Stuck in a Coup

Janice Klassen woke up one morning and looked at the calendar. It was July 12, 1997. Two more days until Art comes home, she thought excitedly.

Janice and her husband Arthur had gone on a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) volunteer service assignment to Phnom Penh, Cambodia in October of 1996. Janice was the office manager and guest house coordinator of the MCC building there and Art was doing the accounting for MCC Cambodia and training a Cambodian to be an accountant for when he left. They were scheduled to leave sometime in 1998.

In January of 1997 they found out Janice was pregnant. Then in February, they went on a vacation to Bangkok, Thailand to visit their friends Malinee and Thanakorn Kiatbanlue. While in Bangkok Janice and Art went to the hospital so Janice could have an ultrasound and found out ... they were going to have twin boys! Malinee and Thanakorn were very excited when they heard the news and so were Janice and Art's families back home when they called them. The doctor told them it would be best to have the babies back in Canada because of possible complications. So Janice flew back to Canada in May, 1997 and went to stay with her parents in Listowel, Ontario while Art continued his assignment which would end in early July of that year.

Janice sat down for breakfast in her parents' kitchen as her dad Murray walked into the room. He had a grim expression on his face but Janice wasn't worried. Her dad was known to tell jokes or play tricks on people. "Janice, there was a coup in Cambodia," he told her, still with a straight face. "Ha, ha, very funny Dad," Janice replied rolling her eyes. Murray answered back while turning on the TV in the corner of the room, "It's not a joke, look here." On the television set saw rebels bombing the airport trying to overthrow the government. "Oh no!" cried Janice. She thought of the worst. If Art didn't come back alive she would have to raise her twin sons without a father.

Art was excited, but a bit sad that he would be leaving Cambodia in a few days for home in Canada. He couldn't wait to get home and see Janice again but he would also have to say goodbye to the other MCC workers he had been with for the past 10 months. That weekend, a lot of the MCC workers in Cambodia had come to the main MCC building in Phnom Penh for meetings and a farewell party for Art. At about noon on Saturday in Phnom Penh's time zone, Art and the other workers heard a loud, rapid noise in the distance. "What was that?" Art wondered out loud. Socheat, the Cambodian Art had been training answered, "I think that was gunfire." The workers looked out the window but couldn't see any evidence so they continued their meeting. Later that day Ploich, another MCC employee, announced that there was a coup in Phnom Penh. The workers looked at each other nervously.

The next day, the 13th of July; the day before Art had a scheduled flight for Canada, Art went on a walk with an American worker named Larry down Main Street of Phnom Penh. All they saw were people carrying all they could; fleeing the city. There were parents with children, young adults, seniors, everyone was trying to get away. Since Larry knew the Cambodian language from years of experience in Cambodia, he went up to a man carrying a big black suitcase with a couple of socks sticking out of it and talked to him Cambodian. He then translated to Art, "He says he is going to the country side where it's much safer." "This is not good," Art replied.

That evening the workers hearts skipped a beat when they heard a huge explosion, much louder than the gunfire they had heard earlier. The MCCers climbed the stairs all the way to the roof of the building where they stood and stared. One block away there was a building engulfed in a flurry of flames with the strong scent of smoke in the air. "The school!" Date another worker from the Netherlands exclaimed, "I think it was bombed!" They looked on in awe thinking about how close that bomb had dropped and what it would have been like if it was a school day. They went back inside and turned on the radio to the BBC English news channel. The news anchor reported, "Breaking news! The Phnom Penh International Airport has been bombed. All flights have been canceled until further notice." "Oh great," Art said to himself, "how am I going to get home now?"

The following day, when Art was supposed to be flying home, people were giving him ideas of how to get home. Ploich suggested to Art to travel by land to Vietnam and then fly home from there via Bangkok but Art didn't have a visa for Vietnam. Malinee and Thanakorn also emailed and said they had a connection with the Thai military and could possibly get Art on an evacuation flight out of Phnom Penh to Bangkok when the airport opened. Art compromised and went with Ploich and Socheat to the Vietnam embassy to apply for a visa. The people at the embassy told him he would have to wait two days for it to be approved. So Art was stuck in a country in the middle of a coup for two more days.

Back in Canada, Janice and her parents were still very worried. Janice didn't think she would get through to Art if she called him but that night she tried. She dialed the phone number, it rang three times and then once more and when she thought it would just keep ringing Art picked up. "Hi, how are you?" Janice asked with joy relieved that he had answered. "Good, I just applied for a visa for Vietnam," Art replied. "and we found out today that the airport is going to open on Wednesday and there will be three flights to Saigon*, Vietnam. If I can get a ticket, I should be back by next Tuesday."

• Now Ho Chi Minh City

"That's great!" Janice uttered enthusiastically. They continued to call each other every day.

On Wednesday morning, the Phnom Penh International Airport was open again. Ploich and Socheat took Art back to the embassy and found out the visa was ready. They then went to the Vietnam Airline office to see if Art could get a ticket and were successful. Then the trio went back to the MCC building. Art had to repack his suitcases because at the airline office the employee stated "There is limited space on the airplane, only one piece of luggage and one carry-on is allowed." This was disappointing because he would have to decide what to leave behind.

A few hours later though the MCC workers had lunch with Art for one last time. Ploich, Socheat and all his other friends and colleagues said their goodbyes and wished him good luck and then it was time for him to go. Art then got into Larry's car and he and Date drove Art to the airport. It wasn't much of an airport though. The real terminal had been destroyed, so all the passengers were processed in a big shed. Finally, after he was checked, he got onto the airplane.

When he arrived in Saigon, he took a taxi to the Vietnam airlines office there and bought a ticket to Bangkok for the next day; Thursday, July 17. Then, after a long day he went to his hotel and went to sleep. In the morning, he took another taxi to the airport and flew to Thailand. After his arrival, he went to the Canadian Airlines office in the Bangkok airport to explain his situation and was able to get his flight re-booked to Canada. Malinee Kiatbanlue then picked him up and took him up to their house. "Thanks a lot for this," Art said graciously. "No problem, it's the least we could do." responded Malinee with her Thai accent. Art spent Friday on the campus of the University in which Thanakorn worked.

On Saturday, the couple took Art to the airport once again. He got on a flight to Vancouver which made a regular two-hour stop in Hong Kong. A few hours after the plane had left from Hong Kong, the pilot came on the intercom, "I'm sorry to announce that there is a problem with the right engine." A few passengers sighed, Art just shook his head, "The engineers are looking at it right now but we might have to turn back. I'll report to you when we know what the situation is." He then repeated the message in a couple different languages. Are you serious? thought Art, What else could happen to me? About 10 minutes later, the pilot reported that it would be safe to continue their flight. Art blew a sigh of relief.

Finally, Art entered the fifth country he had been in in four days: Canada! Even after flying for twenty hours it was only just before noon on Saturday in British Columbia (because he crossed the International Dateline). Then on Tuesday, July 22, 1997, Arthur Klassen flew from Vancouver to Toronto. When Janice, with her parents, spotted Art coming out of the luggage pick up room at the Pearson International Airport, she ran to him and cried "You're finally home!" Art replied with his arms around her "And I'm finally with you!"

Epilogue On September 2, 1997, Janice gave birth to twins boys named Joel and Jonathan Klassen.