Airlift at Phnom Penh airport

01.00.00.00

Man:  I've been here six years. And it's very hard to see this. I was here through the UN operation. And all the time that went into that process.

00.21

FX:  Airlift

Map Cambodia

People in temple

FX:  Monks chanting

Williams:  Four years ago, these people won their first free vote after more than 20 years of terror and dictatorship. Today, the government they elected, Prince Ranariddh's Funcinpec Party, has been destroyed, as fear and uncertainty again descend over Cambodia, these farmers and labourers pray for protection in the dangerous months ahead.

01.07

Mrs Iem Seng in temple

But for Mrs Iem Seng, her thoughts are not with the future, but with the dead.

01.37

Mrs Iem Seng and Williams at hospital

After prayers, Seng visits her cousin, Can Kim, at the capital's main hospital. Like thousands of other civilians, Can Kim and her family had nowhere to hide when the coup was launched on the streets of Phnom Penh.

01.46

Can Kim and her children

Kim:  I told the children to crawl under the house. A shell hit my house and hit my children. I saw my husband fall down, and my children die. Two of my children died. One was ten and the other nine. One had her throat cut and the other had his head cut open.

02.02

Williams:  Can Kim has survived American bombing, Khmer Rouge horrors and the invading Vietnamese Army. Over the past few years, she thought her misery had ended. But it took just a few days for that illusion to be shattered.

02.26

Can Kim

Kim:  My dead children were very gentle. They never stole anyone's property. They were the best pupils in their class. Teachers sent home reports saying they were the best.  They should not have died. Their throats were cut. They couldn't even say a last word to me.

02.41

Hun Sen at Press Conference

Williams: Prime Minister, why did there have to be a coup?

Williams:  Hun Sen's soldiers achieved in just a few days, what years of politics had denied him - absolute power.

03.13

After years of running the country, Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party, or CPP, lost the UN sponsored elections in 1993. But it was a result he never accepted, forcing his way into a power sharing deal with the winning Funcinpec Party.

This month's coup was the final step in retaking power - and the international outrage that's caused is of little concern to him.

Williams asks question of Hun Sen

Williams:  The ASEAN group that you've mentioned and even the US and other countries, are in fact voting, if you like, with their feet. They are telling their nationals to leave. Some countries have suggested, Sir, that you should reinstall the joint government. Will you do that?

Hun Sen replies

Hun Sen:  I think your suggestion is not only interference in our national affairs but also interference in a political party's affairs.  This is an internal political affair related to a prime minister. Whether you like it or not, we cannot please you...I please my people. Why do you always say Ranariddh and Hun Sen must stand together?

04.06

Williams and Geraldine at orphanage

Geraldine:  Kids, hi. Hello, darling. It's Mum. It's Mum, okay.

04.39

[He] has got a shrapnel wound in the mouth and another wound on the side of his body. And I got him a job at Funcinpec headquarters, where he was, you know, starting to learn computers and everything like that. And he was captured and shot over the weekend, during the coup, which no one calls a coup...

04.59

Williams:  Over the past few weeks, Geraldine Cox, an Australian, has risen to prominence in Phnom Penh for her outspoken criticism of the new regime.

Wounded boy

This orphanage she runs part time, was looted by Hun Sen's soldiers, and may now be seized for use as a military base.

05.31

Geraldine:  ...but we've got drugs for him now.

Williams:  But Geraldine was more than just a mother to these children. She was a senior aid to Prince Ranariddh and an adviser to the Funcinpec Cabinet. And today, is the last Funcinpec voice in Phnom Penh, which will not be silenced.

05.45

Geraldine interview

Geraldine:  You won't find any Funcinpec person or cabinet staff of the Prince that would be brave enough to talk to anybody. They won't even talk to each other right now. I know most of them that haven't got out of the country are in hiding. At least six of my colleagues that I work with have taken great risk to come to my house to beg me for money. Because they want to get out of the city and they haven't got any money to move, because all the banks are closed. And the fear is like visible. And you will not find any Funcinpec person to talk to. I'm taking a lot of risks talking to you now. But I'm counting that the visibility I have in being a foreigner might help.

06.00

Williams:  What exactly are they afraid of?

Geraldine:  They're afraid of being assassinated. Been thrown in the river with their families, and everybody from their grandparents to their grandchildren, killed, as has already happened.

Funcinpec member

Funcinpec member:  Any house with a Funcinpec sign were burnt down. The owners were arrested and tortured. Some of them have died.

07.00

Williams:  Unlike Hun Sen, this man, a Funcinpec member of parliament was elected to run the country. Today he's in hiding, and desperately trying to flee Cambodia.

07.17

His parliamentary identification proved little protection, when Hun Sen's soldiers came to his home.

Funcinpec member:  I have an MP's I.D. but they would not listen. They shot my wife and wounder her leg. They threatened me and opened fire...and told me to raise my hands.

Williams:  Although he's an MP in danger of assassination, no foreign government will help him leave the country.

07.55

His only hope is a secret network of individuals prepared to take the personal risk to smuggle him and others like him through the airport to safety.

Interior of car

Funcinpec member:  When they are ready they will put pressure on me to just raise my hand - vote with them - copy the amendment...do anything. Just raise my hand. So I must leave to stop the suffering in my heart.

08.20

Swedish Girl:  We just called you earlier on for ticket. Please keep it booked. I'm on my way to the airport. I will be there in 15 minutes. Okay? Okay, thank you.

