FAUCI DIARY ARCHIVE — Wednesday, October 12, 2005
https://faucisdiary.com/diary/2005-10-12

Text below is verbatim from the released PDFs, with the original line breaks.
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DIARY ENTRY — Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Source: Diary Prequel, pp. 132–133 of 2026.07.27_Diary-Prequel-.pdf
Words: 398
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Series of meetings with officials. Met first with Minister of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries. It was clear that Cambodia was far less well-prepared than
Thailand for a bird and/or human pandemic.
     Met with Deputy Prime Minister and Amb Mussomeli had a firm exchange with the
Deputy Prime minister in which Joe objected to the fact that the Cambodians had arrested
a Cambodian Journalist for writing a story negative to the regime.
    Next visited the Institut Pasteur in Phnom Penh. The Institut Pasteur has 29 foreign
satellite institutes throughout the world. Cambodian institute began in 1935, but was
wiped out by the civil war and then by Khmer Rouge. It was re-established in 1995.
Sirenda Vong is a young scientists at the Institut Pasteur who made a very nice
presentation about their work. He is a rising star in my mind..
                                                        Lasted only part of a day.
    Met with King Norodom Sihamoni and toured the Imperial Palace. The King is an ex-
ballet dancer. He is single.
    Visited the Genocide Museum. The story is horrible. 1.2 million people (10% of the
population) were murdered, usually following torture over a 5 year period. After the
Khmer Rouge took over, they evacuated Phnom Penh and literally murdered anyone who
was middle class and/or educated. They murdered people merely if they wore
eyeglasses. They had this genocide maniac mentality (similar to the Nazis) of
documenting everything that they did. The walls of the museum showed thousands of
photos of people who were put into the prison (now museum) which was originally a
high school. They would photograph them, document their arrest, torture them and then
kill them. Either they died of the torture, starvation, etc. or they sent them to the killing
fields to be hacked or bludgeoned to death. They kept meticulous medical records of the
dying and deaths of the prisoners.
         We then visited with a group of NGOs who explained to us the problem of
trafficking in Cambodia. It is a complex problem since the people who are trafficked are
usually sold by their family because of poverty.
         That afternoon, we flew to Vientiane, Laos and check into Lao Plaza Hotel. Bill
Steiger and I had a terrific evening run (right as the sun set) in the National Stadium
where the Lao National Track Team was practicing.

       Had a reception-dinner that night at the home of Amb. Patricia Haslach.