Ung Bun Hor, the former President of the National Assembly in Phnom Penh, and his wife Billon Ung in 1960. (Photo: Private collection of Mr. Ung Bun Hor's family)January 16, 2007
By Piotr Smolar
Le Monde (Paris, France)
Translated from French by M. Preuk (Posted online)
A red night fell over Phnom Penh on this 17 April 1975. The Cambodian capital was taken without resistance by the Khmer revolutionaries who decided to send the city folks to the fields and to eradicate all trace of modernity in the society. As always, the advent to power of a “new man” demands sacrifices. The force collectivization, the deportations, and the killings will create in four years, close to 2 million deaths, i.e. about one third of the population of Cambodia.
A few days after the fall of the capital, in an apartment in the 15th district of Paris, Billon Ung looks, petrified, the image broadcasted on TV. On one of the black and white photo, she recognizes her husband, Ung Bun Hor, the President of the National Assembly. Before taking one of the last planes allowed to take off, she begged him, unsuccessfully, to flee also. She prepared him a set of farmer’s clothes, and some jewelries for him in a handkerchief so that he can reach Thailand incognito, in case of danger. However, he preferred to take refuge within the compound of the French embassy, a friendly country.
On TV, a reporter describes the dramatic events which took place inside the embassy. Cambodian officials who took refuge behind the embassy walls were handed over to the Khmer Rouge! Among those, was Billon Ung’s husband. “I no longer feel my legs,” she explained 21 years later. “My daughter who was 12-year-old, went happily to hug the TV screen while saying: “Don’t worry, Mommy, Daddy will join us.” I understood that everything was over and that I will be alone and I must take all the responsibility.”
Arriving in Paris with $20,000 in a suitcase, Billon Ung will never see again the magnificent family properties. Her grandfather was the richest man in Cambodia, her father presided the Chamber of Commerce. “When I was young, I never look at my bank account,” she sighed. “I left when I wanted to go for vacation in Paris or to spend a weekend in Hong Kong.” During her wedding to Ung Bun Hor, Billon Ung was blessed by the king and the queen. The couple then spent time in happiness during their expatriation in Cuba.
Alone in Paris while working as a researcher for the BNP [National Bank of Paris], she took care of her four children, four nephews and her mother. The body of her husband was never found. The Quai d’Orsay [French Ministry of Foreign Affairs] turned her away, wives of French ambassadors who before then was her evening companions, no longer pay attention to her.
In October 1999, Billon Ung ended up bringing a lawsuit against X…, in order to find out the truth on the fate of her husband. A legal information case was opened in Créteil regarding the “sequestration” [confinement] and “torture acts, and the case was sent to the criminal brigade of Paris. Several judges oversaw the case. The investigation is now sunk because the last judge, Jean Marc Toublanc, doubts his own legal competence in the case. “This position is stunning for the fact that the two previous judges led the case without any worries,” Maitre Patrick Baudoin, the lawyer for the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) noted. FIDH is siding with Billon Ung in this case. In March 2006, the judge asked the office of the public prosecutor to pronounce its verdict; at the end of October, the latter wished to see the investigation being pursued.
Nevertheless, on January 3, Mr. Toublanc signed an ordinance declaring his incompetence in the case. The judge noted that the complaint was brought against X…, and not against précised individuals, and that the French State, in its entirety cannot be brought to judgment. For William Bourdon, Billon Ung’s lawyer, the main question for the case is to find out “whether the behavior of French government officials who handed the husband of Mrs. Ung Bun Hor to the Khmer authorities, were doing so in an isolated case, or was it done under forced instruction.”
In spite of the legal quagmire, the case delivers information so far unpublished, on the three weeks behind closed [embassy doors] in 1975, and which ended by the evacuation of refugees and the last French citizens in a procession toward Thailand. This information is even more so interesting as the Khmer Rouge trial is currently taking shape in Phnom Penh.
