François Ponchaud, a French Catholic missionary, passed away on January 17 at age 85. His pivotal book, 'Cambodia: Year Zero,' published in 1977, presented harrowing accounts from Cambodian refugees, exposing the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge. His narratives provided some of the first substantial evidence of the regime's murderous purges, which targeted diverse groups such as intellectuals, ethnic minorities, and religious figures. Using his fluency in Khmer, Ponchaud documented the horrors faced by Cambodians fleeing to Thailand, emphasizing the moral obligation to raise awareness about these atrocities.
The accounts from Cambodian refugees collected by Father Ponchaud in his 1977 book offered some of the first detailed evidence of the bloodshed and repression under the Khmer Rouge.
Father Ponchaud followed another migrant trail - searching out Cambodians who fled the Khmer Rouge to reach Thailand. He was fluent in the Cambodian language, Khmer, which he learned after arriving in the country in 1965.
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