about each
ther, about the fact that em-
assy officials were dining on
hicken and white wine while
e were eating plain rice and
asking it down with heavily
hlorinated water.
Though there were excep-
ons, constructive figures
ho worked hard to make the
ompound run smoothly, our
. quabbling and our refusals
share and cooperate pre-
ented a spectacle that may
1 ave reinforced the Commu-
i ists' notion of us as people
selfish and egotistical to
I ve a less than affluent Asian
iety.
Outside the gates of the
mpound soldiers were liv-
i g in simple fashion.-s'.eep-
i t; on the ground and sub-
sting on rice and salt, with
an occasional chicken or
iece of pork.
Among the embassy deni-
s, even in the midst of the
t ars and heartache, a search
f r the appearance of nor-
alty went on.
Blossoms and Bridge
A Frenchwoman picked
ange-colored blossoms from
bush and twined them in
I er laughing child's hair.
Gosta Streijffert, a former
?.vedish Army officer from a
1 atrician family who is a
ed Crers official sat erect
i a straight-backed chair he
I ad carried outside and read
British news phagaz.ine with
is monocle fixed.
At a table nearby a United
ations official and a Scot-
i sh Red Cross medical team
l laved bridge and drank
hisky; someone carped
I udly about the way his
artne" conducted the bid-
i ng.
In the midst of all this an
merican airplane mechanic
ho did not leave Cambodia
-Red Crass doctors carried
him on the run to the build-
ing where the hospital staff
was quartered with their
equipment.
The American recovered
slowly. His case interrupted
the staff's dinner-steak. We
were envious, and they
seemed embarrassed and an-
gry when journalists made
notes about their full larder.
Why was there not more
sharing, more of a commu-
nity spirit? What made us
into such acquisitive, self-
protective beings?
Why did all the Asians live
outside, in the heat and rain,
while many of the Cauca-
sians. like my group, lived
inside, with air-conditioning?-
We explained it by saying the
living arrangements were up
to the embassy, but this was
clearly not an answer. Was
our behavior and our segre-
gation a verdict on our way
of life?
Some Exceptional Behavior
Amidst the generally dis-
appointing behavior of the
Westerners therewere excep-
tions-people who rose above
the squabbling and managed
to hold things together.
There was Francois Bizot,
a Frenchman who worked
for many years in the coun-
tryside restoring ancient
temples and ruins. He lost
his Cambodian wife and
mother-in-law, who were
forced on the march. Yet his
relationship with the Com-
munists was strong and they
trusted him, for he had met
some in his wont in the in-
terior and he speaks Khmer
fluently.
It was Mr. Bizot who, in
the early days of our con-
finement, was allowed to
scout for food and water. And
it was he who successfully
argued the twos of some
Asians whose papers were
not in perfect older. A num-
2: C1Q1QG;W'%T0U
01
their futtirls to h18L
Thera were, others who
performed coifetructdve roles,
among them Douglas A. Sap-
per 3d, an American with a
Special Forces background
who was Involved in a pri-
vate airline company.
Sapper, as everyone calls
him, organized our group's
kitchen and food rationing to
make sure supplies would
last. His ranger training-and
his colorful language, none of
which can be reproduced here
-kept us eating regularly
and kept pilferers out of the
larder.
Disappointing Behavior
These special people not-
withstanding, the general
level of behavior remained
disappointing throughout our
stay. We held constant group
meetings and made endless
lists of who was supposed
to perform what chores, and
we were constantly going
through the movements of
organizing, but we never
really got organized.
Lassitude and depression
set in as the days dragged
on. People lay dozing on t
makeshift beds through
the day, waiting only for the
next meal. One journalist
slipped into a torpor in which
he had energy only to lift
his aeresol insecticide can
and spray away flies.
Occasionally, however,
there was an occurence
dramatic enough to break
this morphic aura-such as
the sighting of a Chinese
plane on April 24 coming in
for a landing at the airport,'
possibly carrying high Cam-
bodian and Chinese officials
from Peking.
There was also the unex-
pected arrival the day before
of the seven Russians who
had been holding out at the
Soviet Embassy. They had
been desperately trying to
make friendly contact with
the new Cambodian laadwra
000?A0e'b?ance"Chines in-
ence.
But it was the Chinese nd
not the Russians who ad
been supplying the Khner
Rouge with arms. The Ckm-
bodian Communists robe ed
the Soviet overtures, fir a
rocket through the se nd
floor of their embassy, 1o ted
the building and ordered the
Russians to the French nn-
pound. The Russians, ha ing
failed in their mission, l cod
gloomy. They did not ap re-
ciate any of the jokes a out
assignment to Siberia or he
salt mines.
