I have read the lengthy articles you wrote for the Daily Mirror on September 12 and 13 attacking the government of Democratic Kampuchea led by Pol Pot. You repeat many of the lies invented by Father Ponchard in his infamous book Cambodia Year Zero. You even use the same phrase "Year Zero" repeatedly. You really should have taken the trouble to read the works of well-known academics and opponents of US aggression in Southeast Asia, such as Naom Chomsky, Jan Myrdal, and Malcolm Caldwell. Such authors have completely discredited the lies spread by Cambodia Year Zero and other books and articles written after the liberation of Kampuchea from US imperialism and its puppet Lon Nol.

These works were part of a massive campaign by U.S. imperialism to discredit the new government of Democratic Kampuchea. Ponchard's book was part of this smear campaign. He too claimed that there were widespread massacres, etc. But of the 94 witnesses he quoted, only five even claimed to have seen executions. In addition, many of them changed their stories repeatedly to satisfy the demands of the world's press.

I see you are repeating the old lie that the liberation forces say "their main goal is to reduce the population to less than two million". Where did you get that? Perhaps from the cover of Ponchard's book, which says: "When men who talk of Marxism are able to say that only 1.5 million young Cambodians out of six million will be enough to rebuild a pure society, one can no longer speak of barbarism; what barbarians have ever acted in this way?

Obviously, the propaganda paints a lurid picture of a goal of "mass extermination" by the Kampuchean government. But I suppose you yourself are well aware that the Kampuchean revolutionaries spoke of U.S. aggression and extermination and defiantly said that no matter how many Kampuchean people the imperialists murdered, the people would continue to fight for and win liberation!

Such U.S. propaganda, which you so readily repeat, was also taken up by the Vietnamese, who serialized a book written in collaboration with the U.S. State Department on the radio in preparation for their own invasion. Since occupying Kampuchea, they have added their own stories. On your visit to Kampuchea, where you were undoubtedly feted, you willingly lapped up all the lurid tales. I don't know if you are a willing tool or just a fool who hasn't bothered to check his facts. Either way, there is no doubt who you serve! You describe Vietnam's aggression as "the overthrow of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime. You go on to say, "Every Cambodian I have met regards this 'aggression' as having saved their nation from slavery and extinction. Condemning it is like condemning the Allied invasion of Nazi Germany".

Really, Mr. Pilger, you need to give your readers more intelligence. Kampuchea is a very small and very poor country. It is occupied by some 200,000 Vietnamese troops equipped with modern Soviet weapons. Yet they have complete control over only a quarter of the country, basically the major cities and highways. The legitimate government also controls a quarter; the other half is disputed territory. Food and weapons for the occupying soldiers have to be flown from town to town because of extensive guerrilla activity on most of the major highways. Yet, according to your report, "every Cambodian" you met supported the invasion.

It must be obvious, even to you, that a hell of a lot of Cambodians are vigorously fighting the Vietnamese! You should not pay so much attention to the people you interview on an official Vietnam-organized publicity tour. By the way, Vietnam once claimed that they did not invade Kampuchea. These new lies that you are so eager to print are just replacing old lies that no longer hold water.

Let us look at some of your specific stories.

THE EVACUATION OF PHNOM PENH

You talk a lot about the evacuation of the capital, Phnom Penh. Let us recall some facts about Phnom Penh just before the liberation in April 1975. As you said yourself, there were over 2,000,000 people living in the city. Who were they? Mostly peasants who had been driven from their land by massive U.S. bombing and napalming of the countryside. Kampuchean agriculture was virtually destroyed, despite an extremely fertile landscape. The population was starving. There were many reports, even in British newspapers at the time, of cannibalism in the city. People were living and dying of disease and starvation in the gutters of the back streets. The day before the city was liberated, the US-backed Lon Nol regime launched a scorched earth policy. Lon Nol forces blew up the sewers and the fresh water supply. And Lon Nol forces blew up the National Bank of Cambodia. You claim that "the Khmer Rouge, retreating from the Vietnamese, blew it up. You will see that the picture of the National Bank of Cambodia that we published is very similar to the one in your report.

Incidentally, after the food problem was solved (it was, despite your stories to the contrary), the Kampucheans began to gradually repopulate Phnom Penh and build up small industries, especially agriculture-related industries. At the time of the Vietnamese invasion, Phnom Penh had a thriving population of 200,000. Your beautifully painted picture of an absolutely deserted Phnom Penh in recent years is simply not true. I suggest you look at what the Vietnamese did when they invaded.

