Dancing in Shadows: Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge, and the United Nations in Cambodia 0742555525, 0742555526

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Dancing in Shadows

Asian Voices A Subseries of Asian/ Pacific Perspectives Series Editor: Mark Selden

Identity alld I~esistallce ill Okinawa by Matthew Alden Tales of Tibet: Sky Burials, Prayer Wheels, alld WilJd Horses edited and translated by Herbert Batt, foreword by Tsering Shakya Voicillg COllcems: COII/ell/porary Cllillese Criticallll'luiry edited by Gloria Davies, conclusion by Gercmie Barme Peasants, Rebels, \Vomen, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan by Mikiso Hane Comfort Woman: A Filipilla's Slory of Prostitutioll alld Slavery ul/der tile japallese Military by Maria Rosa Henson, introduction by Yuki Tanaka japan's Past, japan's Future: Olle Historian's Odyssey by Ienaga Saburo, tra nslated and introduced by Richard H. Minear Sisters amI Lovers: Womell alld Desire ill Bali by Megan Jennaway Moral Politics ill a SOlltll Cllillese Village: !?espo/lSibility, !?eciprocily, alld l~esisf(lIIce by Hok Bun Ku Queer japan from Ihe Pacific War to tile II/Iemet Age by Mark McLelland Behilld the Silellce: Chiflese Voices 011 AbortiOIl by Nie Jing-Bao Rowillg ,he Eternal Sell: Tile Life of a Millamata Fisiremu1IJ by Oiwa Keibo, narrated by Ogata Masato, translated by Karen Col1iganTaylor GrolVillg Up UlltotlChable ill Illdia: A Dalit Autobiography by Vas•.1I1! Moon, translated by Gail Omwdt, introduction by Eleanor Zelliot exodus to Nortll Korea: Shadows frail! japtw's Cold War by lcssa Morris-Suzuki ned Is Not the Dilly Color: Contemporary Chillese Fictioll all Love and Sex beIlVew WOlllell, Collectetl Stories ed ited by Patricia Sieber SlVeet alld SOllr: Life- Worlds of Taipei Womell Entreprenellrs by Scott Simon Dear General MacArthur: Letters from the japallese dllrillg the Americall Occupm/oil by Sodei Rinjiro, edited by John lunkerman, translated by Shizue Matsuda, foreword by John W. Dower A Thollsalld Miles of Dreams: The jOllrneys ofTlVo C/,illese Sisters by Sasha Su-Ling Weiland Unbroken Spirits: NineteCII \'ears ill SOIlfi, Korea's Glllag by Suh Sung, translated by Jean Inglis, foreword by James Pala is

Dancing in Shadows Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge, and the United Nations in Cambodia BENNY WIDYONO

ROWMAN & LITrLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lal//rmn • Boulder' New York· 1;)(01110 • Plymouth, UK

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littk-field Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes I~oulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright

e 200s by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

All rights resenwi. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, ehxtronic, mechanical, photocopy~ ing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Li brary of CQngress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Widyono, Benny, 1936Dancing in shadows: Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge, and the United Nations in Cambodia I Benny Widyono. p. ern. - (Asian voices) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN- 13: 97S-0-7425-5552-5 (doth: alk. paper) ISBN· IO: 0-7425-5552-6 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN~13: 97S·0-7425·5553·2 (pbk.: alk. paper) [SBN-IO: 0·7425·5553-4 (pbk.: alk. paper) I. Cambodia-Politics and government-1979- 2. United Nations-Cambodia. 3. Widyono, Benny, 1936· 4. Party of Democratic Kampuchea. 5. Norodom Sihanouk, Prince, 1922· L Title. D55S4.SWS3 200S 959.604f3 22 2007020165 Printed in the United States of America

@TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSIfNISO Z39.48·1992.

For my wife, Francisca, and my children, Martin, Ron, Monique, and Dan

A scholar's highest obligation, the phrase had it in the 1960s, was to speak truth to power. It turned out. however, that truth was a tragically relative term in the Cold War era. Many Americans were sent to die by the lens of thousands, while Asians, Latin Americans, and Africans were sentenced to death by the millions because U.S. officials disagreed with foreign leaders about what each believed was true in terms of the needs of their own national i nterests. - Walter LaFeber in (/ foreword to George MeT Kahil!, Southeast Asia: A Testament

Contents

List of Illustrations

IX

Glossary ofAbbreviations and Terms

XI

Fo reword by Ben Kiernan Preface Acknowledgments

XV Il XXV Il XXXI

Part I: The View from t he Field, 1992-1993

When th e World " Invade d" Cam bo d ia

3

2

A Glim pse into the Past

23

3

The Intricat e Dance of Govern ance

41

4

We Stared at Each Other and I Blinked

55

5

The Khmer Rouge Derail Demobilization

75

6

T he Rocky Road to Elect ion s

95

7

A Vote for Peace?

