Nate Thayer

Khmer Rouge leader returns, is beaten by Cambodian mob -Nate Thayer

Khmer Rouge leader returns, is beaten by Cambodian mob

Chicago Sun-Times

November 27, 1991 | Nate Thayer

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia An angry mob screaming "Dog!" and "Murderer!" today surged past police and beat a top leader of the Khmer Rouge, the Communist guerrilla group whose reign of terror in the 1970s left hundreds of thousands dead.

The government ordered in armored personnel carriers to evacuate Khieu Samphan, the right-hand man to top Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, as the crowd prepared to lynch him. Khieu Samphan and Son Sen, another Khmer Rouge leader, and their aides were flown back to Bangkok, Thailand.

Bleeding from the head and chest, Khieu Samphan cowered in a bedroom as security officers prevented him from being strung up by a wire tied to a ceiling fan.

"Please help me, please don't leave me," he pleaded, asking three foreign photographers to say in the room.

Only hours earlier, Khieu Samphan ended his exile and returned to Phnom Penh to take part in a UN-backed plan to end 13 years of civil war between the Khmer Rouge, its two non-Communist guerrilla allies and the government Vietnam installed after invading Cambodia in 1978.

The attack delayed what would have been the first meeting of a national reconciliation council and appeared to jeopardize a UN-brokered peace accord signed last month in Paris by all four warring factions.

The government, in a statement carried by its official news agency, said it remained fully committed to the peace pact. Under the accord, a Supreme National Council led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk would help pave the way for elections in 1993.

More than 10,000 angry demonstrators converged on the villa housing the Khmer Rouge delegation today after the 60-year-old Khieu Samphan's return. Khieu Samphan was one of the prime architects of the Khmer Rouge's murderous regime, which killed hundreds of thousands of people as the group tried to turn the country into a vast rural commune. Khieu Samphan is now the group's president.

After storming and ransacking the villa, the mob broke into the second-story room where Khieu Samphan was hiding. Reporters saw him huddled against a wall, wearing a steel helmet and bleeding profusely. He apparently had been struck by a rock.

As thousands of protesters ringed the house, six government armored personnel carriers moved into position outside. One backed into the front entranceway and Khieu Samphan, with several other members of his delegation, clambered onto the back of the vehicle.

Miners risk all for Cambodia rubies

Miners risk all for Cambodia rubies

Chicago Sun-Times

January 27, 1991 | Nate Thayer

BORAI, Thailand Thousands of fortune hunters risk land mines and malaria digging for rubies in the war zones of guerrilla-controlled western Cambodia.

Ruby fever has gripped this border town. Miners tell their adventures in bustling poolrooms and bars.

Lucky miners make fortunes, as in the gold rushes of the American West in the 19th century. They emerge from the jungle with pockets full of rubies.

Wutipong Sophapong, owner of a gas station in Borai, sat on his back porch fondling several hundred gems - dug from his yard in a single day, he said.

The Khmer Rouge captured the area east of Borai in 1989 and opened the border to Thai miners to help finance its war with Cambodia's Vietnam-sponsored government.

About 50,000 miners a month trek over the Ban Thad Mountains into the Cambodian jungles, according to Thai authorities. They say hundreds have died there, about one-third return with deadly cerebral malaria and others lose limbs to land mines.

Despite the risks, newcomers arrive every day.

"Over this mountain a few days' walk, you just stick your hand in the ground and the dirt is filled with red jewels," a miner said, his eyes sparkling while he waited to be checked for malaria.

The Khmer Rouge, who abolished money and all forms of private enterprise during their brutal 3 1/2 years in power, now oversee a sophisticated mining operation that miners and provincial officials say brings them millions of dollars a month.

Each miner pays the equivalent of $60 for access to the region and can keep whatever he finds. Officials say the windfall may allow the Khmer Rouge to buy weapons on the black market if supplies dry up from China, which is among the world powers searching for a peace formula in Cambodia.

Borai District officials estimate that more than 100 million baht ($4 million) change hands every day in deals over rubies.

"There are a lot of 3 or 4 million baht stones," the district chief of Borai said. "The most valuable one so far went for 24 million baht," about $1 million.

Less than a yard from where Wutipong sat on his back porch, the yard disappeared into a 100-foot-deep hole the size of a football field. The hole was filled with pumps, workers and two cranes worth $280,000 each, which the gas station owner bought after striking it rich a few months ago.

"There is an old canal under my house and we found rubies on both sides, so we are going to tear down the house in a few weeks," he said.

