A 12 Thursday, Slay 8,1975 THE WASHINGTON POST

WXPoct MAY F 1975 Witness to a Nation's Death Distraught Premier Sought Newsman's Advice By Jean-Jacques Cazeaux Agence Prance-Presse Long Boret looked every , May 7—Long inch a beaten man. He low- ered his head, as if to beg ready at the gates of Phnom Boret, the last premier of Penh. the Cambodian Republic, my pardon for the trouble spoke in hushed tones as we he was causing by asking The question was no walked together from the me to come to see him. longer bne of "proposing sitting room to the dining Then he admitted to me that any sort of political solu- room. "I asked you to come all was lost for him. tion" but one of surrender. here so that you could tell As one of the seven It was a time to accept real- me..." "super-traitors" condemned ity. He fell silent for a few to die by the , Perhaps, I suggested, this moments. "... What I there was noting that could was not the moment to men- should do." , be saved "except, assuredly, tion the "last resolution of It was 11 p.m. on April 15. many human lives." He told the General Assembly of the Only on that day did Long me he was ready to do any- United Nations" (in which Boret, who had flown back thing. the government to an almost-certain death in He was ready to leave: not kept 's seat at the seven days ear- to save himself, for now he United Nations and in which lier from a safe exile with hoped for death, but to pre- the assembly called for ne- former President Lon Nol, vent others from dying. gotiations between the two realize for the first time The monologue was a pa- warring factions). that everything was coming thetic one as he laid bare Besides, I said, it was al- apart. his desperation. Nobody at ready too late for such The fighting fronts were the table touched the tradi- hopes. The time was 1 a.m. crumbling everywhere and tional Cambodian dishes. In- on April 16. the Khmer Rouge were al- stead, each watched for any The exhausted vice pre- ready in the outskirts of the sign of a reaction from me. mier, disheartened by this, capital. Desperately, the It was close to midnight. left us and went over to a Cambodian premier sought Then the premier drew a corner of the reception any kind of honorable way typewritten sheet of paper out—for he still feared the room to sleep. Long Boret from a green folder and and I continued our discus- power of some government handed it to me, asking my generals determined to fight sion. opinion of his latest appeal At 1:30, he decided to re- to the end. for peace. He said it "must Long Boret had known me write his text, adding a deci- for four years. He asked me be sent quickly to Peking." sion to declare Phnom Penh to come to see him. For the The text he handed to me an open city. next 48 hours, I was an eye- seemed to bear no relation This was tantamount to witness to the distintegra- to the situation. To me, unconditional surrender. A tion and death of the Cam- there seemed nothing that paragraph then had to be bodian republic. could suggest that there was added dealing with an im- When I reached the pre- any question of these lost mediate ' transfer of pow- mier's official residence, a men conducting any sort of ers" after the capitulation. bodyguard sat hunched over negotiations with Prince No- Long Boret carefully re- a telephone in the main re- rodom Sihanouk in Peking wrote his message. Then he ception room and an elderly or with the Khmer Rouge al- asked for the last time ex- lady sat in a armchair. A actly what the term "open vice premier smile& wanly city" meant and said he did as I entered. not command the authority Long Boret offered a to order a unilateral cease- drink. All the others slipped fire and to order the troops away silently. back to their barracks. The preliminaries take a It was 2 a.m. when the long time to dispose of in premier, acting on my sug- Asia. It was almost two gestion, summoned his min- hours later, at the moment isters to him one by one. I we were invited to the din- excused myself, pleading ex- ner table, that the reasons haustion, and was driven for the premier's call to me were made clear. back to my hotel. Four hours later the tele- late and that it no longer Prince Sihanouk had sent phone rang again. Long meant anything. no reply. Boret told me the text had At 3 p.m. the text of the Reports from the front undergone some changes message was tapped out in came pouring in, confirming and there was now no men- Morse code over the radio the collapse of the regime. tion of the decision to make of the International Com- It was 1 a.m. on April 17 Phnom Penh an open city mittee of the Red Cross. It Within an hour many of "because my generals will went to Geneva to be sent the generals had disap- not hear of anything to do on to Peking by the Swiss with unconditional surren- peared from the headquar- Foreign Ministry. ters. The next clay, we dis- der." The omission, as he put it From 4 p.m. on, the tele- covered that they had fled to me, seemed no more than phone in the Phnom Hotel without so much as a by- a minor detail to him. But it rang repeatedly to ask your-leave. Their sudden wiped out all hopes—if whether "any reply has discovery of the naked truth there had been any in the come over the AFP of the situation made them first place—that the appeal teleprinter?" forget their dignity. would be heeded by the Until that moment, Long But Long Boret refused to other side. Boret had asked me not to go. He was one of those I went to the premier's of- inform my agency of the who, like former. Prince Si- fice, accompanied by a U.N. message in order to head off sowath Sirik Matak, Prince official and the head of the any reaction by army head- Sihanouk's cousin and one International Red Cross mis- quarters "which must re- of the main plotters of his sion in Cambodia, who had main in ignorance of a per- overthrow in 1970, were will- also been summoned by sonal initiative on my part ing to admit that they had Long Boret. which could be judged to be lost a war but not their Long Boret reread his defeatist." honor. message. "It really cannot Now, however, he seemed Twelve hours later when say anything more . . . be- anxious to give it full pub- Phnom Penh had been cap- cause of the generals." It licity. He felt it necessary to tured, Long Beret went in was 11 a.m. and he wanted lay out the main points of person to hand over power to sign the text. his message to me. to the new authorities, al- I reminded him that he Long Boret sent his car to ready installed at the infor- did not have the constitu- pick me up after I had sent mation ministry. tional power to sign the doc- news of the appeal to Paris. Seeing me there, he took ument. Only the head of I stayed with him at army my hand and held it for a state enjoyed such power. headquarters until late in long time. "Thank-you, Long Boret agreed. He the night. thank-you, thank-you," he summoned a metting of tht repeated. Supreme Council formed af- At 9 p.m. he turned to me. ter Lon Nol's departure. "It is hardly 48 hours since Then he learned that the It was almost 2:30 p.m. be- you said it would last two 30,000 government soldiers fore Long Boret reappeared. days. I think you were defending Phnom Penh had The signature of the acting right." thrown down their arms to president of the republic, Throughout the evening, surrender to about 200 men Gen. Sak Suthsakhan, was the field telephones rang led by Hem Keth Dara, a on the bottom of the paper. and rang. The news was maverick "general" of 29 But everyone knew by now worse and worse. who was not even part of the Khmer Rouge: that the message was too Some of the ministers acted stunned, asking what Long Boret lowered his head once again until his they ought to do: flee or do chin rested on the sports the honorable thing by stay- shirt he had worn for the ing to the end. previous three days. By that time, all had ac- "I don't understand it," he cepted defeat and knew that said.