All language subtitles for [English (auto-generated)] Year Zero The Silent Death of Cambodia by John Pilger (1990) [DownSub.com]

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this is Cambodia in 1990 one year ago in

a film broadcast around the world we

showed that this uniquely tragic country

was once more in danger of falling to

the greatest mass murderers since Hitler

the Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot and that

Western governments and the United

Nations were allowing this to happen for

reasons of Cold War politics the

response from the public was

unprecedented tens of thousands of

people wrote to their governments

seeking for Cambodia not charity but

action unfortunately this film is not a

celebration of a Cambodia now freed from

the threat of another Holocaust

it's about betrayal a betrayal of those

who ask for help for Cambodia regardless

of whether that help meant offending the

United States and China which give

direct and indirect support to the Khmer

Rouge above all it's a betrayal of a

people who have struggled virtually

alone to rebuild their stricken country

for tonight's film will show that

Western governments are among those

secretly providing the means for Pol

Pot's return to power

see

lately Cambodia has become a newspaper

headline about peace talks that never

bring peace for those of you who have

shown your concern about Cambodia

beware recent reports of peace

agreements deceive and manipulate public

opinion there have been no agreements

only the imposition of the strategic

aims of great powers upon a suffering

nation this has been done by coercion

and bribery what it souls is diplomatic

embarrassment what it threatens is a

fragile normality that is the remarkable

achievement of the Cambodian people

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this is Phnom Penh for more than a

