Francois Ponchaud writes in @lemondefr that the Khmer Rouge hereded Chinese businessmen into special villages in the forrest where they were being led “progressively to extermination”. Ponchaud also said the KR killed virtually all soldiers and administrators of the former regime

RT @JimLaurie_Asia: Dan Southerland (below) much experienced in Vietnam Cambodia reporting – reaching back to 1968. We travelled togethe… Mam Sarun, a former commander of the Lon Nol army, reaches the Kap Choeug refugee camp in Thailand. After the fall of PhnomPenh to the Khmer Rouge, he refused to surrender, changed to civilian clothes, and went to search his family: (via Francois Ponchaud, Year Zero) https://t.co/Wm9sqFNlmE

Dan Southerland writes in @csmonitor that the Khmer Rouge transformed Cambodia into a giant work camp. He interviewed 20 refugees, many of whom reported executions and quoted a western diplomat, who warned that refugees are likely to exaggerate the repressiveness of the KR: https://t.co/dEyVeh4glj .@NRO tells the story of former student Ang Sokthan. She escaped from the Khmer Rouge to Thailand: “We were forbidden to pick fruits from the trees to supplement our diet because they belonged to ‘the people’. Those who transgressed 4 times were taken away and did not return”

@GammonJoye @guardian I definitively agree Joye, that there are many genocides that people don’t know about. And while it is difficult to compare them, I think each of them provides valuable lessons from which we could learn to not have history repeat itself. That’s why this account exists 🙂 Martin Woollacott writes in @guardian about the “High price of Cambodia’s bitter harvest”: He acknowledges the immense human suffering and brutality of the Khmer Rouge but also credits them with “laying the foundation for a strong economy and a secure communist government” https://t.co/6THUi57Upy

Wang Shangrong (file photo), lieutenant general of the PLA pledges that China will deliver four thousand tons of weaponry and 1,300 vehicles to Cambodia by the end of March and, soon after, a hundred 120-millimeter artillery pieces and shells. https://t.co/o5YWNgqwcr

7. According to refugee accounts collected by François PONCHAUD former government officers were brutally killed and disappeared, after being deceived into believing that they would be sent elsewhere to work 8. Sihanouk returns from a 3-day tour of the North Zone 5. The Communist Youth League of Kampuchea is founded: 17-30 year olds who have a “clear” biography and are “politically clean” can join and should work to propagandize the youth. 6. At the 4th Party Congress Khieu Samphan became a full rights member of the Central Committee 4. A Santebal report gives insight into the Khmer Rouge army which totals 72,748 troops. It also breaks down the weaponry of…

Under the Khmer Rouge he had to work 12 1/2 hours in the fields with a 1/2 hour break. As older people were ordered to live in a separated area, he has not seen his parents in months. He did not witness atrocities but had seen many arrests. “Those arrested simply disappear”. 3/3 Then 270 Cambodians tried to flee on foot to Thailand. On the 11th night of their journey, Khmer Rouge soldiers opened fire at them near the Mongkol Borei river. Only 67 survived and made it to Thailand. -2/3 An 18-year-old refugee from Batambang province arrives in Thailand and tells how he manged to escape the Khmer Rouge:…

Romanian diplomat Lefter, returns from PhnomPenh to Beijing, where he tells US diplomats that he had had a three-hour private conversation with Prince Sihanouk, who “was very sad, had lost weight, was despondent and feared for his life”.