Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
when reports emerged of starvation and killings in DK, Bergström reasoned them away
as reactionary lies. The US government had lied to the world about so much during the
Vietnam War. Why would Cambodia be any different?
Less radical figures on the left had similar doubts. In June 1977 Noam Chomsky and
Edward S. Herman penned an article for
The Nation
in which they questioned the ac-
counts of Ponchaud and others, implying that reports of Cambodian atrocities were part
of “a campaign to reconstruct the history of these years so as to place the role of the Un-
Penh for a second time and admitted that he, like many of his fellow leftists, was wrong.
After visiting S-21, now a museum to the horrors of DK's rule, he apologized to Cam-
bodians, explaining that his youthful fanaticism had blinded him to the grim reality of
Democratic Kampuchea. As he later told me, “we could not imagine that the people we
supported could become oppressors.”
But even during his 1978 visit, Bergström found theory and reality hard to reconcile.
In Phnom Penh, he walked through a cityscape of overgrown gardens and rusting gas sta-
tions. In Kampong Cham, the bus station was being used to dry corn. He noticed that the
Angkor temples were well maintained, but silent except for the sound of birds and in-
sects. Touring the communes and factories of the new Cambodia, the Swedish delegation
was fed lies of the most transparent kind. Bergström was shown a technical high school
where the blackboards were covered with advanced physics equations. Every teacher, the
visitors were told, was “a peasant who had learned from the revolution.” Most disturbing
of all were the reactions of ordinary people, who shuffled off in fear when the Swedish
visitors approached. “They gave stupid, evasive, crazy answers of why we couldn't talk
to them,” he said. “Deep inside I started to suspect some of the rumors were true—that
these people were being killed.”
Before returning home the Swedes were granted an audience with Pol Pot himself. It
was a stiff encounter. All questions were submitted in writing ahead of time, and only Pol
Pot and Ieng Sary spoke. During an interview with Myrdal, later broadcast on Swedish
television, Pol Pot claimed that 1.4 million Cambodians had been killed by the “US im-
Pot was aloof; there was no hint of the charm noted by many others who knew him. He
delivered a rote address denouncing Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact.
His guests then shook hands and left. Driving through the dark streets, Bergström's driver
turned and asked what he thought of “Brother Number One.” Bergström kept his thoughts
to himself. Fourteen days in Democratic Kampuchea were enough to shake even the
strongest revolutionary conviction.
In late 1978, a few months after his return to Sweden, Bergström publicly denounced
the DK regime. The move alienated his radical friends, but he was relieved at the loss