decade the United Nations led by the

Western China has isolated these

resourceful and resilient people barring

them from all international agreements

on trade and communications even from

the World Health Organization instead

Pol Pot and his gang have been allowed

to occupy Cambodia seat at the United

Nations behind the facade of a coalition

invented by America and China and all

because the liberators of Cambodia the

Vietnamese had the temerity not only to

get rid of Pol Pot but to turn back

invasions by both America and China this

is the logic and spite of Cambodia's

punishment

they have started from scratch I would

say worse than scratch without means

isolated without anybody to to come and

see what was going on in this country

without strength without human resources

that have been decimated is incredible

the resilience of these people and I

really feel bad that when I I read the

press outside and the media and they

speak like these people do not exist

since the first American bomb fell on

neutral Cambodia 21 years ago the people

here have been prey to those who call

themselves peacemakers the latest peace

plan has been put forward by the United

Nations the permanent five members of

the Security Council which is dominated

by the United States and its allies

demand the resignation of the Hun Sen

government in Phnom Penh even though

this is Cambodia's only effective

government providing the only opposition

to the return of Pol Pot under this UN

plan the Khmer Rouge will be given a

share of power it's really the West or

the free world or whoever want to help

this people if they are really sincere

then they should come here and seek what

these people see and then try to

strengthen their their their sense of

first of all they are dignity because

they don't lose dignity de cámara they

die but they don't lose their dignity

and then strengthen their sense of

Independence they are grouping in all

the ways to do that

fear is like a presence here the other

day 56 people were taken off two trains

and shot dead by the Khmer Rouge simply

because they work for the government

Pol Pot's Defense Minister has boasted

an enemies list of two million people

when the curfew comes the night belongs

to the prospect of a second Holocaust at

the end of World War two

The Times correspondent on arrival as

the Nazi death camp at Belsen wrote it's

my duty to describe something beyond the

imagination of mankind that was how I

felt in 1979 when I reached Cambodia in

the aftermath of Pol Pot's

terror once again it's necessary to come

here and say that once again it's

necessary to guide the camera to these

mass graves which are everywhere in this

country here murdered people were dumped

many of them children headless and naked

horrors that were photographed and

documented by Pol Pot's Gestapo known as

s21 in three and a half years a fifth of

the population were put to death

not a single Western leader has come to

the killing fields of Cambodia just to

pay their respects as almost all of

D'Arnot Belson and the shrines in Israel

in the past year there have even been

attempts to rewrite the evidence

provided by those of us who saw and

smelt and cannot forget these graves

when they were discovered the United

Nations Security Council dropped the

word genocide from its reference to the

Pol Pot years so as not to offend China

Pol Pot's underwriter American and other

Western documents no longer refer to

genocide and mass murder preferring to

describe the extermination of more than

a million people as human rights abuses

or merely the policies and practices of

the recent past the universally

condemned policies and practices of a

recent path

unquote referred to in an earlier report

are in fact the policies and practices

of the 1975 to 1978 period while the

West publicly tries to distance itself

from Pol Pot American officials in

embassy background briefings described

the Khmer Rouge as different and changed

out of all recognition this insidious

campaign has been echoed in the media

Pol Pot may have been brutal but he was

no mass murderer he may have been a bit

paranoid but there was no genocide this

article has been widely distributed by

Pol Pot's man in New York and by the

Foreign Office in London

it says the West must stop moralizing

about the Khmer Rouge and reach out to

them it complains that the genocide

issue has been exploited to the full and

says that Pol Pot's followers are now

regarded as honest and are admired for

their discipline and self-respect

qualities that most fears of Cambodian

society lack this campaign of

rehabilitation suppresses the fact that

the Khmer Rouge are masters of coercion

intimidation and propaganda we have