08.43

Airport

Music

Funcinpec member:  This is a real communist dictatorship. But he tells the international community that he's doing good. So I'm leaving in tears...in tears I tell you.

09.13

Williams with Brad Adams

Williams:  For human rights lawyer, Brad Adams, the fears of Funcinpec members are well-founded. In recent days, 40 party workers have been executed and hundreds detained.

09.43

Adams interview

Adams:  The Funcinpec Party as we knew it, no longer exists. The leadership has been forced out of the country. They're grasping for a reason to exist. Most of the people who continue to participate in Funcinpec on a political basis, are doing so on a the basis of fear, implied and expressed threats. Fear for the safety of their family members and fear for the safety of their subordinates.

09.54

The opposition press has disappeared. Before the coup d'etat there were 19 newspapers that took an opposition line. All of them have closed. All of the editors and journalists of those newspapers are in fear...

Williams:  For Brad, the people being victimised have also been betrayed.

10.35

Adams:  Many people were not willing to participate in the political process in Cambodia or in human rights activities. Except for the clear support of the international community. The international community told Cambodians it is now safe. Participate, we will support you. And now we see that even in an extreme situation, when people are requesting asylum or requesting sanctuary from western countries, are asking them for assistance to get on aeroplanes, to have a few dollars to get out of the country, that they're being turned down.

Williams:  How does that make you feel, having worked so closely with it ever since then?

Adams:  I'm embarrassed that the rest of the world has abandoned these people. These people enter politics and entered into the human rights work at grave personal risk. And we have now pulled the rug out from under them.

11.19

Singers

Music

Hun Sen surrounded by security

Williams:  Having scared away many of the most effective opponents, a confident Hun Sen is strengthening his control. He denies the battle for Phnom Penh was a coup, saying he was just responding to an illegal military build up by Prince Ranariddh.

11.50

He repeatedly tells the people, Ranariddh betrayed the nation by trying to form a secret alliance with their worst enemy - Pol Pot's remaining hard line Khmer Rouge.

12.12

Hun Sen addresses crowd

Hun Sen:  We thought Tam Krasaing was a base for the Prince's bodyguard - but this was not true. It is the place to hide illegal weapons and bring the Khmer Rouge forces in - and it's the biggest place of terrorism.

People in crowd

Williams:  His charges are partly true. Many were dissatisfied with Ranariddh's autocratic leadership style. But few see the claims as little more than a pretext for the violent overthrow of Cambodia's elected leader.

12.43

Hun Sen

To help him sell the idea to a sceptical world, Hun Sen has found someone more to his liking to replace Prince Ranariddh as First Premier.

12.58

Ung Huot

Senior Funcinpec member and Foreign Minister, Ung Huot, admits he's been approved by Hun Sen for the top job. But declares his independence for next year's election.

13.13

Ung Huot:  Free and fair election, yes. No violence, no intimidation. Whoever wins will win, and whoever lose will accept. So that I want to guarantee the international community and you all.  You will be here.

Funcinpec Official in silhouette

Funcinpec Official:  There are some Funcinpec officials who will join them for their own benefit. Most of them are joining under pressure with a gun pointing at them.  It seems to me they have a gun in their back.

13.45

Adams interview

Super: 

BRAD ADAMS

Human Rights Lawyer

Adams:  The people who are staying are being asked to support the new Funcinpec, which is a sham party. It's a party that will be a satellite of the CPP. It will be used only to give legitimacy to what happened to the coup d'etat that took place last weekend. So that some semblance of a government, some semblance of a national assembly can be continued. So that they can go forward to elections and say that there is pluralism and that there is still a multi-party democracy in Cambodia.

14.12

Williams in car with Hong Dara

Williams:  As an independent Funcinpec disintegrates, another party official secretly heads for the airport. Hong Dara is the head of Funcinpec security, and has lists of every official and party worker in the country. He's convinced he'll be tortured and killed if he's caught, but Australia refused his specific request for political asylum and sanctuary. And no other embassy would help him leave.

14.40

Dara

Dara:  Soon the massacre will continue even though Hun Sen says he will protect the people and Funcinpec. But secretly they assign their agents to kill anyone who gets involved with Funcinpec.

15.11

Dara at airport

Williams:  It's the longest wait of Hong Dara's life, as his documents are checked. Like many others denied the normal help of foreign embassies in times of crisis, a hastily obtained fake passport is his only way out.

15.39

He gets through. But thousands more must stay behind to deal with Cambodia's new reality.

Music

Hun Sen speaking with Press

Hun Sen:  Funcinpec now staying in Phnom Penh. Funcinpec headquarters now in Phnom Penh. Cooperating with the CPP for open government and national autonomy.

16.23

Williams at press conference

Williams:  But that seemed to be, Sir, the re-use of force. Do you regret the use of force? That's what they seem to be complaining about? Do you regret the use of force?

Hun Sen replies to

Hun Sen:  No regrets at all. The issue is, they use force - not us.  Why do you keep saying this? Ranariddh used force. I did not. We just used force to stop them. Did you want me to retreat? You go to Pol Pot's base, and stop a bullet with your head. You can go to Anlong Veng for shooting by Pol Pot.

16.52

Hun Sen in helicopter

Williams:  Hun Sen's unrelenting manoeuvres have again put him in the prime seat. Ranariddh threatens renewed civil war, and the new leadership may jeopardise much needed foreign aid. But Hun Sen is making the biggest move of his political life. And it looks like he may get away with it.

17.34

ENDS

17.57