April 1975: Some French citizens can be seen discussing with KR soldiers
On this photo published by DPA, Mr. Ung Bun Hor (C) is surrounded by French cops and he seems to be resiting them (Photo: Ullstein, DPA)
Mr. Ung Bun Hor, former president the Khmer Republic regime National Assembly, and his wife, Mrs. Billon Ung during happier time.
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
No. 128, Vol. 3, 8-21 April 2010
Translated from French by Pheuk SilolaOn 20 April 1975, high-ranking Khmer Republic officials crossed the gate into the French embassy where they would all find a certain death. Did a French citizen betrayed them by informing the Khmer Rouge of their presence? Can the French authorities be blamed for handingover these officials to the KR? The widow of one of these officials hopes to find the truth from the French justice, but she could also turn the ECCC for help.
“I hope that the truth will be given on the exact conditions in which my husband disappeared with the active complicity of the French authorities of the time which were led by President Valery Giscard d’Estaing and also under the Jacques Chirac administration,” claimed Billon Ung, the widow of the president of the Khmer Republic regime National Assembly. The latter took refuge inside the compound of the French embassy.
The date was 20 April 1975. The KR had entered Phnom Penh three days earlier and they emptied the city of all its residents. All foreigners living in the city had gathered at the French embassy, starting on 17 April, several high-ranking officials of the Lon Nol regime also came to find asylum there, including Ung Bun Hor, the president of the National Assembly. However, three days later, the “super-traitors” were sentenced to death by the new KR regime, and they were handed over to the KR who were waiting for them in front of the French embassy, at exactly 3PM, as confirmed by a telegram sent by Jean Dyrac, the French vice-consul, to the Quai d’Orsay [the French ministry of Foreign Affairs]. “I was able to escape with my children 10 days before the arrival of the communist soldiers in the city,” Billon Ung recalled. “In Paris, while watching the news on TV, I saw this photo of him, standing up, about to be handed over to the KR.” Since then, the photo disappeared from the archive of the French National Institute of Audiovisual, Billon Ung claimed.
A widow’s crusade
She obtained her French citizenship in 1976, at the age of 36. Twenty years later, she launched herself into a lengthy legal crusade accusing France of handing over her husband to the KR while he was asking for asylum. “I brought up a lawsuit against X in December 1999 at the Creteil Tribunal, for crime against humanity, assassination, as well as torture and barbaric acts,” she declared. Why did she wait so long? “For security reasons,” Billon Ung claimed.
Since then, the French justice system moved at a snail pace. “Just for my lawsuit case, three investigation judges had to take care of it,” she said. “The second judge to be involved in my case was able to lift the defense secret on one portion of the telegrams exchanged between Jean Dyrac and the then-French authorities. Then, in January 2007, young Judge Toublanc got involved in the case, and he finally declared himself incompetent to continue the investigation.” It was incomprehensible, said Patrick Baudoin, one of the two lawyers of Billon Ung. He also happens to be a lawyer for the International Federation of Human Rigths. “The reason given was that the conditions stipulated by the Penal Code to justify the universal competency of a French judge were not met. The Paris Appeal court confirmed this finding in October 2007, but in January 2009, the Court of Cassation [the equivalent of the Supreme Court] believed that it was the opposite, and that the conditions were all met and the investigation could continue. We cannot talk about active cooperation from the French authorities which are most often hostile to see the conclusion of this case, due to political considerations.”
A “traitor” inside the French embassy?
François Ponchaud who was present in the French embassy during that time, remains hesitant on the need to re-open this case. “I understand Billon Ung’s suffering … But, the KR are the ones who should be blamed, not French vice-consul Jean Dyrac! Nevertheless, if it was found that France gave him the order to hand over these officials [to the KR], then it would be a mistake from the [French] state.”
More troubling news: the fact that the KR knew about the presence of these high-ranking officials inside the French embassy. François Ponchaud added: “I would like to know who gave out the list of Cambodian officials who took refuge inside the embassy. For example, I met Prince Sirik Matak under a big tree on front of the Le Phnom hotel [currently Le Royal Hotel]. He was saying that he “was waiting” for his cousin Sihanouk. One of my friends, Bernard Berger, took him in his Ami 6 car, hid him under a blanket and sneaked him inside the French embassy through the back door. The [French] authorities hid him inside a locked office. Who revealed that he was there? Maybe a French citizen snitched? It is also possible that the KR intercepted the radio communications with France … To me, this remains a mystery.”
Patrice de Beer, then a reporter for the French newspaper Le Monde who was based in Thailand, was also inside the embassy on 17 April, but he said that he did not see “Ung Bun Hor, nor Prince Sirik Matak who, on 12 April, refused the offer made by US ambassador James Gunther Dean to leave Cambodia with him in a helicopter.” “But, we quickly learned that they were inside [the embassy],” he added.
