UL15081211

De WikiUpLib
Aller à : navigation, rechercher

Connaissez-vous l'histoire de Malcolm Caldwell ?

Dans la loooongue série des articles internationaux qui n'ont pas leur équivalent sur wikipédia francophone.

Nous faisons bien sûr appel aux traducteurs volontaires. Si l'article ne parait pas sur Wikipédia.fr, soyez certains qu'il paraitra ici même, sur http://wikiberal.org et sur d'autres médias online.


[[|frame|none|Connaissez-vous l'histoire de Malcolm Caldwell ? ]]


Malcolm Caldwell From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Alexander Malcolm Caldwell (27 September 1931 – 23 December 1978)[1] was a British academic and a prolific Marxist writer. He was a consistent critic of American foreign policy, a campaigner for Asian communist and socialist movements, and a supporter of the Khmer Rouge. Malcolm Caldwell was murdered, under mysterious circumstances, a few hours after meeting Pol Pot in Cambodia.[2]

Early life and career

Malcolm Caldwell was born in Scotland, the son of a coal miner.[3] He obtained degrees from University of Nottingham and University of Edinburgh. He completed two years' national service in the British army, becoming a sergeant in the Army Education Corps. In 1959 he joined the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London as a Research Fellow. Although he met with conservative opposition within the School, he remained on its faculty throughout his life. As well as being an academic, he was an energetic and committed radical political activist. He was dedicated to criticising Western foreign policy and capitalist economics, paying particular attention to American policy.[3] He was a founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary Asia, a journal concerned with revolutionary movements in Asia. In 1978 Caldwell was one of the Labour Party candidates in St Mary's ward in local elections in Sidcup, Bexley.[4] Murder in Cambodia

Caldwell was one of the staunchest defenders of the Pol Pot regime. He frequently attempted to downplay reports of mass executions in Cambodia, but was widely attacked for doing so.[5]

In December 1978 Caldwell was a member—along with Elizabeth Becker and Richard Dudman—of the last group of Western journalists and writers invited to visit Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge had taken power in April 1975. The three visitors were given a highly structured tour of the country. "We traveled in a bubble," wrote Becker. "No one was allowed to speak to me freely." On 22 December, Caldwell had a private audience with Pol Pot, the leader of Cambodia. After the meeting, he came back in a mood described as "euphoric" to the guest house in Phnom Penh where the three were staying. About 11:00 p.m. that night Becker was awakened by the sound of gunfire. She stepped out of her bedroom and saw a heavily armed Cambodian man who pointed a pistol at her. She ran back into her room and heard people moving and more gunshots. An hour later a Cambodian came to her bedroom door and told her that Caldwell was dead. She and Dudman went to his room. He had been shot in the chest and the body of a Cambodian man was also in the room, possibly the same man who had pointed the pistol at Becker.[6]

The motives for Caldwell's murder remain unexplained.[7] An attack by a Vietnamese commando to discredit the Pol Pot regime on the eve of the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, is argued by Philip Short in his book as the most likely explanation.[8] Three days after Caldwell was killed, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and soon put an end to the Khmer Rouge government.

Four of the guards at the guest house were arrested and two of them "confessed" after torture at Khmer Rouge's infamous S-21 prison that the killers were subversives attempting to undermine the Khmer Rouge regime and that Caldwell was killed "to prevent the Party from gathering friends in the world". Alternatively, journalist Wilfred Burchett as well as some of Caldwell's family members believe that Caldwell was killed on the orders of Pol Pot, following a disagreement between the two during their meeting. Caldwell's companion during the trip, Elizabeth Becker, has argued that Caldwell died as a result of the disarray and anarchy which existed during the Khmer Rouge rule, stating that "Malcolm Caldwell's death was caused by the madness of the regime he openly admired."[2]


L'article original (sous licence CC) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Caldwell
par en.wikipedia



Actualité et pages connexes


Liens


Twitter : Connaissez-vous l'histoire de Malcolm Caldwell ? http://uplib.fr/wiki/UL15081210 #Socialisme via @uplib