Cambodians OK new step toward peace

Cambodians OK new step toward peace

Chicago Sun-Times

June 25, 1991 | Nate Thayer

PATTAYA, Thailand Cambodia's warring factions moved another step toward peace Monday when they signed an agreement under which they would stop receiving foreign arms.

The accord also put in formal wording a truce declared Sunday between the Vietnam-installed government in Phnom Penh and the three guerrilla groups.

Despite the moves, the quest for a lasting end to the 12-year-old civil war faced major obstacles. Previous cease-fires have fallen apart, and the new pact left unresolved such issues as how to halt the combat and disarm the fighters.

"The declaration is one thing. The implementation is another," cautioned Prince Norodom Ranariddh, son of the resistance leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

The 12 members of the Supreme National Council, from the Cambodian government and guerrilla factions, signed the five-point pact on the first day of talks at this beach resort near Bangkok. The national council seeks to implement a United Nations Security Council peace plan drafted late last year. The talks have been mired by bickering over the role of the world body and other issues.

Under the peace plan as drafted, the UN would be extensively involved in Cambodia's administration and military affairs before elections.

The rebels have accepted the plan, but the Cambodian government has rejected demobilization before elections are held and is demanding measures to prevent any takeover attempt by Communist Khmer Rouge rebels.

Sihanouk denounced Prime Minister Hun Sen's reservations about the peace proposal. Sihanouk said a UN representative told him the UN Security Council would not monitor the truce or other agreements unless the entire plan was accepted.

"Sihanouk is putting the squeeze on Hun Sen," one diplomat said, on condition of anonymity. "He knows that Hun Sen knows you cannot have a cease-fire and cessation of arms without the UN plan."

The Supreme National Council said Monday it would "implement the unlimited cease-fire and undertake to stop receiving foreign military aid as from 24th June, 1991." Sihanouk is to direct future meetings of the council and lead a delegation to the UN.

Cambodian peace may depend on UN troops - Chicago Sun-Times

Cambodian peace may depend on UN troops

Chicago Sun-Times

January 2, 1992 | Nate Thayer

1

PHNOM PENH Cambodia could return to war if the United Nations does not send peacekeeping troops and administrators quickly to oversee the fragile peace accord, a U.S. congressman warned Wednesday.

"So far the peace agreement has succeeded in bringing an end to the fighting, but it could very easily fail if UN forces do not arrive soon," said Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.), who is on a congressional fact-finding mission to this country.

The Vietnam-installed government and three rebel groups signed a peace accord in October that created a Supreme National Council to work with the United Nations to administer the country until elections in 1993.

All the parties called Monday to speed up the deployment of 10,000 UN peacekeepers.

Officials said a void in political leadership since the peace plan was signed threatens to plunge the country back into conflict.

An inaugural meeting of the reconciliation council was aborted twice by mob violence and instability in the capital.

A crowd beat and nearly killed Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan on his arrival from 13 years of exile on Nov. 27, forcing him to flee the country. The mob was enraged by the Khmer Rouge killing of hundreds of thousands of people during its fanatical Communist rule in 1975-78.

Last month, anti-government riots left at least eight people dead and 16 others wounded.

The government sent troops to regain control of the streets and banned any demonstrations.

Engine implosion probed in jet crash

Engine implosion probed in jet crash

Chicago Sun-Times

May 30, 1991 | Nate Thayer

Associated Press

BANGKOK, Thailand A preliminary investigation into the Lauda Air disaster indicates engine failure may have caused the Boeing 767 to crash, a West European aviation expert close to the probe said today.

"Most attention is now focused on the possibility of an engine implosion," said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said that one wing, with an engine attached, was found 12 miles from the rest of the wreckage and significantly intact, possibly indicating that the wing broke off first and then the plane crashed.

But several aviation experts stressed that the findings still were preliminary and no conclusions could be drawn.

In Seattle, Boeing spokesman Jack Gamble said there had been "no findings of any sort by anybody at this point in time." He disputed the European expert's claim that one wing was found 12 miles from the wreckage.

"Both the engines and the wings are in the general area of the fuselage that they've found," he said. "The story is out that one wing is 12 miles away from the rest of the airplane, and that's not true."

The manufacturer of the two engines, Pratt & Whitney, said today the company had no indication of any engine problem.

"We have never had any problems with this engine," said spokesman Bob Goering in Hartford, Conn.

Meanwhile, Thai air force Group Capt. Danai Nanthasiri said the jet's "black boxes" would be sent to the National Transportation and Safety Board in Washington for examination.

Another Thai official said the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder would be sent to the United States tomorrow.