France broke its diplomatic relations with Cambodia after the army coup d’état led by Lon Nol against Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the head of state, in 1970. In the absence of an ambassador in Phnom Penh, the highest French representative during the events was Jean Dyrac, the embassy consul. In a telegram dated April 14, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminded the consul that his mission was limited to “keeping the archives and to perform strictly consular work.” This meant to take care of the repatriation of his [French] compatriots without bringing too much attention. During the taking charge of his duty, beside the consul himself, the embassy personnel was reduced to seven people: two cops, the counter-espionage representative, the SDECE (French secret service, equivalent to the CIA) representative , two secretaries, an army officer, and an encoder.
Phnom Penh was taken on April 17, 1975, one week after the evacuation of the US embassy. On the same morning, during the general panic, Prince Sirik Matak, former candidate to the throne, Princess Manivane, as well as other officials who decided not to seek asylum overseas, discretely showed up at the embassy to find refuge. They were preceded a few minutes earlier by Ung Bun Hor. Pushed out the first time, he was admitted inside when the crowd pushed him in. “He was nervous and immediately demanded a room, arguing his position as President of the National Assembly,” Jean Dyrac explained to the police on February 5, 2002. “Given his state of nervousness, the two French cops had to intervene to support him and to bring him inside our compound, and install him in the offices with other officials.”
Reduced, the embassy staff was overwhelmed by the events: beside the officials, a crowd of several thousands of people was gathered inside the embassy compound. Gendarme (cop) Georges Villevielle was in charge, with a colleague, of securing the area. “Very quickly, given the size of the park, the low height of the gate surrounding the compound, the influx of refugees, we were completely overwhelmed,” he recounted to the investigators. “I even remembered seeing some Cambodians trying to move a paralyzed person in his wheelchair over the gate, far from the entrance door.” The staff had to improvise and to spread the people arriving between various buildings: the embassy, the consulate, the residence and the cultural center. The majority installed themselves on the grass. Soon after, the consul presented himself to the new Khmer authority in the city. François Bizot, the ethnologist and author in 2003 of a noticeable book “Le Portail” (The Gate, Published by La Table Ronde, 2000) which described these events, served as a translator.
A list of notables was provided by the embassy to the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge demanded the list, if not, Bizot explained to the French police citing the exact words used by the Khmer Rouge themselves, “the revolutionaries would go by themselves to dislodge them out of their hiding place.” How did they know the officials were inside the compound? According to Dyrac, questioned by phone by Le Monde, “it is possible that among the refugees (there were) Khmer Rouge agents. Diplomatic telegrams show that the French authority was disposed to provide the names in order to avoid a worst situation.
On April 18, at 6:00 PM, a scar-faced Khmer Rouge officer showed up at the entrance, he was accompanied by a group of men armed with bazookas. He brutally demanded the handing of Cambodian officials before 8:00 AM the next morning. Around 8:00 PM, the consul went to find the officials. Informed of the ultimatum, they took the unanimous decision to surrender themselves, the diplomat affirms. The latter explained this decision was taken because of the optimism of the French hosts who believed in the return of Sihanouk to power.
According to other French citizens, it was not the case: “They had no illusion about their fate, because Mr. Ung Bun Hor asked me to hug his wife, to tell her that he loves her, and that he will be dead,” Dr. Carlos Ripoll, the director of a maternity in the city, explained to the police. François Bizot underscored the dilemma which Dyrac, the French consul, had to resolve by himself.
“We must understand that Mr. Dyrac was facing a true ultimatum, the consequence of which could be catastrophic for the community of foreigners who took refuge in the compound, in case of refusal.”
On April 19, on the morning of the ultimatum, a Jeep and two trucks stopped in front of the gate. Under heavy rain, the dozen of Cambodian officials walked towards them, they were accompanied by Mr. Dyrac. Princess Sirik Matak and Princess Manivane took place in the Jeep. Then came Ung Bun Hor who “had to be supported briefly because of his weakness,” Dyrac told the police. “At one point, he knelt down, and when I gave him the assurance that Sirik Matak took his place in the Jeep, he climbed the truck without too much difficulty. In any case, he was not subjected to any constraint.”