FARMERS HAVE A HARD LIFE

Now, you tell stories of a "forced" evacuation of Phnom Penh and "forced" labor in the fields. Well, the farmers returned to their fields. They and the mass of the Phnom Penh population were quite willing to rebuild agriculture and stop the starvation. I suppose many of the bloated bureaucratic servants of imperialism, a small minority, were not so keen! They could no longer live off the labor of the people. You must forgive me. I cannot shed tears for them because they have to produce their own food. You get very upset that the agricultural workers were "fed according to how productive they were. Well, that sounds terrible! People were starving. They had to produce in order to eat. What do you expect? Of course they were not eating well, but they were eating much better, and it was getting better all the time. You said in horror that the children did not recognize toys or pen and paper. They may not, but the children were beginning to receive a basic education for the first time, while at the same time being involved in productive work in the fields. I suggest that you examine the conditions of the peasantry in any Third World country. You will not find a nice semi-detached house with carpets, a TV, toys, or magazines strewn about.

everywhere. That is why people fight for liberation. They fight for independence to improve their living conditions. Don't blame the government of Democratic Kampuchea for the conditions of the people. Instead, look at how the people of a backward country built great irrigation projects with their bare hands - there are not many tractors around - filled in the malaria-infested shell craters, planted and harvested crops, and produced enough food to feed the population. They gradually began to build their industry. Incidentally, China, a country you so vehemently dislike, was the only country to provide substantial food and industrial aid.

Now you attack the Pol Pot government for the current starvation in Kampuchea. Instead, you should be attacking the Vietnamese invaders who drove the Kampuchean people off their land, plundered their crops, and brought famine and starvation to Kampuchea once again. Just last week it was reported that Vietnamese troops drove another 60,000 sick and starving Kampucheans across the border into Thailand. If you are truly opposed to genocide and the murder of a people, you should look first to the foreign invaders.

"DRIVEN" TO THE COUNTRYSIDE OR EXECUTED?

In your September 12 article, you said that urban people were forced to go to the countryside and work very hard. In the September 13 article, you quote a former "Khmer Rouge" battalion commander who said: "I was told that all the city people had to die so that we could build a new and pure Cambodia." You said he admitted to massacring "2,500 men, women and children". Well, Mr. Pilger, what is it to be? Mass extermination or working in the fields? When you've answered that, why don't you tell me what you would say if another reporter gave any weight to the story of a captured soldier who you admit was in a "re-education camp" and who was interviewed in the presence of his Vietnamese captors! Not much I expect.

As for your "mass murder" stories, you are at best extremely credulous. You speak of "mass extermination" at Angkor Wat. The only evidence is a mass grave containing, as you say, 9,000 bodies. It is indeed criminal that 9,000 died, but who killed them and when? You are repeating the Vietnamese stories without any evidence. For your information, at least 800,000 Kampucheans died in the war of liberation against US domination. Many more were killed in the Vietnamese invasion (which you applaud!). In both wars, Angkor Wat, the site of the ancient temples, was a major battleground. It is a symbol of the Kampuchean nation. Thousands and thousands of Kampuchean people died in the struggle to liberate and defend Angkor Wat. There will be many mass graves there. Don't present the existence of the graves as "proof" of genocide. They are proof of the murder of the Kampuchean people by foreigners trying to dominate their country.

Why weren't pictures of the "death camp" in Phnom Penh released earlier? The Vietnamese occupied the city in January. Maybe they needed 8 months to "set the scene". Your picture makes it pretty clear that the stage is set.

CROCODILE TEARS

You end your articles with pleas for food aid. If you wanted to feed the people of Kampuchea, you should ask for aid to be sent to the refugee camps in Thailand, not to the Vietnamese authorities and their puppets in Phnom Penh, whose main desire is to feed the occupying army. Aid to them is aid to

aggression. You say the Vietnamese are so concerned about the "plight" of the Kampuchean people under Pol Pot's government. If they are so concerned for the people, then tell me why 1 million starving Vietnamese are in refugee camps in other countries (300,000 in socialist China), and tell me why at least 1 million more drowned trying to escape. How do you explain your racism to the Chinese and Kampuchean minorities living in Vietnam itself? I will tell you that you can't.

But you are doing the Soviet and Vietnamese expansionists a great service!

1979