Sacrava's Political Cartoon: T-55

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

September 27, 2010
Source: Strategy Page

Cambodia recently received 50 Russian T-55 tanks and 44 BTR-60 wheeled armored personnel carriers. Both vehicle types were introduced in the 1950s. The BTR-60 is a ten ton vehicle with a crew of three and eight passengers. It has a small turret armed with a 14.5mm machine-gun. There is also a 7.62mm machine-gun. Over 27,000 were built, before production ended in the 1970s. The armor provides protection from most machine-gun bullets and shell fragments.

The T-55 is a 40 ton vehicle that was the ultimate development of the World War II T-34. Armed with a 100mm gun, as well as a 14.5mm and two 7.62mm machine-guns. Over 90,000 were produced (even more than the T-34) before production ended in the 1980s. The crew of four is not well protected from anti-tank weapons, and the 100mm gun is largely useless against modern tanks. But against civilians, the T-55 has proved to be effective.

My young and beautiful Monique earned the lust of two Soviet bears: Sihanouk

Kruschev and Brezhnev: The two Soviet bears (bores?)

Then-Princess Monique
Now-Queen-Mother Monineath

Translated from French by Prince Lusty de Lust

History

1960 – N. Sihanouk, Head of State of the kingdom of Cambodia on official visit to the Soviet Union

H.E. Kruschev, fell very very much in love with my wife, Monique, then young and more beautiful than ever.

Day of the Soviet-Khmer negotiations: Mr. Kruschev, the master of Kremlin, let me know through a French-speaking Soviet diplomat, that Princess Monique should be present to these negotiations (!?)

As the negotiations time arrived, H.E. Kruschev placed himself in front of Monique and spent his time admiring her. He told his “lieutenant”, Mr. Brezhnev, to talk to me. I obtained from the Soviet Union the donation to Cambodia of a large hospital with 500 beds, as well as a large technological institute.

In fact, H.E. Brezhnev told his main French-speaking comrades to “negotiate” with me and he did not stop admiring the extraordinary beauty of Monique.

01 August 2010

(Signed) N. Sihanouk

Who is Responsible for Cambodia’s Killing Fields?

4-23-10
By Nick Gier
New West

Norodom Sihanouk, now the beloved “King-Father of Cambodia,” right-wing leader Lon Nol, the North Vietnamese, Communist China, and Richard Nixon must all share in the blame.

With the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon coming up on April 30, most of us forget that the Cambodian capital fell to the Communists the same year on April 17. Led by Pol Pot and his henchmen, the Khmer Rouge launched an insane campaign of retribution that led to the death of about 2 million people.

In 1968 the Khmer Rouge numbered only a few hundred comrades, so what made it possible for the most extreme element of the Cambodia left to come to power?

Norodom Sihanouk, now the beloved “King-Father of Cambodia,” right-wing leader Lon Nol, the North Vietnamese, Communist China, and Richard Nixon must all share in the blame.

In March 1945 Sihanouk declared Cambodia’s independence, but the French, with U.S. support, reclaimed its colonial possessions in Indochina. While Ho Chi Minh went to war with the French, Sihanouk remained staunchly anti-Communist and the French allowed him retain his throne.

Cambodia’s independence was granted in late 1953, and the French were forced to leave Indochina after their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in May of 1954.

While remaining officially anti-Communist and neutral during the Second Indochina War (our conflict), Sihanouk allowed the Vietnamese Communists to move supplies along on his side of the border and to use the port of Sihanoukville.

In March of 1970 Lon Nol, a right-wing army general deposed Sihanouk and condemned him to death in abstentia, but the Cambodian people rallied to their prince’s side. Lon Nol insisted the North Vietnamese leave their Cambodian bases, but their response was to support Pol Pot and send 40,000 troops to the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Sihanouk allied himself with Pol Pot and, mainly as a result Sihanouk’s prestige, Khmer Rouge forces grew from 6,000 to 50,000. Just like the corrupt South Vietnamese generals on whom we lavished support, Lon Nol did not have a chance against disciplined Communist soldiers.

In 1969 President Richard Nixon ordered secret bombing attacks in Cambodia and Laos, and then launched an invasion of Cambodia on May 1, 1970. The first killing fields were Cambodian villages where, from 1969-1973, hundreds of thousands of people died by B-52 bombing raids.

Yale historian Ben Kiernan has done the most extensive surveys of the actions of the Pol Pot regime. Over 60 percent of those interviewed said that they turned to the Khmer Rouge because B-52s destroyed their villages.

After Pol Pot ordered several major cross border attacks, the Vietnamese finally lost their patience with the Khmer Rouge. Early in 1979 they launched an invasion of Cambodia and the Pol Pot regime crumbled within months. The Khmer Rouge were able to hold out for years in the jungles, primarily because of Chinese and North Korean aid.