So much uncertainties surround the last moment of Ung Bun Hor in the embassy! Time has altered the memories. A picture published by Newsweek on May 19, 1975, tells the contrary. There, two cops are seen supporting him, or maybe he was forced to move forward, it is impossible to tell. In his book La Déchirure (The ripping, Presses de la Cité, 1985), Christopher Hudson recounts another story which is corroborated by another source, in which Ung Bun Hor was accompanied by his daughter. Panicking, he started to run and found refuge in the back of Citroen car parked inside the compound, he was removed out of it. According to Hudson, “the wretch was dragged out of the car, and taken out to the gate by the cops.” A key author during these dark days, François Bizot refutes the use of force against Ung Bun Hor: “I couldn’t remember anything that suggest that the cops had forced this man to leave the embassy,” he assured the police.
Etienne Plagie, a general doctor in Phnom Penh, explained that the departure of Ung Bun Hor caused incidents. “Unfortunately yes, when Mr. Ung Bun Hor refused to climb on the truck parked outside the embassy… I remember specifically that it was the two French cops, under armed threats from the Khmer Rouge, who became more and more nervous, they forced him to climb into the truck.”
We found one of the two cops. Now retired, Pierre Gouillon, 67-year-old, lives in Aurillac, in the Cantal, where he is now taking care of handicapped children. Algeria, Tchad, New Caledonia: his life was marked by long missions overseas. The most intense of these was the one in Cambodia. Three years without leaving Phnom Penh, and barely leaving the embassy compound. Does he remember Ung Bun Hor? Of course. The Paris police questioned him, they showed him his photo.
It’s not an easy task to reconstruct a 30-year-old memory. But one thing remains crystal clear in his mind: it was about pushing Un Bun Hor out without success the first time, the official was able to enter the embassy incognito in the middle of the crowd. It was Gouillon himself who escorted Ung Bun Hor out and handed him over the Khmer Rouge two days later. “I was simply obeying the orders,” he honestly summarizes. “He did not want to go, we must be honest. He probably knew what awaited him. He was debating by himself, we pushed him. In any case, the Khmer Rouge would have loaded him in by force.”
January 16, 2007
Le Monde
The diplomatic telegrams, through their terseness, cut directly trough to the essential. Those which were exchanged between the [French] consul, Jean Dyrac, and the Quai d’Orsay [the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs] show that the presence of Cambodian officials [inside the compound of the French embassy in Phnom Penh] was undesirable by Paris. Below are the main excerpts found in the legal file of the Créteil court.
April 17, 1975, 12:45 PM, sent by Mr. Dyrac
The diplomat announced that Ung Bun Hor, President of the National Assembly, “had forced his entry” into the French embassy at 10:00 AM. “He pleaded for the right to asylum for the immediate protection of his life,” the diplomat wrote. “With the assistance of security guards, I attempted, in vain, to push him out. He is currently maintained under our control in one of the buildings. Furthermore, Prince Sirik Matak tried to contact me by phone to ask also for asylum. I will be indebted to the department to please let me know in extreme urgency, on how to deal with them in the case where the new authorities would ask that these officials be handed to them.”
April 17, 1975, 12:50 PM, sent by Mr. Dyrac
“Prince Sirik Matak succeeded in entering the compound of our embassy by crossing the gates, with two of his bodyguards in civilian clothes.”
April 17, 1975, 02:09 PM, sent by the office of the Minister [of Foreign Affair] to Mr. Dyrac
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented its viewpoint: impossible to fulfill the demands made by the officials: “Therefore, it remains to them to appreciate that it is in their interest to find refuge elsewhere and to quickly leave the territory of our establishment.”
April 18, 1975, 03:18 PM, sent by Mr. Dyrac to the directors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
At 02:00 PM, the consul provided an update on the situation inside the embassy compound. With an elegant euphemism, he explained that his talk with the representatives of the city committee was held with “a reserved cordiality.” The Khmer Rouge expressed their “true satisfaction” for the recognition of the new regime by the French government. They claimed that the general evacuation of Phnom Penh “which was deemed necessary, does not apply to embassies, and especially not to the French citizens,” several weeks later the event turned out otherwise from the Khmer Rouge claim. Furthermore, the consul noted, the Khmer Rouge wished to see a list of the wounded which “will be provided to them.” Another demand: being able to visit the embassy. “To which we replied with the promise of setting a list of people present within three days.”