The plane had two jet engines, and the European expert did not say which may have imploded, or exploded inward.

The Lauda Air jet crashed Sunday in northwest Thailand, 16 minutes after takeoff from Bangkok. All 223 people aboard the plane were killed.

Previously, speculation had focused on a bomb. But the expert said "no evidence of any sort of explosive device" had been found so far.

Another aviation official agreed.

"We expected to see a larger area of debris," said Don Smith, regional manager for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, reached in Singapore. "If it had been an explosive device you would expect a larger area of debris."

A Thai aviation official who flew over the crash site said no shrapnel had been found on the plane or on bodies.

The Lauda Air flight was the first Boeing 767 to be lost in flight.

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Graphic battle scenes pose dilemma for networks: Iraq Media Coverage

Graphic battle scenes pose dilemma for networks

Chicago Sun-Times

March 24, 2003 | Peter Johnson

Between "tankcams" transmitting live reports from embedded reporters in the Persian Gulf and nifty 3-D studio graphics that show everything from details of a 2,000-pound bomb to a topographical view of Baghdad, viewers are seeing and feeling the war with Iraq unlike any other.

Sunday, as the ground war heated up with reports of more American casualties and U.S. soldiers being taken prisoner, news organizations were expecting more embedded journalists to begin filing from the heat of battle.

And after five days when the most vivid TV footage was primarily of bombs exploding in Baghdad, the specter of embedded correspondents in the thick of things raised the ante for news groups.

Nowhere was this more true than in the instant medium of TV, where what to show and when to show it can be a dicey call with ramifications.

That became apparent Sunday morning when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, making the rounds at all the Sunday talk shows, was talking to Bob Schieffer on CBS' "Face the Nation."

The network aired a few seconds of breaking news video from Al- Jazeera, purportedly showing American prisoners being held by Iraqis.

During a break off camera, CBS executives huddled with Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke and tentatively agreed not to show faces of the captives again until their relatives were contacted.

A few minutes later on CNN, Rumsfeld told Blitzer that it would be "unfortunate" if networks aired the footage. When Blitzer noted that airing it would let families at home know their loved ones were still alive, Rumsfeld said, "You could make that argument, if you wish." (As of midday Sunday, other networks had held off airing the video. Al-Jazeera later aired footage of American soldiers who appeared to have been executed.)

"Things are going to get a whole lot tougher from here on in," CBS News correspondent John Roberts said Sunday afternoon from Iraq, where he is with a battalion near An Nasiriyah, where the 11 U.S. prisoners reportedly were captured.

There is the possibility that embedded cameramen will show firefights between American and Iraqi soldiers on live TV, and that scenario brings with it a new set of ethical concerns for networks-- not the least of which is whether to show it.

"This is new territory for all of us," McGinnis said Sunday, noting that CBS News does not plan to show live video of, say, a soldier being wounded.

Then again, there's a risk that with all this technology, we could see someone die in a live firefight.

"It's going to get hairier from here on in," CNN's Walt Rogers said Sunday, especially as troops get closer to Baghdad. Just hours before, he said, four rounds of Iraqi 120mm shells had exploded 75 yards from him.

Of the embedding experiment, Rogers said he had no complaints and that his unit's commander had not prevented him in any way from reporting anything except his specific location, "which I'm sure the Iraqis know, anyway."

In Baghdad, Slate.com's Nate Thayer said the position of foreign journalists has become "increasingly tenuous."

Friday, he said that as he walked through the city, he and a photographer "were taken into what might be called protective custody and held for four hours. We were offered a choice between serving as human shields in government buildings or heading by car for the Iranian or Syrian border--which is impossible, since there are no roads, and incredibly unwise, since American forces might be bombing fleeing traffic. Eventually, we were returned to our hotel, with the warning that we could be expelled or drafted as unwilling shields at any time."

Cambodian peace may depend on UN troops

Cambodian peace may depend on UN troops

Chicago Sun-Times

Associated press

January 2, 1992

By Nate Thayer  

PHNOM PENH Cambodia could return to war if the United Nations does not send peacekeeping troops and administrators quickly to oversee the fragile peace accord, a U.S. congressman warned Wednesday.

"So far the peace agreement has succeeded in bringing an end to the fighting, but it could very easily fail if UN forces do not arrive soon," said Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.), who is on a congressional fact-finding mission to this country.

The Vietnam-installed government and three rebel groups signed a peace accord in October that created a Supreme National Council to work with the United Nations to administer the country until elections in 1993.

All the parties called Monday to speed up the deployment of 10,000 UN peacekeepers.

