Specialist in Khmer Rouge, the reporter had met, in 1997, one of the most bloodthirsty dictators of the 20th century. He died at the age of 62.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
The American independent journalist Nate Thayer, who had obtained, in 1997, an exclusive interview with Pol Pot (1925-1998), the brutal manager of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, died at the age of 62 ‘A long illness, announced his family on Wednesday January 4.
Specialist in Khmer Rouge, Nate Thayer had become the first foreign journalist in nearly two decades to meet Pol Pot, one of the most bloodthirsty dictators of the XX e century, and leader of A regime responsible for the death of nearly two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.
Then correspondent for a weekly from Hong Kong, Far Eastern Economic Review, Nate Thayer had interviewed him and photographed in the jungle of northern Cambodia. Pol Pot, during their interview, had confided to him: “Am I a violent person? I have a quiet conscience.”
Pol Pot died the following year, a heart attack, after several months of detention by his own fellow arms.
Nate Thayer, with a shaved skull and a follower of tobacco to chew, had built a reputation as a fearless journalist, until being seriously injured by the explosion of an anti -personnel mine in 1989 while he accompanied guerrillas Cambodians.
The son of a former American ambassador in Singapore, Nate Thayer devoted most of her career to Asia, investigating in particular on North Korea or on the battles on the Burmese border. He also covered the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.