April 18, 1975, 03:18 PM, also sent by Mr. Dyrac
Cornered, fearing a forced entry into the embassy, the consul gave in on the rest. “Following ultimatum of the city delegation committee, I find myself obliged, in order to assure the safekeeping of our compatriots, to include in the list of people present in the embassy: (1) Prince Sirik Matak and two of his officers; (2) Princess Mom Manivong of Lao origin (3rd wife of Prince Sihanouk [She is also the mother of Princess Arun Rasmy, the wife of Keo Puth Rasmey, the current F'pec president]); (3) Mr. Ung Bun Hor, the President of the National Assembly [added by KI-Media]; (4) Mr. Loeung Nal, Health Minister. Except for express and immediate order from the department charging me to give them political asylum, I will have, within a deadline that cannot exceed 24 hours, to deliver the name of these officials.”
April 18, 1975, 06:10 PM, sent from the office of the Minister to Mr. Dyrac
“Please establish the list of names of Cambodian citizens who are inside the embassy compound, so that it is ready to be provided at the expiration of the deadline which was given to you.”
April 20, 1975, 11:55 AM sent by Mr. Dyrac
“After my intervention, the city committee had authorized this morning the Cambodian citizens who took refuge in our embassy to get out freely, except for the officials of the old regime. The latter will be part of another group,” the French consul explained.
April 20, 1975, 01:26 PM, from the Asian policy office of the Ministry to Mr. Dyrac
“Please provide detail on the conditions for the planned departure of the group of officials from old regime.”
April 20, 1975, 02:44 AM sent by Mr. Dyrac
“Prince Sirik Matak and other officials cited previously presented themselves in a very dignified manner this afternoon to an unidentified committee (FUNK or ANL [Armée Nationale de Libération, National Liberation Army]) which came to take them in Jeep in front of the embassy gate.
Article published on January 17, 2007
A few days after the fall of the capital, in an apartment in the 15th district of Paris, Billon Ung looks, petrified, the image broadcasted on TV. On one of the black and white photo, she recognizes her husband, Ung Bun Hor, the President of the National Assembly. Before taking one of the last planes allowed to take off, she begged him, unsuccessfully, to flee also. She prepared him a set of farmer’s clothes, and some jewelries for him in a handkerchief so that he can reach Thailand incognito, in case of danger. However, he preferred to take refuge within the compound of the French embassy, a friendly country.
On TV, a reporter describes the dramatic events which took place inside the embassy. Cambodian officials who took refuge behind the embassy walls were handed over to the Khmer Rouge! Among those, was Billon Ung’s husband. “I no longer feel my legs,” she explained 21 years later. “My daughter who was 12-year-old, went happily to hug the TV screen while saying: “Don’t worry, Mommy, Daddy will join us.” I understood that everything was over and that I will be alone and I must take all the responsibility.”
Arriving in Paris with $20,000 in a suitcase, Billon Ung will never see again the magnificent family properties. Her grandfather was the richest man in Cambodia, her father presided the Chamber of Commerce. “When I was young, I never look at my bank account,” she sighed. “I left when I wanted to go for vacation in Paris or to spend a weekend in Hong Kong.” During her wedding to Ung Bun Hor, Billon Ung was blessed by the king and the queen. The couple then spent time in happiness during their expatriation in Cuba.
Alone in Paris while working as a researcher for the BNP [National Bank of Paris], she took care of her four children, four nephews and her mother. The body of her husband was never found. The Quai d’Orsay [French Ministry of Foreign Affairs] turned her away, wives of French ambassadors who before then was her evening companions, no longer pay attention to her.
In October 1999, Billon Ung ended up bringing a lawsuit against X…, in order to find out the truth on the fate of her husband. A legal information case was opened in Créteil regarding the “sequestration” [confinement] and “torture acts, and the case was sent to the criminal brigade of Paris. Several judges oversaw the case. The investigation is now sunk because the last judge, Jean Marc Toublanc, doubts his own legal competence in the case. “This position is stunning for the fact that the two previous judges led the case without any worries,” Maitre Patrick Baudoin, the lawyer for the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) noted. FIDH is siding with Billon Ung in this case. In March 2006, the judge asked the office of the public prosecutor to pronounce its verdict; at the end of October, the latter wished to see the investigation being pursued.
