It was on the recommendation of a veteran journalist in Bangkok that author and historian Stephen Heder, now 60, came to Cambodia in May of 1973 as an eager Cornell graduate keen to cut his teeth in the world of journalism.
The scene in Hong Kong was too competitive, he told the Khmer Rouge tribunal on Thursday, while there was nothing particularly captivating happening in Thailand. Over the border, however, was “a story that virtually writes itself”—U.S. Congress had passed a law ordering the cessation of aerial bombardments by August of that year, and big-shot journalists descended upon Cambodia to tell it.
“There was a widespread expectation that as soon as the American bombing ended, the Khmer Rouge would march into Phnom Penh and the Khmer Republic regime would collapse.”
As history would have it, the Khmer Rouge would not take Phnom Penh until April 17, 1975. When it became clear that the story would take longer to unfold, many of the journalists who had flown in left.
But Mr. Heder stayed put, settling for a time in Phnom Penh, where he became adept at constructing bunkers sturdy enough to withstand the force of shelling from Khmer Rouge rockets that rained down in an “indiscriminate” fashion upon the city.
“It was certainly scary to be under shell fire,” he said. “I had to dig a bunker under my house. When the rockets came in from the east, one could sit on the waterfront and feel them being fired and see them coming in over our heads and landing in the center of town; around Monorom, people were being killed.”
One of the highest-fatality attacks occurred when rockets landed on a street popular with vendors selling gas canisters.
“The social and economic situation in the city was very fraught and tense,” Mr. Heder continued. “There were lots of people from the countryside in Phnom Penh. The political situation was primarily anti-government, particularly among students. A classic revolutionary situation.”
By 1975, Mr. Heder was using the Foreign Broadcast Information Service to read the transcripts of radio broadcasts made by the likes of Khieu Samphan, who at one point appealed to Lon Nol officers—other than the seven “super traitors” sought for execution—to come forward and join the Sihanouk loyalists.
Senior Assistant Prosecutor Keith Raynor quoted from a text written by Mr. Heder that described the offer as a “calculated abuse of trust,” because so many former Lon Nol supporters were sent to their deaths after the Khmer Rouge took hold.
He also told the court of a 1980 interview he conducted with Khieu Samphan, during which he questioned the accused about the purges of high-ranking cadre.
“I knew I had ambushed the man. He wasn’t prepared for this line of questioning, particularly because the line of questioning was fairly detailed and reflected the knowledge I already had of the structure and organization of the party and purge process,” he said.
“It was confrontational and emotional on both sides.”
Mr. Heder’s testimony continues Monday.
