VISOT, MICHEL
Name: Michel Visot
Rank/Branch: Civilian
Unit:
Date of Birth: France
Home City of Record: Phnom Phen, Cambodia
Date of Loss: 05 April 1970
Country of Loss: Cambodia
Loss Coordinates: XT171290
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 1583
Other Personnel in Incident: Guy Hannoteaux; Roger Colne (both captured)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April 1991 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 1998.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: French photo/journalist Gilles Caron, L'Express correspondent Guy
Hannoteaux, and Michel Visot left Phnom Penh on April 5, 1970. The newsmen
were heading for the front lines of fighting in Cambodia, looking for a
story as military action in Cambodia had stepped up considerably at this
time. Caron was on assignment for the Gamma Agency of Paris at the time.
Guiding the group was French citizen Michel Visot, a professor at law, who
was living in Phnom Penh at the time.
Traveling southeast on Route One in eastern Cambodia, the three men were
captured 6 kilometers west of Chi Phu on Route 2 at grid coordinates
XT171290. UPI reported their capture.
Author Zalin Grant interviewed returned ARVN POWs in early 1973 and released
the following data supporting other stories indicating journalists could
still be alive. "Returned ARVN POWs sighted the (unnamed) journalists on
Route #7, 17 miles south of Snoul in Eastern Cambodia 7-72 in ox-carts
pulled by Hondas; another said a VC captain near Minot, eastern Cambodia
(where military American POWs were released from in 1973) reported the
(unnamed) journalists held in 7-72 had cameras; Cambodian national saw
(unnamed) journalists in 6-72 at Prince Sihanouk's FUNK camp south of Route
#13 in Kratie Province; returned ARVN POWs said a guard told them in 3073
that the journalists were still alive and held in their area." Walter
Cronkite reported a sighting of (unnamed) journalists in January, 1974.
Whether Grant's and Cronkite's information relates to Caron, Hannoteaux and
Visot is not known. The three are among 22 international journalists still
missing in Southeast Asia, most known to have been captured. For several
years during the war, the correspondents community rallied and publicized
the fates of fellow journalists. After a while, they tired of the effort,
and today these men are forgotten by all but families and friends.
Tragically, nearly the whole world turns its head while thousands of reports
continue to flow in that prisoners are still held in Southeast Asia.
Cambodia offered to return a substantial number of remains of men it says
are Americans missing in Cambodia (in fact the number offered exceeded the
number of those officially missing). But the U.S. has no formal diplomatic
relations with the communist government of Cambodia, and refused to directly
respond to this offer. Although several U.S. Congressmen offered to travel
to Cambodia to receive the remains, they have not been permitted to do so by
the U.S.
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