evidence of Pol Pot's secret plans to

fool Western governments and to take

power as he did before these notes are

of secret speeches made by Pol Pot and

discussions with his leadership Pol Pot

spokesman q san-pan who has smiled his

way around the world at so-called peace

conferences made the following

declaration to Khmer Rouge commanders

the outside world

he said keeps demanding a political end

to the war in Cambodia I could end the

war if I wanted because the outside

world is waiting for me but I am buying

time to give you comrades the

opportunity to carry out all the

military tasks at this point

Pol Pot added that to end the war

politically would make his movement fade

away and this must be prevented from

happening we shall push a liberal

capitalist line he said

but we are not changing our true nature

following the showing of our film a year

ago Western governments appeared to

listen to public opinion Sweden changed

its vote at the United Nations public

opinion in Sweden and in other

democratic countries has strongly voiced

its revulsion at the prospect of the

possible return of the Khmer Rouge this

is a healthy reaction which my

government cannot and will not ignore

Australia launched its own peace plan

Britain sent diplomats to Cambodia for

the first time in 15 years

however at international conferences a

different game was being played as one

diplomat put it ministers from Britain

and other Western governments actually

reinforced Cambodia's isolation by

treating the Khmer Rouge not as

international criminals but to quote

mrs. Thatcher in an unguarded moment as

reasonable people will have to play some

part in a future Cambodian government a

term was invented to help cover Western

deceit the term is comprehensive

settlement it means that no settlement

is acceptable to the West in China

unless the Khmer Rouge are given a share

of power in Cambodia before elections

are held this is the equivalent of

inviting the Nazis to take part in the

reunification of Germany in other words

by allowing him to manipulate

international diplomacy the West has

given Pol Pot a veto over peace in

Cambodia and as a result he has come

within an ace of achieving his aims

this is kompong spur province one year

ago when we were here the villages along

this road were considered secure today

the Khmer Rouge are all around and this

is the front line less than 50 miles

from the capital Phnom Penh

the Khmer Rouge have captured several

villages they've separated men and women

held forced marriages and enslaved

able-bodied people those trying to

escape have been shot anyone seriously

injured from stepping on Khmer Rouge

mines has been shot or simply left to

die as Western diplomacy has sought ways

of accommodating the Khmer Rouge their

shadow grows longer here where there is

no diplomacy

the situation is worse than it was a

year ago the Khmer Rouge are putting

mines in paddy fields and the number of

casualties is increasing every day every

organization working with people is

worried stiff about the number of

amputees this and serious injury Red

Cross has estimated that there are at

least a hundred thousand displaced

people and the indications are that

number will increase if the war goes on

and the fear of Khmer Rouge remains so

the situation is deteriorating and still

no large-scale aid is going from the

West to assist the people of that

country

in the last year Cambodians have gained

a new distinction with the Lebanese they

are now the most disabled people in the

world from stepping on mines there are

now 80 new amputees every day can you

tell me about this man what happened to

him this man go to the fields not rice

field of the field for who they feel and

plant some some weed yes and in this

moment he cuts the mind the mind and the

glow of his life what will happen to him

when he goes back to his village he

can't cannot feed his face why did his

family survive the Pol Pot years yeah he

lost a family member

during Papaji the great political

changes in Europe are bad news for

Cambodia until recently the Soviet Union

and its former allies in Eastern Europe

helped to keep this country going 10

years ago it was the Soviet Union that

saved much of Cambodia from starvation

since then the Russians have supplied up

to 80 percent of vital materials such as

medical equipment and drugs now this aid

is being withdrawn

in the new world order the Russians can

no longer afford to help the enemies of

their new friends

this patient is bullied my explosion of

my in the mission in the battlefield yes

and how has that affected him the brain

for the Ice Age well will he survive do

you think you don't think and you know

yeah could we could you tell me about

perhaps this this lady here this woman

