Gareth Jones
[bas relief by Oleh Lesiuk]
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TOPICAL
'Are you Listening NYT?' U.N. Speech - Nov 2009 |
Gareth Recognised at Cambridge - Nov 2009 |
Reporter and the Genocide - Rome, March 2009 |
Order of Freedom Award -Nov 2008 |
Premiere of 'The Living' Documentary Kyiv - Nov 2008 |
Gareth Jones 'Famine' Diaries - Chicago 2008 |
Aberystwyth Memorial Plaque 2006 |
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Midnight came and we seemed to have lost our way. All the maps are bad and the distances are wrong. Luckily it was the night of the full moon. “I am afraid”, said Anatoli, the Russian chauffeur: “Are we anywhere near the Soviet frontier? If so, we’ll be shot. I have no documents”. “We had been earlier”, said Müller. Earlier we had been within 30-40 miles from Soviet Outer Mongolia, but now we were about 100 miles away. “We’ll have to camp out”, said Müller. We then passed the skeleton of a camel in the moonlight. “Killed by desert foxes,” said Müller. All day long we had passed skeletons of cows and horses killed by desert wolves. “Let’s go”, said Anatoli: “Soon we’ll come to Beidzemiao”. So we rattled on. At 1.30 a.m., after travelling for 21 hours we gave a shout: “Hurray!” We could see a town of mud walls and with temples. We were all about dead-beat and we thought: ‘time now for a good rest’. Suddenly we came to a river, which was about 150 yards from the town. It looked like a ford. Our car splashed through and then, just as the front wheels had gone on the other bank, the back wheels got stuck! The car could not get out. We tried until about 2.30 a.m., pushing, but it was no use! Anatoli and I went into the town and shouted, but no one came although a lot of dogs barked. We went to some Mongol yurts half a mile away, but the Mongols just grunted from inside. We went further on, but we could find no help anywhere. Finally at 3.45 a.m. we came back to the car where we decided to stay until dawn. I slept for nearly two hours and when I woke up I was bewildered. There were two camels tugging in front and a host of Mongols. I got out of the car and we all pulled at ropes. Next we got some oxen, but they were no use at all. Then a lama in salmon coloured silk robes came down in a car from the temple. About eight o’clock we decided to go to the town and leave the car. We came to an inn that was occupied by Japanese who were most hospitable and charming. At nine o’clock, they gave us a room and after 29 hours I lay down on the floor and slept! |
Gareth at the Lama service. |
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