Nevertheless, on January 3, Mr. Toublanc signed an ordinance declaring his incompetence in the case. The judge noted that the complaint was brought against X…, and not against précised individuals, and that the French State, in its entirety cannot be brought to judgment. For William Bourdon, Billon Ung’s lawyer, the main question for the case is to find out “whether the behavior of French government officials who handed the husband of Mrs. Ung Bun Hor to the Khmer authorities, were doing so in an isolated case, or was it done under forced instruction.”
In spite of the legal quagmire, the case delivers information so far unpublished, on the three weeks behind closed [embassy doors] in 1975, and which ended by the evacuation of refugees and the last French citizens in a procession toward Thailand. This information is even more so interesting as the Khmer Rouge trial is currently taking shape in Phnom Penh.
France broke its diplomatic relations with Cambodia after the army coup d’état led by Lon Nol against Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the head of state, in 1970. In the absence of an ambassador in Phnom Penh, the highest French representative during the events was Jean Dyrac, the embassy consul. In a telegram dated April 14, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminded the consul that his mission was limited to “keeping the archives and to perform strictly consular work.” This meant to take care of the repatriation of his [French] compatriots without bringing too much attention. During the taking charge of his duty, beside the consul himself, the embassy personnel was reduced to seven people: two cops, the counter-espionage representative, the SDECE (French secret service, equivalent to the CIA) representative , two secretaries, an army officer, and an encoder.
Phnom Penh was taken on April 17, 1975, one week after the evacuation of the US embassy. On the same morning, during the general panic, Prince Sirik Matak, former candidate to the throne, Princess Manivane, as well as other officials who decided not to seek asylum overseas, discretely showed up at the embassy to find refuge. They were preceded a few minutes earlier by Ung Bun Hor. Pushed out the first time, he was admitted inside when the crowd pushed him in. “He was nervous and immediately demanded a room, arguing his position as President of the National Assembly,” Jean Dyrac explained to the police on February 5, 2002. “Given his state of nervousness, the two French cops had to intervene to support him and to bring him inside our compound, and install him in the offices with other officials.”
Reduced, the embassy staff was overwhelmed by the events: beside the officials, a crowd of several thousands of people was gathered inside the embassy compound. Gendarme (cop) Georges Villevielle was in charge, with a colleague, of securing the area. “Very quickly, given the size of the park, the low height of the gate surrounding the compound, the influx of refugees, we were completely overwhelmed,” he recounted to the investigators. “I even remembered seeing some Cambodians trying to move a paralyzed person in his wheelchair over the gate, far from the entrance door.” The staff had to improvise and to spread the people arriving between various buildings: the embassy, the consulate, the residence and the cultural center. The majority installed themselves on the grass. Soon after, the consul presented himself to the new Khmer authority in the city. François Bizot, the ethnologist and author in 2003 of a noticeable book “Le Portail” (The Gate, Published by La Table Ronde, 2000) which described these events, served as a translator.
A list of notables was provided by the embassy to the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge demanded the list, if not, Bizot explained to the French police citing the exact words used by the Khmer Rouge themselves, “the revolutionaries would go by themselves to dislodge them out of their hiding place.” How did they know the officials were inside the compound? According to Dyrac, questioned by phone by Le Monde, “it is possible that among the refugees (there were) Khmer Rouge agents. Diplomatic telegrams show that the French authority was disposed to provide the names in order to avoid a worst situation.
On April 18, at 6:00 PM, a scar-faced Khmer Rouge officer showed up at the entrance, he was accompanied by a group of men armed with bazookas. He brutally demanded the handing of Cambodian officials before 8:00 AM the next morning. Around 8:00 PM, the consul went to find the officials. Informed of the ultimatum, they took the unanimous decision to surrender themselves, the diplomat affirms. The latter explained this decision was taken because of the optimism of the French hosts who believed in the return of Sihanouk to power.
