KHMER ROUGE GIVE POL POT LIFE IN PRISON
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- The Khmer Rouge leader whose reign of terror left nearly two million Cambodians dead sat silently, nearly in tears while his former comrades denounced him during a "show trial," the first Western journalist to see Pol Pot in 18 years said today.
The white-haired, 69-year-old leader, wearing baggy black trousers, a gray shirt and blue scarf, sat on a makeshift stage while his comrades shouted at him, according to Nate Thayer, a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review.
For the man who ruled Cambodia with a brutal and absolute hand from 1975-79, the shock of being turned on by his own men appeared to be too much. After the 80-minute outdoor trial -- and sentence of life in prison -- Thayer said Pol Pot needed to be assisted by men gripping his arms. "The events of his purge and trial were so traumatic that I thought he might die during the process," Thayer said in a press release received today in Bangkok. "You could see the anguish on his face as he was denounced by his former loyalists. He was close to tears." Pol Pot and three top commanders were put through a "classic, 1960s Cultural Revolution-style show trial" Friday in the guerrilla stronghold of Anlong Veng, Thayer said. Thayer, a former reporter for The Associated Press, was permitted to enter Anlong Veng, about 200 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, on Friday. There, he said, he saw Pol Pot, who is seriously ill and from time to time had been rumored to have died. Cambodian leader Hun Sen today called the reported trial "a political game by the Khmer Rouge." "Pol Pot is in Anlong Veng and is leading the forces," Hun Sen told reporters in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. Thayer, however, said a crowd of 500 Khmer Rouge guerillas and civilians -- many of whom were missing an arm, leg or an eye from Cambodia's decades-long civil war -- chanted "Crush, crush, crush, Pol Pot and his clique." Seven Khmer Rouge leaders testified that Pol Pot, whose real name is Saloth Sar, and his men were guilty of murders, destroying national reconciliation and stealing money from the party. They said the "drunk and corrupt" commanders had raped the wives of their comrades. The Khmer Rouge said, however, he would not be turned over to international courts. Most of Pol Pot's remaining Khmer Rouge guerillas turned against him in June after he murdered his defense minister Son Sen and 10 members of Son Sen's family. Pol Pot executed Son Sen for allegedly betraying him during peace negotiations the Khmer Rouge was holding with First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who was deposed July 5 in a coup by his co-premier, Hun Sen. Pol Pot fled through the jungles, carried on a stretcher, until he was captured by his former men. Most of the information about the demise of Pol Pot came from Cambodian government sources, and many observers doubted whether the reports were credible. "This is not a hoax, this is not a ruse. Pol Pot is finished," Thayer said. "The Khmer Rouge as we have known them no longer exist." The Khmer Rouge swept to power in April 1975, and to implement their radical Maoist version of communism immediately emptied out cities, and turned the country into a massive agricultural labor camp. As many as 2 million Cambodians perished as they brutally purged all opposition. Many died from overwork, starvation and disease before a Vietnamese invasion ousted the Khmer Rouge in early January 1979. The Khmer Rouge fled to the border near Thailand where they continued to wage a guerilla war until the movement began to fragment as guerrillas began defecting to the government in 1996.