109

Part II: A UN Envoy in Phnom Penh, 1994-1997 8

Not Eno ugh Actors for the Play

137

9

The King Reign s but Do es No t Rule

151

A Mysteri ous Co up Atte m pt

171

10

vii

CONTENTS

Vlll

11

Is There an Asian Model for Development?

189

12

A Puppet Prime Minister?

211

13

Toward a Climax

231

14

The Fina l Showdow n

253

Epilogue

275

Chronology

289

Append ix 1 Deployment of UNTAC

297

Appendix 2 The Roya l Government of Cambodia, November 1993

299

Bibliography

30 1

Index

31 1

Abo ut the Author

323

List of Illustrations

PHOTOS l.l

1.2 1.3 3.1

4.1

4.2 4.3 5. 1 5.2 6.1 7.1

Mine victim in wheelchair: an everyday scene during UNTAC times. UNTAC staffer fixing a safety reflector on a cydo. A giant Soviet-made MI-26 helicopter finally took me and my vehicle to Siem Reap. The two "rulers" of Cambodia during UNTAC: Akashi, head of UNTAC, and Sihanouk, head of SNC. Akashi addresses monthly meeting of provincial directors in Phnom Penh. To his left is Gerard Porcdl, director of Civil Administration. Listening to Radio UNTAC was a favorite pastime everywhere in Cambodia. An UNTAC Information Education Team travels by boat to a Cambodian island to publicize the elections. Soldiers of the Cambodian People's Armed Forces (C PAF), being demobilized. UN M ilitary Observer from the United States plays wi th baby from the Krung-Brau tribe. Khmer Rouge soldier in a zone controlled by the faction. Cambodians returning from refugee camps in Thailand.

10 13

14 42

60 69 69 78 81 99 110

"

LIST

7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 8.1 9.1

I I. 1 13.1 14.1

OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Cambodian proud ly displays his registration card against background of UNTAC billboard on the elections. UN vehicles passing beneath ,\ banner publicizing elections in Phnom Penh. Crowds gathering ncar voting booth in Prey Veng province. A woman receiving her ballot from UNTAC electoral stafT. A UN stafT member cOllnting the votcs. Cambodians were excluded from participating in the counting process. A typical Saturday afternoon family outing in the new Cambodia. My first audience with the king. Death threat frolll the Khmer Rouge delivered to my office by a Khmer Rouge messenger. Hu n Sen, left, meeting leng Sary in Pailin. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, left, talks with Ranariddh, former prime minister and the new president of the National Assembly, on 11uman Rights day, 10 December 1998.

114 116 119 120 122 141 159 195 234

268

MAPS

l.l

3.1 4.1 5.1 7.1 7.2

Cambodia at the time of my arrival in March 1992. Administrative map of Siem Reap province showing population by dist ricts. Deployment of UNTAC military for cantonment and demobilization. Military deployment for electoral support after demobilization failed. Cambod ia repatriation; final destination of returnees. Results of UNTAC elections: Distribution of seats in the Constituen t Assembly.

7 45 62 80 112 123

TABLES

5.1 7.1

Troop strength of the four armies as reported to the United Nations. Cambodian 1993 election results by party.

76 127

Glossary of Abbreviations and Terms

ADB

Asian Development Bank.

Angkar

This was the official name of tbe authority in power under the Khmer Rouge. It simply means Organization.

ANKI

Armee National pour un Kampuchea Independent (Nation:)l Army for an Independent Kampuchea). Formerly known as ANS.

ANS

Armec National Sihanoukienne, or Sihanouk's National

A5EAN

Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Hangbatt

Bangladesh battalion in UNTAC.

I~LDP

Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party. The political party of

CDC

Cambodian Development Council. The body dealing

CDCF

with foreign aid and fOT{:ign investment. Cambodian Development Cooperation Forum, a Cam-

Army. Changed its name in 1990 to ANKI.

the KPNL F.

bodian government body established in 2007 to coordinate the annual donors meetings, replacing the CG . See

CG. CG

Consultative Group. An annLlal meeting o rganized by the World Bank to coordinate ;urious Singapore-owned Mi Casa apartment building erected in its place. With the boom in tourism in posl-UNTAC Cambodia, the luxurious Cambodiana now has many competitors in the four-star category, including the refurbished colonial-era Hotel Ie Royal, which played an important role in the life of journalists during the Lon Nol period, as depicted in the movie TI,e Killing Fields. 9. ASEAN at the time consisted of six countries: Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

10. Unpublished communication from Andy Flatt, director of Statistics, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, "T;lble on Per Capita CDI' in Cambodia and Thailand," extracted and processed from UN, ECAFE, Srllrisrim/ Yearbook for Asia and the Far Emr. Mr. Flatl cautioned about the difficulties of making such comparisons, including the usc of the exchange rates employed b)' ECAFE: the Cambodian riel was fixed at thirty-fi\'e to the U.s. dollar, whereas the Thai Baht was floating.