According to other French citizens, it was not the case: “They had no illusion about their fate, because Mr. Ung Bun Hor asked me to hug his wife, to tell her that he loves her, and that he will be dead,” Dr. Carlos Ripoll, the director of a maternity in the city, explained to the police. François Bizot underscored the dilemma which Dyrac, the French consul, had to resolve by himself.
“We must understand that Mr. Dyrac was facing a true ultimatum, the consequence of which could be catastrophic for the community of foreigners who took refuge in the compound, in case of refusal.”
On April 19, on the morning of the ultimatum, a Jeep and two trucks stopped in front of the gate. Under heavy rain, the dozen of Cambodian officials walked towards them, they were accompanied by Mr. Dyrac. Princess Sirik Matak and Princess Manivane took place in the Jeep. Then came Ung Bun Hor who “had to be supported briefly because of his weakness,” Dyrac told the police. “At one point, he knelt down, and when I gave him the assurance that Sirik Matak took his place in the Jeep, he climbed the truck without too much difficulty. In any case, he was not subjected to any constraint.”
So much uncertainties surround the last moment of Ung Bun Hor in the embassy! Time has altered the memories. A picture published by Newsweek on May 19, 1975, tells the contrary. There, two cops are seen supporting him, or maybe he was forced to move forward, it is impossible to tell. In his book La Déchirure (The ripping, Presses de la Cité, 1985), Christopher Hudson recounts another story which is corroborated by another source, in which Ung Bun Hor was accompanied by his daughter. Panicking, he started to run and found refuge in the back of Citroen car parked inside the compound, he was removed out of it. According to Hudson, “the wretch was dragged out of the car, and taken out to the gate by the cops.” A key author during these dark days, François Bizot refutes the use of force against Ung Bun Hor: “I couldn’t remember anything that suggest that the cops had forced this man to leave the embassy,” he assured the police.
Etienne Plagie, a general doctor in Phnom Penh, explained that the departure of Ung Bun Hor caused incidents. “Unfortunately yes, when Mr. Ung Bun Hor refused to climb on the truck parked outside the embassy… I remember specifically that it was the two French cops, under armed threats from the Khmer Rouge, who became more and more nervous, they forced him to climb into the truck.”
We found one of the two cops. Now retired, Pierre Gouillon, 67-year-old, lives in Aurillac, in the Cantal, where he is now taking care of handicapped children. Algeria, Tchad, New Caledonia: his life was marked by long missions overseas. The most intense of these was the one in Cambodia. Three years without leaving Phnom Penh, and barely leaving the embassy compound. Does he remember Ung Bun Hor? Of course. The Paris police questioned him, they showed him his photo.
It’s not an easy task to reconstruct a 30-year-old memory. But one thing remains crystal clear in his mind: it was about pushing Un Bun Hor out without success the first time, the official was able to enter the embassy incognito in the middle of the crowd. It was Gouillon himself who escorted Ung Bun Hor out and handed him over the Khmer Rouge two days later. “I was simply obeying the orders,” he honestly summarizes. “He did not want to go, we must be honest. He probably knew what awaited him. He was debating by himself, we pushed him. In any case, the Khmer Rouge would have loaded him in by force.”
x X x
“I will have, within a deadline that cannot exceed 24 hours, to deliver the name of these officials …”
January 16, 2007
Le Monde
The diplomatic telegrams, through their terseness, cut directly trough to the essential. Those which were exchanged between the [French] consul, Jean Dyrac, and the Quai d’Orsay [the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs] show that the presence of Cambodian officials [inside the compound of the French embassy in Phnom Penh] was undesirable by Paris. Below are the main excerpts found in the legal file of the Créteil court.
April 17, 1975, 12:45 PM, sent by Mr. Dyrac
The diplomat announced that Ung Bun Hor, President of the National Assembly, “had forced his entry” into the French embassy at 10:00 AM. “He pleaded for the right to asylum for the immediate protection of his life,” the diplomat wrote. “With the assistance of security guards, I attempted, in vain, to push him out. He is currently maintained under our control in one of the buildings. Furthermore, Prince Sirik Matak tried to contact me by phone to ask also for asylum. I will be indebted to the department to please let me know in extreme urgency, on how to deal with them in the case where the new authorities would ask that these officials be handed to them.”
