YIENG, UNG LING
Name: Ung Ling Yieng
Rank/Branch: Civilian
Unit:
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: Cambodia
Date of Loss: 08 April 1970
Country of Loss: Cambodia
Loss Coordinates: WT998205
Status (in 1973): Prisoner of War
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: auto
Refno: 1589
Other Personnel in Incident: Georg Gensluckner; Dieter Bellendorf (both
captured)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 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: German camerman Dieter Bellendorf and Austrian newsman Georg
Gensluckner left Phnom Penh in an automobile on April 8, 1970. They were
accompanied by Cambodian citizen, Ung Ling Yieng, serving as a translator
for the group. 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. Bellendorf was on assignment for NBC at the time.
Traveling southeast on Route One in eastern Cambodia, the three men were
captured 15 kilometers west of Chi Phu on Route 2 at grid coordinates
WT998205. Various sources including Washington Post and TV Guide articles
state that Bellendorf, at least, was seen twice in captivity, working as a
laborer on a road gang in eastern Cambodia. He apparently was wounded when
captured, and again by a B52 strike.
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 Bellendorf,
Gensluckner, and Yieng 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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