is funded by your mind from when she go

to the the field this year rice field

and left and this is her this is her

infant here on the bed component son

person how old is she

well she's 23 years old

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Minister the arms that you are facing on

the battlefield from the Khmer Rouge and

their allies what countries are

supplying them but don't walk by now if

you come from India the weapons used

against us by the Khmer Rouge have brand

names and trademarks which show that

they come from Western countries

including France Sweden and West Germany

didn't come with you

baloney we understood that most of the

arms come from China but this is not the

impression that we're getting here today

that's right the guerillas aren't only

using Chinese weapons they're also

getting weapons from Western countries

don't they more time when half of the in

a local lady are you certain then that

weapons being supplied from Western

sources to the so called non communist

resistance either get to or directly

assist the Khmer Rouge on the

battlefield Nicholas on my hand but

pocket long-term or porn action why

perhaps it is very obvious in the

battlefield that all three factions

including the Khmer Rouge are using the

same weapons

I've gotten on who Jarno frothy and like

looking like all these weapons came from

Western countries who supply arms to the

KP NLF and the Khmer Rouge Hannibal papa

of course we captured many weapons like

these on the battlefield but we've only

brought some of them here to Phnom Penh

to show people the rest we use to defend

ourselves to is the German anti-tank

weapon Swedish anti-tank weapon and

these are French the discovery of these

arms which include American weapons set

us off on a journey around the world

revealing direct American and British

involvement in the return of Pol Pot

of all the mysteries surrounding support

for pol pot two questions are

outstanding

how and why Western arms are getting to

the Khmer Rouge the evidence we have

tells us to begin in Europe here in Bonn

capital of Germany what is the German

connection with Cambodia the West German

government is still supporting the Khmer

Rouge or the coalition government

it's totally immoral a position but the

government can afford it because people

don't know nothing about Cambodia and

West Germany and that is the political

support and then the more vital and more

effective German support for the

closures a weapon called Armbrust which

is an anti-tank missile it's very

effective weapon of the Khmer Rouge and

the canal which usually - the tanks of

the government forces and I found a

Khmer Rouge who was really proud of this

weapon who was yeah giving me my

congratulations as a West German for

this great weapon alone is that mr.

palinka I called the German arms

manufacturer mbb to ask how their

weapons got to Cambodia to say that I'm

returned from Cambodia recently with new

information which I would like to pass

along to you and also to say that I'm

recording this conversation for for

accuracy we came upon in Cambodia

Armbrust weapons and I have a serial

number which I'd like to give to you and

perhaps you could help us with the

origin of this particular weapon ok the

full inscription is lot on a 8 four oh

four oh six oh seven nine three

well we can't comment on this had come

about the company spokesman revealed

because mbb had sold the license to make

the weapon to a Belgian company called

PRB whose headquarters are in Brussels

PR be like many in the arms business has

a secret life it's owned by aspera the

huge British arms and fireworks company

based in Ramsgate in Kent the company is

currently under investigation for

contractual irregularities fraud in

other words it also made part of the

super gun that ended up in Iraq this

much is public knowledge

what is not known is PR B's links to pol

pot in 1981-82 the company arranged for

chartered industries of Singapore to

produce the German armed breath weapon

we asked PR b to comment not only did

they deny all knowledge of this weapon

they denied having anything to do with

weapons at all Lenart wha-la feeling

fear be Houdini de belgique

others activity rahi here they are

preserved in the Mossad fear happy I'm

not here to fabrication all down it is

fabrication munition control gas

reporter Commission arcade the Las

Ramblas

present our basic su relievers and a

middle initial and provocative more to

PayPal City payable we have a very

manifesto masters City at their peak $1

and City the kunta a port on the Elysee

Vichy day this most important contract

led us to Singapore

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once the last bastion of the British

