Jon (John) Anketell Brewer Swain is an award-winning British journalist and writer who was portrayed by Julian Sands in the 1984 Oscar-winning film The Killing Fields. Swain's book River of Time: A Memoir of Vietnam chronicles his experiences from 1970 to 1975 during the war in Indochina, including the fall of Cambodia.[1]
Swain was born in London and after an unhappy education at the independent Blundell's School, from which he was expelled, he ran away to join the French Foreign Legion.
For many years, Swain was The Sunday Times' correspondent in Paris. During this time he had many famous scoops, including uncovering the financial support extended by Libya's Colonel Gaddafi's to Arthur Scargill's National Union of Mineworkers. He also reported for the newspaper from East Timor in 1999, at the time of its vote for independence, which saw widespread violence by Indonesian-backed militias.[2] There he and American photographer Chip Hires were ambushed by Indonesian soldiers in the same place and by the same soldiers who had that day killed Financial Times journalist Sander Thoenes. They escaped by hiding in the bushes and calling The Sunday Times office in London on a mobile phone. The Times then rang the Australian army and Swain and Hires were rescued by Helicopter.[3]
French journalist Denis Robert, who unveiled the "Clearstream affair", wrote in 2006 in his book "Clearstream, l'enquête"[4] that he believes Jon Swain was working in 2005 for Hakluyt & Company Limited, a private intelligence firm based in London with close links to MI6.[5]