Veritable Stotsboase
The Russians seemed to
console themselves by
ing a veritable storehou of
food, including large e
of tinned meat and v a.
They shared none of it ith
anyone either in the c m-
pound or on the trip to ai-
land-which occasioned
arguments and also some
ther jokes about the -
geoisie and the revisionist in-
fluences that seemed to h ve
crept into Soviet Commun' m.
The Russians did not ap
ciate those either.
This phase came to an nd
for us In the early hours on
April 30 when-after an e
fling of sipping champs e
"borrowed" from emba sy
stocks and singing d
minedly hardy traveling so g's
such as "It's a Long Wa to
Tipperary," we were aw k-
ened as scheduled, afte a
few hours' sleep, and told to
board the trucks.
As we stepped into he
pleasantly cool air with ur
sacks and suitcases, we co d
see in the night sky the li is
of many planes coming fr m
the direction of South V t-
nam and heading west. ai-
gon was falling, and So th
Vietnamese pilots, carryng
their families and other o-
gees, were making their o n
evacuation journey to ai-
land.
American's Brief Brush With Arrest and Death
-Some of the foreigners This dispatch was also writ-
% iters, the car
ho stayed behind after the ten by Sydney H. Schanberg. money, `it y weredrus into an
merican evacuation of
nompenh learned quickly driver, Sarun, we had gone armored personnel carrier,
d at first hand that the to look at conditions in the slamming the hatch and rear
ommunist-led forces were largest civilian hospital, door shut. We thought we
it the happy - go - lucky Preah Keth Mealea. Doctors were finished.
troops we had seen in the and surgeons, out of fear, But Mr. Dith Pran saved
i itial stage of the Commu- had failed to come to work
st take-over. and the wounded were bleed-
I had my first experience our lives, first by getting
ing to death in the corridors. into the personnel carrier
with the tough Khmer Rouge As we emerged from the with us and then by talking
ps early in the afternoon operating block at 1 P.M. soothingly to our captors for?
the first day of the take- and started driving toward two and a half hours and
'er. the front gate, we were con- finally convincing them that
m With Dith Pran. a local fronted by a band of heavily we were not their enemy
Wit
pioye of The New York armed troops just then com- but merely foreign newsmen
es, ion Swain of the Sun- ing into the grounds. They covering their victory.
Times of London, Alan We are still not clear why
y put guns to our heads and
,
ockoff, a freelance Amen- shoutin angrily, hre they were to angry, but we during a journey on which
photographer,AlYorffed For ~ asen14 t~002,: 1C t, t 0 01( in tot odians were
CPYRGHT
the hospital at that time to
remove the patients and were
startled to find us, for they
wanted no foreign witnesses.
At one point they asked
if any of us were Americans,
and we said no, speaking
French all the time and let-
ting Mr. Dith Pran translate
into Khmer. But if they had
looked into the bars they
had confiscated, which they
did not, they wotild have
found my passport and Mr.
Rockoff's.
Officers Also Picked Up
We spent a very frightened
half-hour sweating in the
 CPYRGHT Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : CIA-RDP79-01194A000100390001-3
,igh military officers and
ho were, if that is possible,
;en more frightened than
Then followed two hours
the oven under guard at
bile Mr. Dith Pran pulled
ff his miracle negotiation
with our captors as we
.atched giddy soldiers pass-
ng with truckloads of looted
loth, wine, liquor, cigarettes
nd soft drinks, scattering
ome o f the booty to soldiers
refugees leaving the c y. we
thought they were People
who had fled into the city
from the near outskirts in
the last days of the fighting
and were now returning
home. We did not yet realize
that people were being for-
cibly evacuated.
We were finally released
at 3:30 P.M., but the two
Combodian military men
were held. Onewaspraying
softly.
Few Stowaways Joined_Long_Convoy
A
GAMBODIANS ABLE
TO EFFECT ESCAPE
Travelers See How Rulers
Have Organized Rural Life
-Troops Along the Way,
The following dispatch was
also written by Sydney. H.
Scftanberg.
.- spetiai to The Nc : YeY Times
BANGKOK, Thailand, May 8
"'As refugees beginning our
evicuation journey to Thailand,
wp left the French Embassy in
PI'knom Penh on April 30 in vir?
tullly the same chaos in which
we had entered it 13 days
earlier.
In the predawn darkness
there was milling and confu-
siort in the embassy yard as
rnlore than 500 of us clambered
into 26 Soviet, Chinese and
Aiuerican military trucks for
the 250-mule journey.