Empire Singapore is now a supermarket

with banks docks and a widely promoted

image as a tourist centre run by the

autocrat Lee Kuan Yew Singapore is both

America's and China's most active ally

in Southeast Asia for the past eleven

years at the United Nations Singapore

has been the stalking horse of the

Trinity of Pol Pot Washington and Peking

here at last year's UN vote on Cambodia

the Singapore representative leads

delegates who voted for the Khmer Rouge

dominated coalition to meet Pol Pot's

man at the United Nations himself

complicit in mass murder Prime Minister

Lee has said the Khmer Rouge must be

part of a settlement journalist he said

have made them into demons the image

that is certainly not promoted here is

that of Singapore arms capital of Asia

occupying an entire city block all along

here is the heavily guarded compound of

Chartered industries it's here that

Western arms are made under license and

shipped straight to the Cambodian

guerrillas

we asked chartered industries for an

interview but like everyone in this

business they suffer from acute shyness

this is hardly surprising as Chartered

Industries is owned by the Singapore

government

this means that Singapore is a prime

mover in the flow of arms that end up

with the Khmer Rouge and it means that

the Bush administration can continue its

secret aid through Singapore aid that

breaks a law passed by Congress only

last year with Washington's backing

Singapore supplies the Cambodian

gorillas not only with German weapons

but also with this Swedish anti-tank

weapon we filmed these weapons soon

after they'd been captured from Pol

Pot's army from Singapore they are

shipped here to the port of Sattahip in

Thailand

Thailand is critical to peace in

Cambodia

Prime Minister chatter chai has made

peace moves towards Phnom Penh and

indicated he wants the Khmer Rouge out

of their bases in Thailand this is so

alarmed the bush administration that

Washington has threatened to cut off

trade privileges to Thailand

price action event is a senior

government adviser I asked him why

Thailand still allowed arms to reach the

Khmer Rouge to close the door completely

on shipment of arms or whatever that

that you you say is flowing through

Thailand it's also a very difficult

situation without a settlement those

arms are coming from a variety of

sources something yes not only from

China they're coming through Singapore

indirectly from Western Gulf yes yes

would you like those Western governments

that are indirectly helping this supply

of arms to stop that yes yes I mean I

could go on record of asking for all

Western powers in China to stop you know

arming the fighting forces and this is

where the weapons arrived a Khmer Rouge

munitions warehouse in Thailand filmed

for the first time from inside the

compound but who owns this place

we had Land Registry records searched

and found the identity of the owner

classified however our sources tell us

that the land is owned by the United

Nations border elite operation and

leased to the United States government

this is ironic

a humanitarian agency renting its

property to a foreign government

which allows the Khmer Rouge to use it

as a military base near here is zone 87

where Pol Pot lives and plans his

reconquest of Cambodia this rare map was

originally drawn by American researcher

Roger Normand zone 87 is an enclave

inside Thailand's trap province in which

several times a year the leadership the

highly

the Khmer Rouge holds training sessions

for high-level military cadre the Khmer

Rouge plays a very high premium on

indoctrinating their troops there are 13

days sessions which are led by Pol Pot

and some other top Khmer Rouge

leadership which includes some saying

who is currently the Minister of Defence

for the Khmer Rouge - some paan who is

the vice president and also Tom milk and

yang Suri it's the exact same leadership

that controlled from 75 to 78 that is

now controlling these training sessions

and more than that from this space Pol

Pot is really directing the political

and military strategy the kr Pol Pot and

his leadership are clearly important to

the survival of the Khmer Rouge why

don't you boot them out of Thailand

there's a few refugee camps that are in

Thailand and are controlled by the Khmer

Rouge we are so afraid that if we do

anything drastic to these civilians

under their control they will be pushed

dragged inside Cambodia altogether and

they will suffer a lot more there was

one incident that the UN bro with the

United Nations organizations who was

running the camp there that they wanted

to move some of the to another camp but

the Khmer Rouge didn't allowed and they

they're preventable with their weapons

that the families who wanted to go to a

civilian camp they couldn't go because

they had to go to vote every camera in

these camps the people are used by the

guerrilla groups both as hostages and a

human shield the camps are overseen by a

clandestine Thai army unit called task

force 838 which is funded and armed

largely by the United States nearby is

another armed supply warehouse

at this warehouse sources have told me

who who are very quaint aware house that

an American comes into the warehouse

every few weeks and asks is there

anything that is needed and that

includes military equipment requests are

then put in and the military equipment

arrives I doubt that it comes directly

from the United States it's much more

likely that that would then come from

Singapore but I find it highly unlikely

that Singapore is by itself

paying for the arms that would end up to

the Mackay penal F and it's more likely

that it comes from a deeper pocket like

the United States if our assistance our

overt and our covert assistance is

successful it will have the direct

result of returning the Khmer Rouge to

power that's the end result of any kind

of military successes of the people were