Officials said a void in political leadership since the peace plan was signed threatens to plunge the country back into conflict.

An inaugural meeting of the reconciliation council was aborted twice by mob violence and instability in the capital.

A crowd beat and nearly killed Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan on his arrival from 13 years of exile on Nov. 27, forcing him to flee the country. The mob was enraged by the Khmer Rouge killing of hundreds of thousands of people during its fanatical Communist rule in 1975-78.

Last month, anti-government riots left at least eight people dead and 16 others wounded.

The government sent troops to regain control of the streets and banned any demonstrations.

Khmer Rouge leader returns, is beaten by Cambodian mob

 

Khmer Rouge leader returns, is beaten by Cambodian mob

Chicago Sun-Times

November 27, 1991 | Nate Thayer

Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia An angry mob screaming "Dog!" and "Murderer!" today surged past police and beat a top leader of the Khmer Rouge, the Communist guerrilla group whose reign of terror in the 1970s left hundreds of thousands dead.

The government ordered in armored personnel carriers to evacuate Khieu Samphan, the right-hand man to top Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, as the crowd prepared to lynch him. Khieu Samphan and Son Sen, another Khmer Rouge leader, and their aides were flown back to Bangkok, Thailand.

Bleeding from the head and chest, Khieu Samphan cowered in a bedroom as security officers prevented him from being strung up by a wire tied to a ceiling fan.

"Please help me, please don't leave me," he pleaded, asking three foreign photographers to say in the room.

Only hours earlier, Khieu Samphan ended his exile and returned to Phnom Penh to take part in a UN-backed plan to end 13 years of civil war between the Khmer Rouge, its two non-Communist guerrilla allies and the government Vietnam installed after invading Cambodia in 1978.

The attack delayed what would have been the first meeting of a national reconciliation council and appeared to jeopardize a UN-brokered peace accord signed last month in Paris by all four warring factions.

The government, in a statement carried by its official news agency, said it remained fully committed to the peace pact. Under the accord, a Supreme National Council led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk would help pave the way for elections in 1993.

More than 10,000 angry demonstrators converged on the villa housing the Khmer Rouge delegation today after the 60-year-old Khieu Samphan's return. Khieu Samphan was one of the prime architects of the Khmer Rouge's murderous regime, which killed hundreds of thousands of people as the group tried to turn the country into a vast rural commune. Khieu Samphan is now the group's president.

After storming and ransacking the villa, the mob broke into the second-story room where Khieu Samphan was hiding. Reporters saw him huddled against a wall, wearing a steel helmet and bleeding profusely. He apparently had been struck by a rock.

As thousands of protesters ringed the house, six government armored personnel carriers moved into position outside. One backed into the front entranceway and Khieu Samphan, with several other members of his delegation, clambered onto the back of the vehicle.

Khmer Rouge leader returns, is beaten by Cambodian mob

Khmer Rouge leader returns, is beaten by Cambodian mob

Chicago Sun-Times

November 27, 1991 | Nate Thayer

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia An angry mob screaming "Dog!" and "Murderer!" today surged past police and beat a top leader of the Khmer Rouge, the Communist guerrilla group whose reign of terror in the 1970s left hundreds of thousands dead.

The government ordered in armored personnel carriers to evacuate Khieu Samphan, the right-hand man to top Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, as the crowd prepared to lynch him. Khieu Samphan and Son Sen, another Khmer Rouge leader, and their aides were flown back to Bangkok, Thailand.

Bleeding from the head and chest, Khieu Samphan cowered in a bedroom as security officers prevented him from being strung up by a wire tied to a ceiling fan.

"Please help me, please don't leave me," he pleaded, asking three foreign photographers to say in the room.

Only hours earlier, Khieu Samphan ended his exile and returned to Phnom Penh to take part in a UN-backed plan to end 13 years of civil war between the Khmer Rouge, its two non-Communist guerrilla allies and the government Vietnam installed after invading Cambodia in 1978.

The attack delayed what would have been the first meeting of a national reconciliation council and appeared to jeopardize a UN-brokered peace accord signed last month in Paris by all four warring factions.

The government, in a statement carried by its official news agency, said it remained fully committed to the peace pact. Under the accord, a Supreme National Council led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk would help pave the way for elections in 1993.

More than 10,000 angry demonstrators converged on the villa housing the Khmer Rouge delegation today after the 60-year-old Khieu Samphan's return. Khieu Samphan was one of the prime architects of the Khmer Rouge's murderous regime, which killed hundreds of thousands of people as the group tried to turn the country into a vast rural commune. Khieu Samphan is now the group's president.