Because President Ronald Reagan did not want to give any credit to the Vietnamese Communists, he opposed giving the Khmer Rouge’s UN seat to the new government. At the same time the U.S. gave aid to rebel forces who were opposed to the Vietnamese imposed government.

The indirect effect U.S. aid was to support the Khmer Rouge, who were in a coalition with the other rebels, and whose troops levels went back up to 35,000. The Vietnamese had to expend considerable effort to defeat Pol Pot’s forces, and he was finally forced over the border where the pro-American Thai government protected him.

In 1989 the Vietnamese withdrew all of its forces, and under UN auspices elections were held in 1993. Thirty years too late, the first Khmer Rouge official, simply known as “Duch,” is now being tried for crimes against humanity.

For the first time since the French Protectorate of 1863, the Cambodian people can pursue their own affairs without adverse external interference. They no longer have to fear a madmen such as Pol Pot or dread quarter-ton bombs dropping from 30,000 feet.

Nick Gier was co-president of the Student-Faculty Committee to End the War in Vietnam in 1965-66 at Oregon State University. He taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. Read or listen to all of his columns at www.NickGier.com

For Poland, plane crash in Russia rips open old wounds

A firefighter examines wreckage of the plane that carried Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and some of the country's most prominent military and civilian leaders. (Associated Press / April 10, 2010)

The 97 aboard a Soviet-era plane were heading to Katyn, site of the 1940 massacre of Polish prisoners of war. Now Poland, which never forgot its tragic past, must grieve the loss of its key leaders.

April 10, 2010
By Megan K. Stack
Reporting from Moscow
Los Angeles Times (California, USA)

With a single swipe, the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Saturday gutted a nation's leadership and silenced some of the most potent human symbols of its tragic and tumultuous history.

It was, literally, a nation colliding with its past: They ran aground on a patch of earth that has symbolized the Soviet-era repressions that shaped much of the 20th century, near the remote Russian forest glade called Katyn where thousands of Polish prisoners of war were killed and dumped in unmarked graves by Soviet secret police in 1940.

The toll cut a swath through Poland's elite. Along with the president, the 97 dead included the army chief of staff, the head of the National Security Office, the national bank president, the deputy foreign minister, the deputy parliament speaker, the civil rights commissioner and members of parliament.

But also aboard the plane were war veterans and surviving family members of Poles killed by the Soviets. There was 90-year-old Ryszard Kaczorowski, Poland's last "president-in-exile" during the Soviet years. And Anna Walentynowicz, the shipyard worker whose dismissal sparked the Solidarity union protests that eventually led to the collapse of Polish communism.

And, of course, Kaczynski himself -- a former Warsaw mayor imprisoned in the 1980s for his opposition to communism.

"The contemporary world has not seen such a tragedy," said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who called for two minutes of silence at noon Sunday.

Flying on a 26-year-old, Soviet-designed plane, these iconic Polish figures were headed to a Catholic Mass to honor the 70th anniversary of the deaths at Katyn. It was to be a tribute to long-smothered truth.

The massacre was denied for decades by the Soviet Union, and even today, Russian reluctance to open the investigation files on the Polish prisoners remains a deeply sensitive topic between the two countries. To many Poles, the very name Katyn is shorthand for decades of secret grief and impotence in the face of Soviet power.

"I just have this feeling that Katyn is a sort of diabolical place in Polish history," said Tomasz Lis, a prominent Polish journalist and author. "It's just unimaginable; it's horrible."

As the news spread, a shiver of repulsion ran through a shocked country.

"This is unbelievable -- this tragic, cursed Katyn," Kaczynski's predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, said on Polish television. "It's hard to believe. You get chills down your spine."

The historic freight of the crash was so eerie that it seemed destined for conspiracy theory. Russian officials were careful to vow in the earliest hours to closely involve Poland in the investigation.

Poland was invaded by the Soviet Union during World War II, and lived for decades under Moscow's domination. Long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, ties with Russia remain strained by old anxieties over independence.

As the presidential plane, a 26-year-old Tupolev, winged toward the western Russian city of Smolensk on Saturday morning, thick cords of fog wrapped the city. On the ground, air traffic controllers urged the crew to land either in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, or in Moscow rather than risk navigating the fog, Russian officials said.

But time was pressing. The crew decided to risk the landing, and ignored instructions from the air traffic controllers, the Russian air force said.

"The Polish presidential plane did not make it to the runway while landing," Smolensk region Gov. Sergei Anufriyev told reporters. "Tentative findings indicate that it hit the treetops and fell apart. Nobody has survived the disaster."

On the ground, about 1,000 people, many of them Poles, were milling around the memorial site. A Polish priest was to say Catholic Mass once the presidential delegation arrived.

"We were getting ready for the Mass and everybody was expecting the president to arrive any minute," said Yan Rachinsky of Russia's Memorial human rights group. "Suddenly people started talking quietly about something. There were many concerned faces. . . . Soon people started running around and talking to each other. Everybody was wondering what was going on. It was an atmosphere of tension."