supporting it's the only time I can

think of in history where we would

desperately not want the military

success of the people whom we are

supporting and I think we're playing a

very very dangerous game with you know

with our policy and the United States

policy is is just simply an obscenity

then why with the Khmer Rouge within

striking distance of Phnom Penh is this

policy which you described as an

obscenity still being pursued here in

Washington well I think it's because

there's a small group of people at the

top and the State Department and in the

National Security Council who are still

fighting the Vietnam War

this is the State Department in

Washington last July Secretary of State

James Baker said that America had

changed its policy towards Cambodia but

he gave few details I went to try and

find out exactly what America's policy

was

sorry no I haven't been pre-cleared

no thank you first of all we don't

permit any filming inside the camera I'd

like to see married Colin Yates is the

head of the public affairs department

please hello yes good yes I've been

trying to contact an official of the

press depart in state department for

more than a year to get upon a statement

of American policy on Cambodia and

that's why I've had to come here today

to deliver this letter we believe our

urgent questions should be answered

that's the letter

I'll give us tomorrow and everything

thank you very much for more than a year

now we've been asking the State

Department to speak about Cambodia

simply to state American policy each

time we've been refused or fobbed off

I've never known such reticence in

Washington on any issue we've now

learned that last April a policy

decision was taken to keep the whole

question of Cambodia's future and of

American support for the Khmer Rouge off

television the administration media

policy has is very clear that they feel

they can take all of the editorials

against their policy in every newspaper

in the country and that those are just

glancing blows but they need to stay off

of television and they have done

everything they possibly could at time

and time again they've made commitments

to do TV interviews and national

networks and then reneged on the

commitments and then tried to bring

people it has low down a position in the

bureaucracy to be the on-camera

spokespeople this is a policy that dares

not speak its name this is a policy

which cannot stand the light of public

scrutiny this is a policy which is a

cancer on the body politic of America

but what are the roots of current

American policy in Cambodia after Pol

Pot had taken over in Cambodia in 1975

his army attacked Vietnam killing

thousands of villagers as this rare film

shows in 1978 the Vietnamese overthrew

the genocidal regime in Phnom Penh

almost immediately the United States

began to give secret aid to Pol Pot

Washington was then courting the Chinese

who were Viet Nam's ancient enemies and

Pol Pot's main backers the American aid

to Pol Pot was critical in restoring the

Khmer Rouge as a military force now

operating from Thailand the extent of

American support was revealed in this

correspondence from congressional lawyer

Jonathan Winer when this letter was

circulated the Reagan administration was

furious then without explaining why the

author appear da turd the information

although it had come from the

Congressional Research Service however

the information in this second letter

was he told me absolutely correct it

amounted to the same conclusion he was

clear evidence that Pol Pot's secret

backer was Washington as a cover for its

secret war against Cambodia Washington

set up the Kampuchea emergency group in

Thailand known as CAG it ensured that

Western supplies were delivered to Khmer

Rouge camps in 1980 bowing to US

pressure the World Food Programme handed

over 12 million dollars worth of food to

the Thai army to pass on to the Khmer

Rouge in November of that year dr. ray

Klein a former deputy director of the

CIA and close advisor to Ronald Reagan

made a secret visit to a Khmer Rouge

base camp inside Cambodia

within a year 50 CIA agents were running

Americas Cambodia operation from

Thailand Kang was now known as the

working group it's job is to provide

battle plans war materiel and satellite

Intel

to the so called non-communist

resistance most of it paid for by

Washington today American policy

continues unchanged behind the front of

United Nations involvement which may

well have the final effect of turning

Cambodia into another Lebanon

Cambodia is the only country in the

world to be denied United Nations

Development Aid and America with China

has led this embargo

without development aid Cambodia will

never for example have uncontaminated

water and children such as these will

continue to die from preventable

diseases hang it's exactly one year

since we were here and walk down this

corridor of these children and nothing

appears to have changed at all the

patient sees the capacity of this

hospital you know that's why they still

stay in the corridor see this little

child's exactly the same as a child

lying there a year ago who I doubt would

have survived you ask the mother won't

you suffering from will Minkus or don't

you I mean this child is suffering from

diarrhoea and fuel around nothing has

changed in one year there we have

children who are suffering and embargo

means denying them the basic needs that

could help these children recover so

quickly those who sit in the United

Nations in great comfort ought to be

confronted by scenes like this actually

stand next to a child in such need what

they did in United Nation energy is

really unfair because they vote against

Cambodia and let children die because of

diarrhea

last year the United States stopped the

United Nations Development aid mission

from going to Cambodia Pol Pot has

described American policy as very

correct

[Music]