April 17, 1975, 12:50 PM, sent by Mr. Dyrac
“Prince Sirik Matak succeeded in entering the compound of our embassy by crossing the gates, with two of his bodyguards in civilian clothes.”
April 17, 1975, 02:09 PM, sent by the office of the Minister [of Foreign Affair] to Mr. Dyrac
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented its viewpoint: impossible to fulfill the demands made by the officials: “Therefore, it remains to them to appreciate that it is in their interest to find refuge elsewhere and to quickly leave the territory of our establishment.”
April 18, 1975, 03:18 PM, sent by Mr. Dyrac to the directors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
At 02:00 PM, the consul provided an update on the situation inside the embassy compound. With an elegant euphemism, he explained that his talk with the representatives of the city committee was held with “a reserved cordiality.” The Khmer Rouge expressed their “true satisfaction” for the recognition of the new regime by the French government. They claimed that the general evacuation of Phnom Penh “which was deemed necessary, does not apply to embassies, and especially not to the French citizens,” several weeks later the event turned out otherwise from the Khmer Rouge claim. Furthermore, the consul noted, the Khmer Rouge wished to see a list of the wounded which “will be provided to them.” Another demand: being able to visit the embassy. “To which we replied with the promise of setting a list of people present within three days.”
April 18, 1975, 03:18 PM, also sent by Mr. Dyrac
Cornered, fearing a forced entry into the embassy, the consul gave in on the rest. “Following ultimatum of the city delegation committee, I find myself obliged, in order to assure the safekeeping of our compatriots, to include in the list of people present in the embassy: (1) Prince Sirik Matak and two of his officers; (2) Princess Mom Manivong of Lao origin (3rd wife of Prince Sihanouk [She is also the mother of Princess Arun Rasmy, the wife of Keo Puth Rasmey, the current F'pec president]); (3) Mr. Ung Bun Hor, the President of the National Assembly [added by KI-Media]; (4) Mr. Loeung Nal, Health Minister. Except for express and immediate order from the department charging me to give them political asylum, I will have, within a deadline that cannot exceed 24 hours, to deliver the name of these officials.”
April 18, 1975, 06:10 PM, sent from the office of the Minister to Mr. Dyrac
“Please establish the list of names of Cambodian citizens who are inside the embassy compound, so that it is ready to be provided at the expiration of the deadline which was given to you.”
April 20, 1975, 11:55 AM sent by Mr. Dyrac
“After my intervention, the city committee had authorized this morning the Cambodian citizens who took refuge in our embassy to get out freely, except for the officials of the old regime. The latter will be part of another group,” the French consul explained.
April 20, 1975, 01:26 PM, from the Asian policy office of the Ministry to Mr. Dyrac
“Please provide detail on the conditions for the planned departure of the group of officials from old regime.”
April 20, 1975, 02:44 AM sent by Mr. Dyrac
“Prince Sirik Matak and other officials cited previously presented themselves in a very dignified manner this afternoon to an unidentified committee (FUNK or ANL [Armée Nationale de Libération, National Liberation Army]) which came to take them in Jeep in front of the embassy gate.
Article published on January 17, 2007
17 comments:
Boring story.
I prefered to say that I am very
happy to see evil killing evil
here. The back stabers and traitors
who imorally betrayed their
neigbors belong in hell for
eternity and nowhere else.
The killers never admitted they are the killers but blaiming on the victims that they killed.
The backstabber neighbors raped and killed Khmer people are now enjoying the lavish life style on the expense of Khmer people sufferings, MAY all the Dark angels burn that Evil neighbors to hell.
To the previous poster who said this was boring. I thought it was interesting. I guess I have a longer attention span. Also. How was this a case of evil killing evil? What do you define as evil?
