Nate Thayer

SURRENDER OF KHMER ROUGE'S LAST FIGHTING FORCE IS REPORTED

SURRENDER OF KHMER ROUGE'S LAST FIGHTING FORCE IS REPORTED

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

December 5, 1998

The last main fighting force of the Khmer Rouge, the radical Marxist guerrillas who killed nearly 2 million Cambodians, have surrendered, a journalist close to the rebels said today.

Negotiators for the last band of guerrillas holed up near the Thai border met yesterday with representatives of the government in Phnom Penh at Preah Vihear temple and agreed to lay down their arms, according to Nate Thayer of the Far Eastern Economic Review.

In 1997, Thayer became the first journalist allowed to interview Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, who had not been seen in public in nearly two decades and died in April. Thayer is one of few outsiders trusted by the guerrillas.

The surrender of the Khmer Rouge would bring to an end more than 30 years of civil war in Cambodia that began with the Marxist guerrilla's insurgency against the government in Phnom Penh in the late 1960s.

Although the fighters' top surviving leaders, Tak Mok, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, were not included in the deal, they no longer command any troops. Their former followers apparently did not want to give them up.

Khem Nuon, Ta Mok's chief of staff who negotiated the surrender with government officials, said simply that they are ``retired'' and he refused to go into details about them, Thayer said.

The Cambodian government and the United States have expressed a desire to capture all three and try them for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Khem Nuon claimed he was negotiating on behalf of 5,000 remaining ragtag troops and 15,000 civilians living under Khmer Rouge control.

Thayer said, however, that he believed the estimate of fighting men was inflated, and that many of the civilians are living in the Phu Noi refugee camp in Thailand.

``There must be unity. There is no other way. There is no way for a military solution. No weapons. Only political struggle,'' Thayer said Khem Nuon told him in a telephone interview.

The government was represented at the negotiations by Meas Sopheas, deputy chief of staff of the Cambodian military, Thayer said.

Under the agreement, Thayer said the remaining guerrillas will join the government army and the civilians will return to Anlong Veng, the guerrillas' former stronghold in the north.

Although it is possible some tiny bands of guerrillas are still wandering the jungles, Thayer said he knew of no sizable Khmer Rouge fighting force that could pose a viable threat to the government.

SURRENDER OF KHMER ROUGE'S LAST FIGHTING FORCE IS REPORTED

SURRENDER OF KHMER ROUGE'S LAST FIGHTING FORCE IS REPORTED

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

December 5, 1998

The last main fighting force of the Khmer Rouge, the radical Marxist guerrillas who killed nearly 2 million Cambodians, have surrendered, a journalist close to the rebels said today.

Negotiators for the last band of guerrillas holed up near the Thai border met yesterday with representatives of the government in Phnom Penh at Preah Vihear temple and agreed to lay down their arms, according to Nate Thayer of the Far Eastern Economic Review.

In 1997, Thayer became the first journalist allowed to interview Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, who had not been seen in public in nearly two decades and died in April. Thayer is one of few outsiders trusted by the guerrillas.

The surrender of the Khmer Rouge would bring to an end more than 30 years of civil war in Cambodia that began with the Marxist guerrilla's insurgency against the government in Phnom Penh in the late 1960s.

Although the fighters' top surviving leaders, Tak Mok, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, were not included in the deal, they no longer command any troops. Their former followers apparently did not want to give them up.

Khem Nuon, Ta Mok's chief of staff who negotiated the surrender with government officials, said simply that they are ``retired'' and he refused to go into details about them, Thayer said.

The Cambodian government and the United States have expressed a desire to capture all three and try them for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Khem Nuon claimed he was negotiating on behalf of 5,000 remaining ragtag troops and 15,000 civilians living under Khmer Rouge control.

Thayer said, however, that he believed the estimate of fighting men was inflated, and that many of the civilians are living in the Phu Noi refugee camp in Thailand.

``There must be unity. There is no other way. There is no way for a military solution. No weapons. Only political struggle,'' Thayer said Khem Nuon told him in a telephone interview.

The government was represented at the negotiations by Meas Sopheas, deputy chief of staff of the Cambodian military, Thayer said.

Under the agreement, Thayer said the remaining guerrillas will join the government army and the civilians will return to Anlong Veng, the guerrillas' former stronghold in the north.

Although it is possible some tiny bands of guerrillas are still wandering the jungles, Thayer said he knew of no sizable Khmer Rouge fighting force that could pose a viable threat to the government.

Cambodian Peace On Hold -- Angry Students Vow To Stage More Demonstrations

Cambodian Peace On Hold -- Angry Students Vow To Stage More Demonstrations

By Nate Thayer

Monday, December 23, 1991

Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The government closed universities today to try to stem a mounting tide of student demonstrations that have erupted in violence, disrupting efforts to rebuild the country after a long civil war.

But angry students gathered outside campuses and vowed further protests. Pro-democracy activists are upset by corruption in the outgoing Vietnamese-installed government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, and they oppose the inclusion of the fanatical Khmer Rouge in the interim government that is to set up elections.

The streets of the capital were calm today after five days of unrest in which officials say six people were killed and nearly three dozen hurt.

The government said 18 policemen were injured.

Students today gathered in small groups outside their closed campuses and vented their anger at police, who they said overreacted by opening fire on rock-throwing demonstrators over the weekend.

"Everybody is very angry with the police, and we will demonstrate today or tomorrow to demand the release of the students they have captured," said a 26-year-old student who identified himself only as Pheak.

He was with 200 other students outside the Institute of Agriculture.

"We are angry, but we don't have guns, so it is difficult to fight the police. But we will demonstrate again," said a student outside the Institute of Economics campus who requested anonymity.

One official defended the use of gunfire to control the unrest.