American officials have constantly

denied that they give any aid to Pol Pot

but US Army weapons are reaching the

Khmer Rouge via their allies and we have

evidence of direct American and British

assistance to Pol Pot from New Zealand

su Elliot a senior official working with

Cambodian refugees talk to me on behalf

of a former Cambodian gorilla who

fearing for his life must remain

anonymous and also could you tell me

what your source told you as far as his

training outside Cambodia was concerned

how did he get there and what happened

when he what was the nationality of the

principal advisors of the camp can you

tell me what he told you about the

training itself what were the particular

military skills that were passed on to

them by the British and American

advisers

the training consisted on military

strategy gorillas wolf attacked my plane

and weapon handling they mine maying was

one of the particular skills they were

taught is that correct

Britain's involvement was vividly

demonstrated in September last year

during the Vietnamese withdrawal from

Cambodia in Phnom Penh were MPs and

Claude and Jim Lester as parliamentary

observers but there were two other

mysterious British representatives

I was introduced to them and I had some

conversation with one of them initially

and then the second one and I asked them

what they were doing there so I was

rather curious because clearly they

weren't official delegates from the

United Kingdom and they told me that

they were there on holiday but on the

official list of observers they are

named as anthony norman and christopher

mckenzie representing Great Britain from

the Ministry of Defence now when you got

back to London did you make inquiries

about these two men yes because

obviously I was very curious about them

so I went to the House of Commons

library and asked them to ring the Royal

United Services Institute which was

apparently where these men worked and is

based in Whitehall and make inquiries

first of all to establish that they did

work there and secondly to ask what

their jobs were and back came the answer

who wants to know

and then now scums library told me with

when they told people the other end who

wanted to know the response was the

information is classified

this is McKenzie and we know to have

been a member of Britain's highly

secretive SAS at the time of his visit

to Cambodia McKenzie was a member of the

SAS our squadron which officially

doesn't exist and therefore its

activities can be officially denied this

is the other mysterious Briton Captain

Anthony de Norman known by his friends

as the monster de Norman has a long

history in the SAS at the end of last

year covering as a freelance

photographer the norman returned to the

thai Cambodian border members of our

squadron often passed themselves off as

photographers or tourists time after

time we've been told in the House of

Commons but there is no military

involvement inside Cambodia minister

after minister has stood at the box and

repeatedly given us those assurances and

they mr. Waldegrave himself not long ago

repeated this assurance concerned people

in Britain

received a copy of a parliamentary

statement by the Foreign Secretary

Douglas heard it read we have never

given and we'll never give support of

any kind to the Khmer Rouge this was

echoed in a letter from the prime

minister to the leader of the opposition

but these statements were false Foreign

Office Minister Timothy Sainsbury later

wrote that Britain does not give

military aid in any form to the

Cambodian factions but this too is false

the SAS has given secret training to the

Cambodian guerrillas for five years and

as we can now reveal British support for

Pol Pot has never been more crucial

began around 1985 with first one

training team going out from the SAS

regiment in he referred to the Thai

Cambodian border to begin what became a

series of training courses seminars for

both the sea analysts and the Khmer

Rouge so the British knew they were

teaching the Khmer Rouge yes quite quite

quite definitely these were active

service SAS personnel up until October

1989 when the whole question of the SAS

role in training the Khmer Rouge became

public and the stink that that resulted

in the in the Commons yes these were

serving assess troops what is the nature

of British assistance to the Khmer Rouge

now well my understanding is that

following the route that erupted last

autumn as a result of partly your

program and partly because my own

newspaper the government put the word

out that support from that date onwards

was to be very much more covert in its

nature

so that has passed very clearly to be an

mi6 operation the result of that has

been that there are a number of former

SS people who are now out of the service

and who are private individuals

but that are working to some form of

contract to provide training and mines

technology to the Kaveri what exactly do

you mean by mines technology one can lay

anti-personnel nor fruit mines which can

be detonated automatically by the sound

of people moving along with a track

there are an increasing number of xxx

personnel mines which fire thousands of

pellets into the air and once they bed

themselves in people's bodies are

incredibly difficult to find for doctors

working with fairly rudimentary field

equipment and so these are the kinds of

minds that being supplied by the British

my understanding is that the British are

still involved in supplying those

hormones and how they British made mines

mines themselves need not necessarily be

British because there are a series of

licensing agreements that obviously

exists worldwide bringing with it the

element of deniability yes we're not

laying mines with made in UK on them

like the US State Department the Foreign

Office in London has shown a mark

reluctance to talk about Cambodia for

more than two months we sought answers

to questions raised in this

investigation but without success we

asked for an interview with foreign

secretary Douglas Hurd but this has been

repeatedly refused last year millions

asked people watching your program to

pick up their pens and write expressing

their concern to ministers and members

of parliament of all persuasions all

those people not only have a duty but in

my view have a right to write again to

those with political responsibilities

saying look we gave our money we

provided our support

the solutions can only be found by

governments providing aid on the scale

that's necessary and by government's

taking the political action that's

necessary

stopping the arm supplies stopping the

fighting people seeing the Pol Pot

nightmare for what it was cannot imagine

how that could be allowed to recur and

what we see now on the ground those of

us who are working with the people in

humanitarian programs is gaining ground

again poised ready to take over the

reins of power once more now if that

were to happen how could any of us live

with ourselves into the future in the

West we are told that the Cold War is

over but this is not so the Cold War was

never just about attrition between the

two superpowers it was fought mostly

with the blood of faraway people

considered expendable in poor countries

like El Salvador and Panama Vietnam and

Cambodia it's surely the cruelest irony

of 1990 that as the Berlin Wall is torn

down the Western democracies have

rebuilt its equivalent around a nation

of people who threaten no one and with

whom none of us have any quarrel indeed

the extraordinary efforts of the

Cambodian people to recover from their

nightmare of bombs and genocide ought to

be the object of our lasting admiration

at the very least the willingness of our

representatives to help them not hurt

them the Khmer Rouge must be stopped

they must be brought to trial at the

international court of justice and

expelled from the United Nations all aid

and comfort to Pol Pot and his allies

guns mines bombs uniforms training food

and so called diplomacy must stop and

their bases in Thailand closed down and

the wall built around Cambodia must be

torn down and aid to rebuild this

country denied no more every day these

steps are not taken every day that

governments are peas and deceives is a

day lost

for the people of Cambodia

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