François Ponchaud

François Ponchaud (s. 1939 Sallanches) on ranskalainen katolinen pappi, joka kirjoitti kirjan Cambodge, année zéro (Julliard, Pariisi, 1977). Kirja oli ensimmäinen todenmukainen selonteko punaisten khmerien harjoittamasta kansanmurhasta Kambodžassa 1975–1979. Isä François toi ensimmäisenä läntisen maailman tietoisuuteen Pol Potin hallinnon todellisen luonteen [1] ja toi yleiseen käyttöön termin vuosi nolla, jonka alkuperä juontaa jo Ranskan suuren vallankumouksen aikoihin ja sen vallankumouskalenteriin. Kirjan kuvaamia todellisten henkilöiden koettelemuksia ei aluksi uskottu, sillä akateemisen maailman asenne lännessä oli Yhdysvaltain Vietnamin politiikan vuoksi punakhmereille suotuisa. Noam Chomsky kiisti kirjan uskottavuuden "pakolaisten ristiriitaisten lausuntojen vuoksi" [2].

François Ponchaud osallistui Algerian sotaan 20-vuotiaana laskuvarjojoukoissa. Myöhemmin Missions Etrangeres de Paris lähetti hänet Kaakkois-Aasiaan Kambodžaan käännytystyöhön. 17. huhtikuuta 1975 hän oli näkemässä kun vallankumoukselliset joukot ottivat Phnom Penhin haltuunsa ja aloittivat kaupungin tyhjentämisen asukkaista. Isä François evakuoitiin muiden ulkomaalaisten mukana Thaimaan rajalle. Hän palasi vähäksi aikaa Pariisiin, mutta kokemukset Kambodžan vallankumouksesta saivat hänet palaamaan. Hän toimi sittemmin useita vuosia Thaimaan pakolaisleireillä humanitaarisissa tehtävissä, mutta palasi asemamaahansa olojen vakiinnuttua.[3]

Hän on edelleen aktiivinen ihmisoikeuksien puolustaja ja hengellinen vaikuttaja nyky-Kambodžassa, jossa sisällissodan arvet ja siirtomaa-ajan kuilu odottavat täyttymistään. Hän on kritisoinut Kambodžan Gandhia Samdech Préah Moha Gosanandaa ("Moha Yao") [4].

Katso myös

John Pilger - teki nimeltään samankaltaisen dokumenttielokuvan Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia (1979)

Lähteet

1999 For A Change - Priest of many frontiers: Alan Channer meets Francois Ponchaud (1999), haettu 20.4.2008 ...Francois Ponchaud, a French priest who has spent most of his working life in Cambodia and the refugee camps on its border with Thailand. As author of Cambodia: Year Zero, he was the person who first alerted the world to the genocide perpetrated by the Pol Pot regime.
The Khmer Rouge Canon 1975-1979: The Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia, haettu 20.4.2008 The Porter-Chomsky-Herman objections were numerous, but still Chomsky and Herman admitted that Ponchaud's book was "serious and worth reading" though full of discrepancies and unreliable refugee reports which were contradicted by other refugees (who, for instance, had said that they had walked across the country and seen no dead bodies). This was vindication of the Khmer Rouge-reports of having seen no evil nor heard any evil. The Porter-Chomsky-Herman logic in a nutshell: Refugees are run away because they are displeased, thus will exaggerate, especially over time, if not lie about "alleged atrocities" altogether.
1999 For A Change - Priest of many frontiers: Alan Channer meets Francois Ponchaud (1999), haettu 20.4.2008
The controversial words from a French Catholic Priest in Cambodia, Francios Ponchaud about Somdech Preah Maha Ghosananda and Cambodian Buddhism with a responding to him from Bhikkhu Vodano Sophan, a Cambodian Buddhist Monk (Arkistoitu – Internet Archive) It is true that I voiced a somewhat discording tone in the concert of praises concerning the venerable Samdech Préah Moha Gosananda, called Moha Yao, the Cambodian Gandhi. I knew him in 1983 in his American residence of Hanover Street, Providence (RI). I voiced some reservations on his attitude at the time of our audience with Jean Paul II in Rome in 1985, but I leave the whole paternity to the author of the article for the qualifications, several times repeated, by which he qualifies this venerated monk, and of whom I respect the memory, like many Cambodians.

Aiheesta muualla

Näyte kirjasta Cambodia: Year Zero(englanniksi)
Tutkielma punaisten khmerien ajasta: kuinka akateeminen yhteisö lännessä tuki vallankumousta (luku 1, johdanto)(englanniksi)

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[1] 1999 For A Change - Priest of many frontiers: Alan Channer meets Francois Ponchaud (1999), haettu 20.4.2008 ...Francois Ponchaud, a French priest who has spent most of his working life in Cambodia and the refugee camps on its border with Thailand. As author of Cambodia: Year Zero, he was the person who first alerted the world to the genocide perpetrated by the Pol Pot regime.

[2] The Khmer Rouge Canon 1975-1979: The Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia, haettu 20.4.2008 The Porter-Chomsky-Herman objections were numerous, but still Chomsky and Herman admitted that Ponchaud's book was "serious and worth reading" though full of discrepancies and unreliable refugee reports which were contradicted by other refugees (who, for instance, had said that they had walked across the country and seen no dead bodies). This was vindication of the Khmer Rouge-reports of having seen no evil nor heard any evil. The Porter-Chomsky-Herman logic in a nutshell: Refugees are run away because they are displeased, thus will exaggerate, especially over time, if not lie about "alleged atrocities" altogether.

[3] 1999 For A Change - Priest of many frontiers: Alan Channer meets Francois Ponchaud (1999), haettu 20.4.2008

[4] The controversial words from a French Catholic Priest in Cambodia, Francios Ponchaud about Somdech Preah Maha Ghosananda and Cambodian Buddhism with a responding to him from Bhikkhu Vodano Sophan, a Cambodian Buddhist Monk (Arkistoitu – Internet Archive) It is true that I voiced a somewhat discording tone in the concert of praises concerning the venerable Samdech Préah Moha Gosananda, called Moha Yao, the Cambodian Gandhi. I knew him in 1983 in his American residence of Hanover Street, Providence (RI). I voiced some reservations on his attitude at the time of our audience with Jean Paul II in Rome in 1985, but I leave the whole paternity to the author of the article for the qualifications, several times repeated, by which he qualifies this venerated monk, and of whom I respect the memory, like many Cambodians.