Telegrams sent by Jean Dyrac to the Quai d’Orsay on the same day indicated that “Ung Bun Hor forced the entry [into the embassy], and that he is currently maintained under our control inside one of our rooms. Prince Sirik Matak succeeded in entering the embassy compound by stepping over the gate with two of his bodyguards dressed as civilians.” This story differs from the one told by François Ponchaud. Roland Neveu, a former war photographer, also presented a version that is different from the one told by the embassy. He remembered that members of the Khmer Republic regime were isolated. Patrice de Beer and Roland Neveu described Jean Dyrac as being “overwhelmed by the events,” as a “civil servant – albeit a consular one, i.e. not diplomatic – who takes orders given out by Paris.” “The KR demanded that all Khmer citizens leave the embassy,” Patrice de Beer added. “Curiously, they made an exception for the Cham people. Some Cambodians left on their own accord, such as [Dith Pran], the assistant of the New York Times, who was able to disappear with the crowd and was able to leave Phnom Penh and later survived. We helped him prepare his meager luggage, we gave him dollar bills which he sewed into his clothes. But, one can imagine that the KR would be more brutal against those who resisted their orders. Maybe, they [KR] would have entered the embassy compound.”
Giscard and Chirac targeted
Another telegram by Jean Dyrac dated 18 April 1975 sent to the Quai d’Orsay, informed about the KR demand to visit the embassy. “To this, we replied by a promise to set up a list of all the people present within three days,” Jean Dyrac indicated under increasing pressure. He also sent to Paris a list of people whom the KR wish to be handed over to them. Sirik Matak and Ung Bun Hor featured on that list.
To determine the responsibilities in this case, Billon Ung claimed that she has sufficient “documents that would compromise the French administration of that time.” With the help of William Bourdon and Patrick Beaudoin, her two lawyers, Billon Ung will ask that Valery Giscard d’Estaing and Jacques Chirac appear as a witness “to learn about their exact role during that time.” Giscard d’Estaing was the French president between 1974 and 1981, while Chirac was his prime minister, and both of them were the recipients of the telegrams sent over by Jean Dyrac and François Bizot. “I would like to come face to face with Jean Dyrac and François Bizot to learn the truth and to ask them how they can go to sleep peacefully at night time after handing over more than 800 people to the KR?”, she added.
The French magazine “L’Express” reported in 2009 about “troubling differences over the dates, the schedules, and the famous list … between those included in François Bizot’s book ‘Le Portail’ and some of the depositions transcript.” When asked by Cambodge Soir Hebdo about this topic, François Bizot declined to answer: “Now, I forget all of that. Since this affair is coming back up, I decline all interview requests sent to me. What can one try or want to understand still?” he said.
Another troubling factor: a photo showing Ung Bun Hor with arms raised up and surrounded by two French cops. Published by the US media as a proof to the effect that France handed over the former president of the Khmer Republic National Assembly, however, its origin remains uncertain. The author of this photo was never found. According to Claude Juvenal, a reporter for the AFP, the back of the photo, as also cited by L’Express magazine, showed the date as being 17 April rather than 20 April. Roland Neveu and Patrice de Beer were not there at the time the picture was taken, but the latter said that he did not believe the version in which Ung Bun Hor “left voluntarily as he was resigned to the fact, and that he was dignified,” as reported in Jean Dyrac’s telegram. Patrice de Beer’s version of the event is favored by Billon Ung. François Ponchaud who used to believe that Ung Bun Hor was “pushed out” of the embassy after seeing this photo, is currently no longer certain: “I was inside the embassy, but I did not see the event with my own eyes,” he indicated.
Where will the case head to next? Creteil or the ECCC?
Last January, the Paris Appeal Court confirmed the findings of the Court of Cassation. A new investigation judge should be appointed by the Creteil Tribunal. “The investigation should resume in the upcoming months,” Patrick Beaudoin indicated. Is there any real chance of success? “We are clearly in a case that calls for [the judge’s] universal competency,” Patrick Beaudoin said. “Billon Ung turned to the French justice because it was the only way for her husband’s disappearance not to be left unpunished, and also so that she could have a chance to understand what had happened. Let’s recall that that the French courts have issued two sentences on the basis of the universal competency,” Patrick Baudoin said. Billon Ung even wishes that France “recognizes the fact the French authorities under Giscard and Chirac committed a serious mistake, a criminal act or malfeasance, by handing over my husband to the KR.”
Billon Ung’s lengthy legal battle which was initiated in France ten years ago, will it have a better chance to reach a conclusion in Cambodia? Nowadays, she does not exclude the possibility of joining the civil parties at the ECCC (KR Tribunal, KRT). The events which took place after 17 April 1975 are part of the KRT investigation field. When asked whether it would be possible to summon as witness two former French presidents to Phnom Penh, like the KRT did to six high-ranking CPP officials, investigation Judge Marcel Lemonde declined to comment on the case.