The priest led a prayer. Then the Polish ambassador stepped up to break the news. The presidential plane had crashed, he told the crowd. There were no survivors.

"It was a moment of complete shock," Rachinsky said. "We were standing there speechless. We couldn't believe it."

Tears wetting nearly every face, Rachinsky said, the group went ahead with the Mass.

By late afternoon, 97 bodies were being packed into coffins and flown to Moscow for identification. The flight recorders had been found, and investigators were studying them for clues.

In an address shortly after the crash, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was careful to emphasize recent improvements in relations between the two countries.

"These days we conducted memorial events in Katyn together grieving over the victims of totalitarian times," Medvedev said. "All Russians share your grief and mourning."

Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Tusk traveled to Katyn to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the massacre. In what was regarded as a turning point in the two countries' often frosty relations, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin also attended the ceremony.

Kaczynski, a frequent and outspoken critic of the Kremlin, was not invited to the ceremony earlier this week.

Unlike Tusk's visit, which was given prominent coverage in Russian media, Kaczynski's plans to attend Saturday's commemoration were all but unmentioned. A few weeks ago, the Russian foreign ministry publicly griped that Kaczynski had not sent official word of his planned visit. The ministry had heard of his arrival from press reports, officials said.

On Saturday, Putin announced that he would personally head the investigation. He rushed to the scene of the crash, where he was to meet again with Tusk.

The crash throws Polish politics into uncertainty. Kaczynski was to run for reelection in October; the vote is now likely to be moved to June.

The leading left-wing candidate, Jerzy Szmajdzinski, was believed to have been aboard the plane. And Polish law calls for another of the candidates, speaker of the lower chamber of parliament Bronislaw Komorowksi, to take over as head of state after the president's death.

Kaczynski, 60, was elected to the presidency in 2005. He and his twin brother, Jaroslaw, were Soviet-era child actors who grew up to cut a prominent path through Polish politics. Kaczynski rose from the ranks of the Solidarity trade union before falling out bitterly with the group's leader, Lech Walesa, who went on to become the country's first post-Soviet president.

From 2005-2007, in the early years of Kaczynski's presidency, his twin served as prime minister.

The circumstances of Kaczynski's death carry a particular irony because of his long-standing interest in shedding light on some of the more painful moments of Poland's past. As mayor of Warsaw, he championed the construction of the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising, a tribute to the crushed resistance to the Nazis in 1944.

During his presidency, too, Kaczynski frequently hailed back to the heroic days of Solidarity's struggle against communism.

"Poland needs to reconsider its mistakes," he said in 2005. "But more than that, it needs a consensus based on truth."

megan.stack@latimes.com

Times staff writer Sergei L. Loiko contributed to this report.

Why some Cambodians speak Russian

Cambodian Saing Soenthrith shows photos of friends from his Russian university days. He still speaks Russian, which he learned in the 1980's while on a scholarship from the Soviet government. (Julie Masis)

After the Khmer Rouge wiped out Cambodia's education system, Russia stepped in with a scholarship program. Since 1982, more than 8,000 Cambodians have received their degrees in Russia and other former Soviet republics.

March 4, 2010
By Julie Masis Correspondent
Christian Science Monitor

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - A visitor to this small country might be surprised to hear some locals speaking Russian.

This is because the former USSR established a scholarship program in 1982 to send Cambodian students to study in Soviet universities free of charge. Since then, more than 8,000 Cambodians received their degrees in Russia and in the republics of the Soviet Union, according to the Russian Embassy in Cambodia.

Free college education is no longer available to all Russians, but the Russian government still provides funds to send a group of Cambodians to Russian universities every year. It covers full tuition, health insurance, and a stipend for living expenses. There are currently 110 Cambodians studying in Russian post-secondary schools, according to the embassy, a decline from the 1980s, when as many as 500 Cambodians attended Soviet colleges annually, says Sergei Kolesov, the director of the Russian Center of Science and Culture in Cambodia’s capital.

The center, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in February, caters to Russian-speaking Cambodians with a collection of Russian books and movies. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many such centers closed – particularly the centers in Africa, Mr. Kolesov says – but the center in Cambodia still operates in the same building.

One of the people who benefited from an education in the USSR is Saing Soenthrith, an associate editor at a newspaper in Phnom Penh. Had it not been for a Russian scholarship he received in 1983, he never would have gone to university, he says.

Mr. Soenthrith, who still speaks Russian, says his parents were killed during the “Khmer Rouge times” and as a child he found shelter in a Buddhist monastery. After returning to Cambodia from Russia, however, Soenthrith became a teacher and later an editor.

“Sweet memories,” he says, as he looks through heaps of black-and-white photographs, naming his Russian friends and teachers. “I always remember.”

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Khmer Rouge-Crime & its Shadows

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)