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DIANE SAWYER, ABC News: (voice-over) On World News Tonight this Monday -- the man who created the killing fields of Cambodia is put on trial in the jungle. Ted Koppel with an exclusive report. The 911 call made from Gianni Versace's house moments after he was shot.
CHARLES PODESTA, Chef (From 911 Tape): He was entering his house. We just heard gunshots. We ran outside. He's on the steps of the house.
DIANE SAWYER: (voice-over) And on our "Health Report" -- a brand- new way to help 80 million Americans correct those nearsighted eyes.
ANNOUNCER: From ABC, this is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. Sitting in tonight, Diane Sawyer.
DIANE SAWYER: Good evening. Tonight, one of the century's great political monsters has surfaced again in an exclusive tape obtained by ABC News. He is Pol Pot of Cambodia, the man who massacred more than a million of his countrymen.
(voice-over) These are the scenes from his killing fields two decades ago when Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge forces hauled men, women and children into labor camps. Most died from punishing work and starvation. Educated Cambodians were considered a threat and eliminated with bullets to the back of the head.
(on camera) Afterwards, Pol Pot went into hiding, and for 18 years, we've wondered, did he suffer? Is he still alive? Now, some answers. His former comrades have apparently turned against him and put him on trial in the jungle village.
(voice-over) .of Anlong Veng. Nightline anchor Ted Koppel has traveled to Southeast Asia to cover this story and has our report tonight. TED KOPPEL, ABC News: (voice-over) This is how we saw him last, in an ABC documentary shot nearly 18 years ago -- plump and confident, fresh from causing the deaths of more than a million Cambodians. And this was how he appeared last Friday -- old and inoffensive, no more than mildly interested in a proceeding, a show trial, actually, in which he was the principal defendant.
The decision to arrest, try and sentence Pol Pot was made by his former followers some six weeks ago. It was announced on Khmer Rouge radio and widely disbelieved. So they arranged a public trial...
(Crowd chanting) ...inviting Nate Thayer from the Far Eastern Economic Review to witness the event and to bring with him a cameraman who shot this video. They denounced Pol Pot for murder. They denounced him for torture. They denounced him for corruption. But it seemed more matter of fact than emotional, with the crowd occasionally throwing in a tepid chant of, "crush, crush, crush the Pol Potists." When it was done, Pol Pot was sentenced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. Some of his former comrades told reporter Thayer that the decision was actually reached before the trial.
NATE THAYER, Far Eastern Economic Review: In fact, there was a debate within the leadership on whether to, in fact, kill him, cut him off from medical care, or give him the medical care that they could and allow him to live his final days under house detention.
TED KOPPEL: (voice-over) What is not expected to happen is a real trial, an international tribunal at which Pol Pot might be inclined to indict present and former comrades, many of them now high officials in the Cambodian government who helped carry out the slaughter in the 1970s. Diane? DIANE SAWYER: So you're saying, Ted, that just as in Bosnia, the world has no leverage to force a real trial of a legendary killer? TED KOPPEL: Actually, Diane, it's worse than that. They haven't been able to find this man for the past 17 or 18 years. This is the first time that he's shown up in public, and I think he's now about to disappear again, because they're going to put him under house arrest, allegedly, for the rest of his life. DIANE SAWYER: What to his denouncers hope to accomplish? TED KOPPEL: I think that' s the key question, Diane. What they hope to accomplish is by distancing themselves from Pol Pot, by saying that they are no longer under his control, that, in fact, they are no longer members of the Khmer Rouge. They hope to make themselves, A, acceptable to the international community and, B, to become partners in the government. DIANE SAWYER: As you know, Ted, the government in the capital Phnom Penh has said that this is just theater and that, in fact, Pol Pot is still very much in charge. What's the likelihood of that? TED KOPPEL: Is it possible? Sure, it's possible. This is a man who has been perpetrating hoaxes and confusing people over the past 35 years. Is it likely? I don't think so. This is a man who appears to be fairly close to death, who has malaria, high blood pressure and a heart condition. I think in this instance you can probably take appearances at face value.
DIANE SAWYER: And Ted Koppel will have much more on the Pol Pot story later on Nightline.
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