I forwarded a copy of the above article to my friend Roger who lives and works in Thailand and this was his response ... I thought it might be of interest to the list. ---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ---------------- Date: 11/02 9:13 AM Received: 11/02 10:39 AM From: Roger Adams, rogera@mozart.inet.co.th To: Brian B. Riley, brianbr@together.net
Brian B. Riley wrote:
I came across this piece the other day and am rereading it for the fourth or fifth time. "Food for thought" doesn't even begin to describe it in my rarely very humble opinion. (snip) Pol Pot Speaks
On Oct. 16 Nate Thayer, an American correspondent for the weekly Far Eastern Economic Review, conducted the first known interview since 1979 with Cambodian Communist Pol Pot. The New York Times printed excerpts Oct. 23.
Brian,
Nate is actually based in Bangkok and I have met him quite a few times in one of my favourite watering holes. I was there last Friday (31st Oct) and was told that he had gone back to Phnom Penh to confront Hun Sen for calling him a liar and questioning the validity of his interview with Pol Pot. Nate apparently got very upset at this so he decided to sort it out. All of us who know him feel that he is risking his life by going back to Cambodia at this time. The situation there is very unstable and life is very cheap. We all hope he makes it back safely.
Just for some background information, Nate is a very intense and proud fellow who takes his profession very seriously indeed. He is the only journalist to have been able to get close enough to Pol Pot (by close, I mean in very near proximity) to be able to watch and film him being tried by his fellow commanders and to interview him. A very facinating chap and very likeable. I am sure you came across some of these types during the Vietnam War.
Will keep you posted.
Roger
----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- Brian B. Riley --> http://www.macconnect.com/~brianbr For PGP Keys <mailto:brianbr@together.net?subject=Get%20PGP%20Key> "Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men." -- Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead (1943)