WHEN THE WORLD -INV"OEO- C"MBOOIA

21

11. Michel lgout, PhllOIll Pelill Theil fllld Now, Bangkok: White Lotus, 1993, 147. 12. The 15,9% soldiers came from thirty-four countries, whe reas the 3,359 civilian police came from thirty-two countries. Sec United Nations, The UllilCd NlIIiolls ill Cmll/w(/in, New York, 1995, 27. l-Iereinafter referred to as the B/ilc Book. 13. The problem of stolen cars from Thailand was tackled in 2003 when Cambodia vowed to arrest the owners of right-hand-driven cars who could not provide ownership documents. Yuwadee Tunyasari, UAu tomobile Thefl," Butlgkok POSI, 24 May 2003. 14. Chapters VI and VI[ refer to chapters in the Charter of the United Nations. [5. When I returned to Cambodia in January 2005, regular buses, air-conditioned ones for a $6 fare and non-air-conditioned ones for $4, plied this road regularly, full of Western and Japanese backpackers and NCP workers exploring Cambodia, as the Lonely Planet travel book series had finally discovered one of the most closely guarded secrets in Southeast Asia. 16. For details of UNTAC's deployment, please see appendix I. 17. There was a controversy, which was ne\'er resolved in Phnom Penh, whether as provincial "governor" I was a little Akashi, the chief administrator of UNTAC, in Siem Reap, or a little Porcell, the director of Civil Administration. Sec chapter 4 on t his conI rove rsy. 18. For details see the second part of appendix I. 19. Sanderson was officially appoin ted UNTAC force commander on 9 March 1992, two days before deploying to Cambodia. However, he had already been involved in the planning of the UNTAC mission earlier in New York, funded by the Australian government, but without an official position. A military engineer, he had seen active service in East Malaysia in 1966 and South Vietnam in 1970-1971. See Peter Bartu, ~The Fifth Faction: The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia 1991-93," PhD dissertation, Monash University, 1998, 1. 20. Janet E. Heininger, Peacekeeping ill T"1II5ilioll; The Vlliled NII/iollS ill Cambodia, New York: The Twentieth Centur y Fund Press, 1994,37. 21. Countries that played a major role in the negotiations leading to the Paris Agreements included the five permanent members of the Security Council- the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and China-and Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand.

22

C H AP T ER

22. Sec for instance (proceedings of a S{,lllinar in Singapore on UNTAC which [ attended), Nasscrine Azimi, ed., The UN Tmllsitiollal Alilhority ill Cnmbodi(l ( UNTAC), Debriefing ami Lessons, London: Kluwer International, 1996, 17. 23. They included, among others, Stephen Heder, Judith Ledgerwood, Christophe Pcschoux, Vladimir $ourkov, Ali KiS lanov, Penny Edwards, Jay Jordan, Kate Frieson, and John Marston . Many later became the small core of Cambodian experts in the academic world in the English-speaking West to which I myself now belong.

24. UN document 5/24578, Second Progress Report of Ihe SecrclIlry-Gencral 011 UNTAC, 21 September 1992. 25. UN document 5/24578,6. 26. UN document A/46/903, Fill/weillg of the Ullited Na/iollS Advance Mission in

Cmnvo(/ia alld Pifl(lIIcillg of the United Nlltiolls TmllsitiolJili Authority in Cmllvotlia, 38. This is an important document as it contains the entire deployment plan of VNTAC by personnel and finance . Together with the UNTAC Hmrdvook, it provid('s an overview of the plan ning of VNTAC. Hereinafter cited as UNTAC Piamrillg IIl1d

Fillallcillg. 27. UN document A/46/903, UNTAC Plmrnillg (11111 Fimlllcillg, 46. 28. UN document A/46/903, 46.

1

A Glimpse into the Past

AI this point I feel a strong urge to interrupt my memoir by providing an ae· cou nt of Cambodia's reccnt horrendous past to help both the readers and my· self to better understand the even ts [ saw unfolding before my eyes. THREE PHASES IN CAMBODIA'S TRAGEDY

The catastrophic twenty yC