François Ponchaud

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François Ponchaud, 2017

François Ponchaud (born February 8, 1939 in Sallanches , Haute-Savoie ) is a French Catholic priest , author and Cambodia connoisseur. His book Cambodge année zéro , published in Paris in 1977, describes the takeover of power by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and their system of rule in a comprehensive and detailed manner and, based on the testimony contained therein, is one of the earliest sources for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.

youth

Ponchaud was born the seventh of twelve children. His father was a farmer and general councilor of the Haute-Savoie department, politically involved in the Mouvement républicain populaire . After 28 months of military service as a paratrooper in Algeria , Ponchaud joined the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris (MEP), studied theology at the Gregorian and was then sent to Cambodia.

Priest in Cambodia

Ponchaud arrived in Prince Sihanouk's Cambodia on November 4, 1965 . From 1969 he witnessed the (area) bombing ordered by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger as part of Operation MENU and the Operation Freedom Deal and, from 1970, the repressive regime of General Lon Nol .

On April 17, 1975, he was an eyewitness to the conquest of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent forced evacuation of the approximately 2.5 million city dwellers to the countryside. Together with other foreigners who were able to get to safety on the premises of the French embassy, ​​he had to leave Cambodia on May 6, 1975 in a convoy escorted by the Khmer Rouge to the Thai border. In the following months he collected reports from witnesses who had escaped from Cambodia in refugee camps along the Cambodian-Thai border and analyzed the broadcasts on Radio Phnom Penh. In 1977 he published his book Cambodge année zéro in Paris on this basis . In this he describes in detail the eviction of Phnom Penh, the deportations in the rest of the country, the murder of soldiers and functionaries of the Lon-Nol regime, the "intellectuals", members of the middle classes and other unpopular population groups (e.g. long-haired) , the system of forced labor, the famines and other aspects of the regime of terror of the Khmer Rouge, including the establishment of torture prisons such as Tuol Sleng . As a result, Noam Chomsky , among others, accused him of not understanding the Khmer Rouge properly. For many left French intellectuals, however, his work contributed to a re-evaluation of the Khmer Rouge.

After Vietnamese troops marched into Phnom Penh on January 19, 1979, he appealed in Le Monde to Vietnam and Thailand to open Cambodia to international aid and foreign observers, as well as to President François Mitterrand in 1985 to unequivocally oppose their brutal and assimilatory behavior To express occupying power.

In the 1980s, Ponchaud founded Espace Cambodge in Paris , an institution designed to help Cambodians integrate into France.

He returned to Cambodia in 1993 and has been living there continuously ever since. In the following years he translated the Bible into the Khmer language together with five Cambodian employees . In 1994 he founded the Cambodian Catholic Cultural Center in Phnom Penh to make it easier for foreigners to learn the Khmer language.

Ponchaud is currently campaigning for the rights of the Cambodian rural population against land grabbing as a result of concessions being granted to foreign companies.

Witness before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

On April 9, 10 and 11, 2013, Ponchaud appeared before the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as a witness in the "case 002/01", which involved the eviction of Phnom Penh immediately after April 17, 1975, the others Population Movements ”from September 1975 and the murder of Lon-Nol soldiers in Pursat province . Before the tribunal, he painted the picture of the Khmer Rouge, a movement that emerged under the corrupt rule of Sihanouk and survived the repressive Lon Nol regime, only to get worse in the end, despite the originally louder intentions of some of its high-ranking leaders, such as Khieu Samphan and becoming more barbaric than either.

Prior to this, Ponchaud had fundamentally doubted the legitimacy of a Khmer Rouge tribunal in which international judges selected by the United Nations are involved, since the United Nations under pressure from China , the United States and Thailand ran from 1975 to 1991, i.e. for 16 years who would have supported the Khmer Rouge even though they knew about their crimes.

The tribunal is also doubtful because too many of the Cambodians currently in power were entangled in the Khmer Rouge system and the “leaders of the second tier” who actually carried out the genocide at the time were not on trial.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ God's paratrooper fires shots. In: Phnom Penh Post. March 23, 2007. Accessed March 21, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b c d Kyra Dupont: An unorthodox catholic. Phnom Penh Post, January 24, 1997. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  3. ↑ Stuart White: Ponchaud testifies at the KRT. Phnom Penh Post. April 10, 2013. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  4. ↑ a b c d Phelim Kyne: A witness to the horror looks back. . Phnom Penh Post, April 14, 2000. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  5. ↑ UN APPEL À L'AIDE INTERNATIONAL. Le Monde , December 18, 1979. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  6. ↑ UN APPEL DE PERSONNALITÉS FRANÇAISES A M. MITTERRAND. Le Monde , July 5, 1985. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  7. ↑ a b c Year Zero author on justice. Phnom Penh Post, April 11, 2013. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
  8. ↑ Case 002 severed and nuon chea found fit stand trial. eccc.gov.kh, accessed February 14, 2014.
  9. ^ Mary Koslovski: Ghost Country ”: Francois Ponchaud's Testimony Continues. Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, April 10, 2013. Retrieved March 21, 2014.

literature

  • Cambodge année zéro. Julliard Verlag, 1977, ISBN 2-260-00055-X
  • Cambodia: Year Zero. Henry Holt & Co., 1978, ISBN 978-0030403064
  • La cathédrale de la rizière, 450 ans d'histoire de l'eglise au Cambodge. Fayard Verlag, 1990, ISBN 2866790693
  • Dominique Luken-Roze: Cambodge: Vers de nouvelles tragédies? Éditions L'Harmattan, 2005, ISBN 2747592391
  • F. Strazzari: Buddha e Cristo. Le due salvezze. EDB, 2005, ISBN 8810604202
  • Sabine Trannin: Les ONG occidentales au Cambodge: La réalité derrière le mythe. Éditions L'Harmattan, 2005, ISBN 2747581020
  • Une Brève Histoire du Cambodge. Éditions Siloë, 2007, ISBN 9782842314170
  • Dane Cuypers: L'impertinent du Cambodge - Entretiens. Magellan et Cie., 2013, ISBN 2350742385
personal data
SURNAME Ponchaud, François
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Catholic priest, author and Cambodia connoisseur
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Sallanches , France