There were supposed to be
2OTpersons per truck, but dark-
nos and confusion cover a mul-
titude of things and somestow-
avgays managed to sneak
aligard. There were five: Asian
wires of westerners whose
papers were incomplete but who
wee fiercely determined to get
out; a child of one of them and
a , German television corre-
s N1 of them, for reasons that
cannot be fully told here, got
onto my truck, which contained,
among other passengers, some
Americans, Swedes, Bulgarians
,rod seven Russians from their
embassy. with a mammouth
load of luggage and food.
The German newsmen sat up-
right but the other stowaways
slipped under our legs and we
covered them with towels, bush
hats and other oddments. Some-
how the officials who were
checking the convoy never
noticed them.
At 6 A.M., with the sun just
coming up, the convoy moved
out. As it did we saw a frosh
battalion of troops marching
single file into the city from, the
north-a mirror image of the l
battalion that marched in on the
evening of April 17 when we
entered the French Embassy.
New Images on tehe Way
Then the scene changed and
we met new images. The street
light burned casting their arti-
ficial rays along the boulevards
of a deserted city. Abandoned
cars and assorted trash marked
the'trail of the missing popula-
tion.
In the courtyard of the Hotel
Le Phnom soldiers stood in
morning formation. Another
battalion formation was lined
up down the street in front of
the railway station; similar
formations were visible on ad-
joirtmg streets.
The soldiers stood with heads
bowed, their weapons at their
feel:, as if in prayer. An anthem
Was being played; it appeared
to be some kind of morning
"thought session."
Every shop had been broken
open and looted. Not a single
civylian was visible-oily sol-
diers camping in the shops and
on the sidewalks. There were
Large numbers of them.
We suddenly turned right-
that is, west-down the road
to the airport, and this was
puzzling because we were sup-
posed to be heading north an
northwest toward the Thai
frdntier.
Our journey gave us a br!ef
but revealing glimpse into the
covert spy system and com-
munally organized countryside
of the Communists-a glimpse
that, as far as is known, no
Westerners had ever before
gotten.
Covert Supply System
We traveled on some of the
well-defended dirt roads they
had built by hand and used as
cla,ndestine supply routes dur-
ing the five years of the war,
that ended with their seizure
of Phnom Penh on April 17.
None of these roads show
on maps of Cambodia, yet
some were only half a mile or
so from the main highways.
We saw resevoirs, dikes,
bridges-all built with hand
tools. No machines or earth-
mgving equipment were visible.
We also saw boy militia
units on patrol everywhere and
male4emale work crews repair-
in~ roads.
s we passed many of the
villagers and soldiers stared at!
us'wonderingly, as if they had
never seen a white man before!
-which is possible.
From what we could deter
mine it seemed that these areas!
had been developed and organ-1
ized over a long period and'
that they had remained un-
touched sanctuaries throughout,
the war. There, were no signs
that either American planes or
planes of the old Phnom Penh
government had bombed here,)
nor were there any signs that+I
troops of the old Government
had tried to mount a ground as-
sault sault against those areas. The
trees bore no marks of bullet
holes, as they always do when
there has been ground fighting.
The over-all impression was
n ~ Some V1 Me 11
reiiervoirs, for example, had al
terraced system that channel
water into an agricultural irri-i
gation system.
The supply network that wel
got the best look at snakedi
through thick forest and
swampy ponds along a line
that ran generally parallel to
and west of Route 5. It cov-
ered approximately 40 miles,
running from near the town.of
Oudong to the province capital
of KEmtpond Chhang.
One got the feeling as we
traveled along these dirt roads,
which were occasionally wide
but often so narrow that tree
branches along the isdes
thwacked against our trucks,
that the village and country-
side organization was much
stronger than anyone on the
other side had imagined.
Yet while this organizational
system was impressive, when
we traveled on other roads we 1
saw some depressing sights.
Refugees forced out of Phnom
Penh and other places were l
still plodding along, pushing
carts and carrying heavy sacks
of belongings over their shoul-
ders as they headed for the
interior areas, where the Khmer
rouge say they must now be-
come peasants and *row rice.
Abandoned and stripped cars
littered some highways: appar-
ently city people had started
out in them and jetisoned when
they ran out of fuel. There wasl
other detritus too--steel hel-1
mets and other military equip-
ment and weapons discarded on
the run by the routed troops.
Here and there were bodies.
but it was difficult to telt if
they were people who had suc-
cumbed to the hardships of the
march or simply civilians and
soldiers killed in the last battles.
Approved For Release 1999/09/02 : IA-RDP79-01194A000100390001-3