After storming and ransacking the villa, the mob broke into the second-story room where Khieu Samphan was hiding. Reporters saw him huddled against a wall, wearing a steel helmet and bleeding profusely. He apparently had been struck by a rock.

As thousands of protesters ringed the house, six government armored personnel carriers moved into position outside. One backed into the front entranceway and Khieu Samphan, with several other members of his delegation, clambered onto the back of the vehicle.

Cambodians OK new step toward peace

Cambodians OK new step toward peace

Chicago Sun-Times

June 25, 1991

By Nate Thayer

Associated press

PATTAYA, Thailand Cambodia's warring factions moved another step toward peace Monday when they signed an agreement under which they would stop receiving foreign arms.

The accord also put in formal wording a truce declared Sunday between the Vietnam-installed government in Phnom Penh and the three guerrilla groups.

Despite the moves, the quest for a lasting end to the 12-year-old civil war faced major obstacles. Previous cease-fires have fallen apart, and the new pact left unresolved such issues as how to halt the combat and disarm the fighters.

"The declaration is one thing. The implementation is another," cautioned Prince Norodom Ranariddh, son of the resistance leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

The 12 members of the Supreme National Council, from the Cambodian government and guerrilla factions, signed the five-point pact on the first day of talks at this beach resort near Bangkok. The national council seeks to implement a United Nations Security Council peace plan drafted late last year. The talks have been mired by bickering over the role of the world body and other issues.

Under the peace plan as drafted, the UN would be extensively involved in Cambodia's administration and military affairs before elections.

The rebels have accepted the plan, but the Cambodian government has rejected demobilization before elections are held and is demanding measures to prevent any takeover attempt by Communist Khmer Rouge rebels.

Sihanouk denounced Prime Minister Hun Sen's reservations about the peace proposal. Sihanouk said a UN representative told him the UN Security Council would not monitor the truce or other agreements unless the entire plan was accepted.

"Sihanouk is putting the squeeze on Hun Sen," one diplomat said, on condition of anonymity. "He knows that Hun Sen knows you cannot have a cease-fire and cessation of arms without the UN plan."

The Supreme National Council said Monday it would "implement the unlimited cease-fire and undertake to stop receiving foreign military aid as from 24th June, 1991." Sihanouk is to direct future meetings of the council and lead a delegation to the UN.

Miners risk all for Cambodia rubies

Chicago Sun-Times

January 27, 1991 | Nate Thayer

Associated Press

BORAI, Thailand Thousands of fortune hunters risk land mines and malaria digging for rubies in the war zones of guerrilla-controlled western Cambodia.

Ruby fever has gripped this border town. Miners tell their adventures in bustling poolrooms and bars.

Lucky miners make fortunes, as in the gold rushes of the American West in the 19th century. They emerge from the jungle with pockets full of rubies.

Wutipong Sophapong, owner of a gas station in Borai, sat on his back porch fondling several hundred gems - dug from his yard in a single day, he said.

The Khmer Rouge captured the area east of Borai in 1989 and opened the border to Thai miners to help finance its war with Cambodia's Vietnam-sponsored government.

About 50,000 miners a month trek over the Ban Thad Mountains into the Cambodian jungles, according to Thai authorities. They say hundreds have died there, about one-third return with deadly cerebral malaria and others lose limbs to land mines.

Despite the risks, newcomers arrive every day.

"Over this mountain a few days' walk, you just stick your hand in the ground and the dirt is filled with red jewels," a miner said, his eyes sparkling while he waited to be checked for malaria.

The Khmer Rouge, who abolished money and all forms of private enterprise during their brutal 3 1/2 years in power, now oversee a sophisticated mining operation that miners and provincial officials say brings them millions of dollars a month.

Each miner pays the equivalent of $60 for access to the region and can keep whatever he finds. Officials say the windfall may allow the Khmer Rouge to buy weapons on the black market if supplies dry up from China, which is among the world powers searching for a peace formula in Cambodia.

Borai District officials estimate that more than 100 million baht ($4 million) change hands every day in deals over rubies.

"There are a lot of 3 or 4 million baht stones," the district chief of Borai said. "The most valuable one so far went for 24 million baht," about $1 million.

Less than a yard from where Wutipong sat on his back porch, the yard disappeared into a 100-foot-deep hole the size of a football field. The hole was filled with pumps, workers and two cranes worth $280,000 each, which the gas station owner bought after striking it rich a few months ago.

"There is an old canal under my house and we found rubies on both sides, so we are going to tear down the house in a few weeks," he said.