Word: khmer
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...next evening, after telling his family that he was going for a stroll, Khieu disappeared, fading into the jungle and joining the fledgling Khmer Rouge. Now, the head of a victorious army, Samphan can return to Phnom-Penh master of all Cambodia...
...advantage enjoyed by the Khmer Rouge is its apparent popularity among the general public, possibly because of relief and gratitude that the war is finally over. That reservoir of good will could quickly dry up, however, if the new rulers launch widespread reprisals or move quickly to create a harsh, regimented state. Addressing himself to these potential pitfalls, Khmer Rouge Politburo Member Chau Seng assured a Paris press conference last week that while "there will be some trials in Phnom-Penh, we will judge in a humane way." The new regime will in turn be judged-by its own citizens...
...nationalist, Cambodian Marxist or doctrinaire Communist. What is already clear, however, is that Khieu Samphan, 43, will probably wield the most power in the new regime. During the war he was Deputy Premier to Prince Norodom Sihanouk as well as Minister of Defense and commander in chief of the Khmer Rouge fighting forces. TIME'S Stephen Heder interviewed Samphan's younger brother Khieu Seng Kim in Phnom-Penh early this month and cabled this profile of the new Cambodian leader...
...Sihanouk appointed him Under Secretary of State for Commerce. Samphan's reason for accepting, according to younger brother Khieu Seng Kim: "From the Cabinet, he felt he could protect his leftist group." Samphan soon found himself courted by wealthy businessmen. The brother recalls: "One day a Sino-Khmer merchant came to our house with a package for him. It was full of money. Later at dinner, he said that 'if you take money from the capitalists, you have to work for them. Then you're a traitor to the people because the capitalists are the enemies...
...victorious Khmer Rouge forces closed in on Phnom-Penh last week, 17 or so foreign journalists passed up the last evacuation flight, electing instead to cover the fall of the capital. It was a perilous decision. There were reports that Khmer Rouge troops had vowed to kill any Americans they found; Chau Seng, a Khmer Rouge Politburo member in Paris, offered only an opaque promise that once the city was taken "competent authorities will examine [the journalists'] cases" before deciding their fate...