François Ponchaud (; 8 February 1939 – 17 January 2025) was a French Catholic priest and missionary to
Cambodia
Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
. He was best known for his documentation of the
genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
which occurred under the
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihano ...
(KR), and for being one of the first people to expose the
human rights
Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
abuses being carried out at the time.
Biography
Ponchaud was born in
Sallanches
Sallanches (; ) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. Located close to the Mont Blanc massif, many visitors pass through the town en route to well-known alpine resorts such as Chamonix, M ...
, France on 8 February 1939, as one of twelve children. Until he was 20 years old, he worked on his parents' farm.
He attended seminary in 1958 but the following year he left due to national service. He spent three years in
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
as a paratrooper during the
Algerian War
The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...
and returned to his studies in 1961, becoming a
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
. He applied through the
Paris Foreign Missions Society
The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (, , MEP) is a Catholic Missionary order, missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular clergy, secular priests and Laity, lay persons dedicated to missionary wo ...
for an assignment to undertake missionary work, and was assigned to Cambodia. In 2013, Ponchaud recalled, "I didn’t like the war
..Now I think I’d rather be killed or go to prison than participate in such a war, but at the time I didn’t dare go to prison."
[
Ponchaud was 26 years old and newly ordained when he arrived in Cambodia in 1965. He lived in Cambodia from 1965 to 1975, serving in the apostolic prefecture of Kampong Cham province. When Phnom Penh fell to the KR on 17 April 1975, Ponchaud was detained in the French embassy. On 8 May 1975, the KR evacuated the embassy, and Ponchaud was one of the last westerners to leave Cambodia. He was fluent in Khmer. After expulsion, Ponchaud collected hundreds of written and oral accounts from refugees along the border with Thailand and in France.][
Following the KR victory, all contact with the outside world was shut down, but following an editorial in '']Le Monde
(; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
'' in February 1976, Ponchaud wrote a three-page article, which described the systematic abuses he had witnessed while Phnom Penh was being emptied, and following this he wrote '' Cambodge année zéro'' (Cambodia: Year Zero), a book on the Cambodian genocide
The Cambodian genocide was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodian citizens by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, nearly 25% of Cambodia's populati ...
, which was published in 1977, and his book is credited with being one of the first publications which dealt with the genocide. William Shawcross
Sir William Hartley Hume Shawcross (born 28 May 1946) is a British journalist, writer, and broadcaster. He is the incumbent Commissioner for Public Appointments. From 2012 to 2018 he chaired the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
Shawcr ...
has said that the book is, "the best account of Khmer Rouge rule".
For four years after his expulsion, he and François Bizot helped Cambodian and French citizens escape from Cambodia. Following the overthrow of the KR in 1979, he returned to Cambodia. He gave evidence at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC; ; ), commonly known as the Cambodia Tribunal or Khmer Rouge Tribunal (), was a court established to try the senior leaders and the most responsible members of the Khmer Rouge for alle ...
in 2013 during the war crime trials were being held. While on the stand, he said that he had been a witness to the "illegal" bombing, known as Operation Menu
Operation Menu was a covert United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) tactical bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia from 18 March 1969 to 26 May 1970 as part of the Vietnam War. The targets of these attacks were sanctuaries and base ar ...
, of Cambodia by the American air force, and that Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...
, former Secretary of State should stand trial for his actions.[ Ponchaud testified in Khmer.][
Ponchaud said of the genocide that it, "Was above all, the translation into action the particular vision of a man ic A person who has been spoiled by a corrupt regime cannot be reformed, he must be physically eliminated from the brotherhood of the pure." In testimony given on what had happened to officers from the former ]Lon Nol
Marshal Lon Nol (, also ; 13 November 1913 – 17 November 1985) was a Cambodian military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice (1966–67; 1969–71), as well as serving repeatedly as defence minister and provi ...
regime, Ponchaud stated that in 1975 the KR had as an aim the destruction of anyone who had cooperated with both the US and the previous regime, and that he had heard from four witnesses that the KR had killed 380 people in Phnom Thipdey, a commune in Battambang Province
Battambang (, , ) is a province of Cambodia in the far northwest of the country. Bordering provinces are Banteay Meanchey to the north, Pursat to the east and south, Siem Reap to the northeast, and Pailin to the west. The northern and south ...
.
In 2001 a documentary titled ''The Cross and the Bodhi Tree: Two Christian Encounters with Buddhism'' was released, the film is about how Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
shaped both the life of Ponchaud, and that of a Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
nun, Mother Rosemary.
Ponchaud said in 2021, that his aim "is helping people to understand clearly what Buddha taught and what Jesus said in the Gospels, helping them to live together and love one another,” and that "The teaching of Buddha, and meditation, allowed me to become a better Christian".[
Ponchaud died from cancer on 17 January 2025, at the age of 85 at a Jesuit retirement home in Lauris, France.][
]
Published works
*
Cambodia: Year Zero
', Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...
, 1978,
''Social Change in the Vortex of Revolution''
in: ''Cambodia 1975-1978: Rendezvous with Death'', Princeton University Press, 1989, Karl Jackson, ed., pp. 151–177.
*''La cathédrale de la rizière: 450 ans d'histoire de l'église au Cambodge'', Fayard, 1990,
*''Buddha e Cristo: le due salvezze'', EDB, 2005,
*''Brève histoire du Cambodge: Le pays des Khmers rouges'', Magellan & Cie Éditions, 2015
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponchaud, Francois
1939 births
2025 deaths
People from Sallanches
French Roman Catholic missionaries
Paris Foreign Missions Society missionaries
Roman Catholic missionaries in Cambodia
French expatriates in Cambodia
People of the Cambodian genocide