Pol Pot men tell of killing

Press, 2 April 1979, Page 9

Pol Pot men tell of killing

NZPA-Reuter East Berlin The East German Communist party daily, "Neues Deutschland” has carried interviews with two Kampucheans who said they had carried out mass executions for the regime of Mr Pol Pot, now ousted. The two men told a correspondent of the newspaper in Phnom Penh, the Kampuchean capital, they at first had killed soldiers and officials of the proAmerican regime of Lon Nol, which Khmer Rouge forces overthrew in 1975. They had later been ordered to murder villagers and evacuated townspeople including women and children. The men, named as Men Khuon, aged 28, and Xui Mon, aged 32, said they had not known the rea-

sons for the executions and had obeyed orders out of fear of being killed themselves. Men Khuon told the “Neues Deutschland” reporter that he had killed more than 2000 people. Asked how, he replied: “With iron bars, axes, hammers, hoes and spades, whatever was available.” The ousted pro-Peking regime has been accused by the new Vietnamesebacked Government of wiping out up to three million Kampucheans after driving them out of the cities in 1975. The East German journalist said he had interviewed the two soldiers in a Phnom Penh jail. He said they would be brought to trial, and indicated that they themselves now faced execution.