"If there is another demonstration, there certainly will be more shooting," said a senior Cambodian official, who requested anonymity. "The order is there to shoot, the green light is on. The government has no choice now but to show that it is in control, or it will collapse."

Army troops called in to restore order returned to the barracks last night. Hundreds of police fanned across the city to enforce the 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew imposed on yesterday.

Red tracer bullets floated over the sky this morning and automatic rifle bursts occasionally punctured the calm, apparently from nervous policemen firing into the air as vehicles violated the curfew.

The unrest in Phnom Penh delayed a meeting Saturday of the Supreme National Council, the interim body comprising the four Cambodian factions that is to help implement a peace accord reached in October, after 13 years of civil war.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who heads the council, appealed yesterday for calm and urged the government not to use force against demonstrators. But Sihanouk is a figurehead leader with no actual powers.

Students say officials have been selling government property and pocketing the money.

Some of the recent violence also has been directed at the Khmer Rouge, which tried to transform the country into a primitive agrarian commune during its brutal 1975-78 rule. The Khmer Rouge is blamed for killing as many as 1 million people before being toppled by Vietnamese forces.

Last month, Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan was nearly lynched shortly after returning to Cambodia to participate in the interim government. He fled back to Thailand and his return to Phnom Penh has been delayed by the protests.

Reporter Gets Fraudulent Mia `Remains'

Reporter Gets Fraudulent Mia `Remains'

Associated Press

Sunday, July 21, 1991

 

By Nate Thayer

BANGKOK, Thailand - "I have bones from dead American pilots," the Cambodian refugee whispered, handing this reporter a packet of teeth, bone chips and a serviceman's identification number.

"Is it true I can get $1 million from the Americans?" he asked.

The episode took place recently at a refugee camp along Thailand's eastern border with Cambodia. The identification turned out not to belong to any of the 2,274 U.S. serviceman missing in action from the Vietnam War.

The offer illustrates the rumors - some based in fact - that have spread for years through rebel-held camps bordering Communist Laos and Cambodia, of huge rewards awaiting those who can show that U.S. servicemen are imprisoned in Indochina or those who can lead to their bodies.

The release of a photo last week purporting to show three U.S. prisoners of war has renewed debate over whether Americans are held 16 years after the war.

The three countries strongly deny they are holding prisoners.

Numerous refugees and guerrillas have emerged from the jungles carrying bones, maps, letters purported to be from U.S. prisoners, and "dog tags" - military identification neck chains.

Refugees are often keen to provide stories about Americans in hopes of enhancing their chances of resettling in the United States. Guerrillas are eager for cash.

The information is usually passed through relief officials or other foreigners to the U.S. Joint Casualty Resolution Center office

at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok. Most is immediately dismissed as fraudulent or irrelevant.

The packet the reporter received from the Cambodian refugee was sent to the center, but the I.D. number did not match anyone on the Pentagon's MIA list.

Most "evidence" turns out to be scams, though some is credible.

Cambodian Sojourn: 5 Weeks With Guerrillas -- Drive Forces Army Back In Provinces By Nate Thayer AP Editor's note: Associated Press correspondent Nate Thayer spent five weeks with Cambodian guerrillas deep inside Cambodia, the first Western journalist

Cambodian Sojourn: 5 Weeks With Guerrillas -- Drive Forces Army Back In Provinces

By Nate Thayer

Associated Press

Monday, July 16, 1990

Editor's note: Associated Press correspondent Nate Thayer spent five weeks with Cambodian guerrillas deep inside Cambodia, the first Western journalist to make such a trip during the 11-year-old war. This is his report.

NATIONAL HIGHWAY 6, Cambodia - Guerrillas have seized hundreds of villages and military positions in northern Cambodia, forcing the army to fall back and defend besieged provincial capitals.

The three-party guerrilla coalition, which includes the Communist Khmer Rouge, controls large areas of the north and northwest. The insurgents are shelling and launching commando raids on key provincial capitals.

Senior guerrilla commanders say the attacks are in preparation for full-scale assaults on the cities of Kompong Thom and Siem Reap, and the ancient temples of Angkor near Siem Reap.

During the trip, hundreds of government artillery shells and rockets landed daily, shaking the paddies of a beautiful rice-growing region engulfed by war.

Debris from bridges blown up by guerrillas littered highways. The jungle fighters set up ambushes to attack convoys trying to resupply forward government outposts defending the major urban areas.

Khmer Rouge commanders expressed confidence they would capture Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. They used maps to illustrate encirclement from the north, south and west - similar to the strategy in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge defeated the U.S.-backed government of

President Lon Nol.

The trip, with an escort of guerrillas loyal to Prince Norodom Sihanouk, leader of the coalition, began on the Thai border and covered three northern provinces. Included was a 30-mile stretch of National Highway 6, a government lifeline to outlying provinces, now in guerrilla hands.

It provided the first independent confirmation of the guerrillas' claims that they have advanced deep inside the country.

Thousands of Sihanouk's guerrillas were seen lounging in villages, shopping in bustling markets and manning lines around Kompong Thom, which they said was their next target.

Kompong Thom, a strategic crossroads city, is 90 miles north of Phnom Penh.

In the war's early stages, most guerrillas were in bases along the Thai border and obtaining weapons from China was easy, given Thailand's support for the insurgents.

Now the lines have shifted far from the frontier. The Sihanouk forces and the Khmer Rouge have forged a network of thousands of miles of secret roads and trails into the interior.

Convoys of trucks, ox carts and thousands of civilian supporters were seen daily moving supplies from jungle caches to forward areas.

Convoys of Chinese-supplied trucks and captured government vehicles moved freely along sections of provincial highways that were under government control less than a year ago.

More than 50,000 insurgents are fighting an army that has superior firepower but is mostly conscripts reported to be poorly trained.