The problem with look too far ahead
is that, soon or later, you will
trip. So, if you look at the basic,
you will knows that Pot Pot (the
evil) killed Sarimatak (the evil)
and his supporters the racists,
backstabers, and traitors. Don't
let the smoke of any story blind
you eyes from the basics.
Hi 10:56 PM,
You cannot be improved with labelling and bashing people.
You got to post the documents in here. No body understand what are BASICS you're trying to say.
Tell us what are Basics?
Hey, this is no rocket science.
Basics is a simple principle that
even a 13 year old can comprehend.
In this case, SISOWATT Sarimatak
is the devil for stabing his own
cousin in the back. Do I need to
paint him in the mask with the horn
and cape before you understand
that what he did is evil?
And if you can't tell that Pol Pot
is evil, I don't see anything in
your future, Dude.
Therefore, we have evil killing
evil. Do you think God will have
an angel killing evil or anyone?
No, angel can't kill, only evil
can. Are you with me?
Ung Bun Hor! This name reminded me my school friend before 1975. His name is Ung Bun Yav who attended Anouwat primary school (located across Vimean Erk Kreach, Independent monument)with me in 1975. As I recalled his father has a BMW car and he looks like a Chinese boy. I think I spell his first name correctly "Yav".
This is a sad story and recalle my memory during the dark day in 1975. My self was among those 7.5 million people who evacuated the capitol by the KR killers.
Well, I feel sad for some, not
others, like the backstabers and
traitors in Phnom Penh.
Hello 9.29AM,
you can blame Sirik Matak as much as you like. But you also need to blame Sihanouk as well for his stupidity to invite Vietcong to destroy Cambodia ( which is not his own entirely), and killed all innocenses people ( they have right to live freely). This stupid Sihanouk should be the most to blame for all the destruction in Cambodia. What a cowdy king !!!!
Ung Bun Hor has his right to live with his family and friends It is good comment?
Wrong, I believe SomDach Euv has
the duty to get rid of Evil from
our holly soil. I don't want our
children and future generations
to learn that "Killing your Family
for power or anything" is a noble
thing to do. do you know what I
mean?
PRINCE SIRIMATAK, MR.UNG BUN HOR AND MANY OTHERS WELL KNOWN CAMBODIAN WHO RAN THE COUNTRY AT THE TIME AND WHO SEEKED THE FRENCH'S EMBASSY FOR HELP AT THE TIME WERE THE FIRST TO DIE MYSTERIOUSLY BY KHMER ROUGE.
DIDN'T WE NOTICE THAT NEARLY 2 MILLIONS OF US WHO DIED LATER OR BETWEEN 1975-1979 DIED WITH THE SAME PATTERN?
WEREN'T MANY OF US FRIGHTENED WHEN ONE BY ONE OF US DISAPPEARED INTO THE DARKEST NIGHT AND NEVER RETURNED?
OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYS GO TO MRS. UNG BUN HOR AND THE REST OF OUR KHMER FAMILIES WHO SHARED THE SAME FATE AS HER HUSBAND.
AND SO MANY OF US SAID " KR TRAIL" SHOULD BE FORGOTTEN, RIGHT???!!!
VERY VERY SAD STORY! does any one care what happened to her husband?
It's very shameful to know that even French couldn't do a thing to look for those people.
The rest of the world were just dead leaving us all alone and helpless to be slaughtered one by one......until there was almost no more.
Then ah chang rey Youn came and stayed for the next 25 year! and beyond! Damm!!!
Noope, no one in their right mind
would care about backstabers and
traitors. Those people should have
been shot way before Pol Pot took
control of Cambodia anyway. So,
what difference does it makes?
Why did the Frecnh Embassy handed Ung Bun Hor to Khmer Rouge? They should have kept him in the embassy and sent him to France. The French knew the khmer rouge were going to kill people. The french are coward people in Europe.
Don't you know France is socialist? France supports Communist and hates the US. France is so jealous with the US, and Sirimatak supported the US.
Thanks moi28! You made every sense.
I was never sure about French government. They seem to be just a big pretender and that's all. I'm no longer think French are smart people.
but you are not Friend? Are you?
Oops! Friend= French
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