Cambodia - Pol Pot dies, April 15, 1998
George Moore
> Ex-Khmer Rouge Leader Pol Pot Dies
>
> By David Longstreath
> Associated Press Writer
> Thursday, April 16, 1998; 3:38 p.m. EDT
>
> ANLONG VENG, Cambodia (AP) -- Laid out in a simple
> jungle hut, flowers at his head and the reek of
> formaldehyde in the air, the body of Khmer Rouge leader
> Pol Pot was put on display Thursday by his
> comrades-turned-captors to prove his death to the
> world.
>
> Pol Pot, 73, died late Wednesday of an apparent heart
> attack, his captors said -- a peaceful end compared to
> the deaths from violence and starvation of as many as 2
> million Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge's reign.
>
> His death dashed hopes that Pol Pot might finally be
> brought to justice for crimes against humanity during
> the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge reign.
>
> Partially covered with a lime-green shroud and dressed
> in gray slacks and a cotton shirt, Pol Pot's body lay
> on a wooden bed in a hut less than 300 yards from the
> border with Thailand. Teen-age guerrillas from the
> hard-line Khmer Rouge faction that held Pol Pot under
> loose house arrest since last year watched silently as
> photographers snapped pictures and reporters took
> notes.
>
> A bouquet of flowers rested at his head and his nose
> was plugged with cotton balls.
>
> In the distance, fighting could be heard between Khmer
> Rouge hard-liners, on one side, and defectors supported
> by government troops, who are trying to drive the
> dwindling band of hard-line holdouts to the border with
> Thailand.
>
> In Phnom Penh, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith
> said the government still hopes to catch and try other
> Khmer Rouge leaders, who lost a major bargaining chip
> for a peace deal with Pol Pot's death.
>
> The hard-liners, led by Ta Mok, a one-legged general
> known as ``The Butcher,'' ousted Pol Pot in a bloody
> power play last year after he opposed peace talks with
> Cambodia's co-premier at the time, Prince Norodom
> Ranariddh. The talks collapsed when Ranariddh was
> deposed in a bloody coup.
>
> Inspired by Chinese communism and schooled in leftist
> politics in France, Pol Pot, who was born Saloth Sar,
> orchestrated a communist revolution that turned into
> one of the most violent reigns of the 20th century.
>
> From 1975-1979, the Khmer Rouge turned Cambodia into a
> vast killing field and slave labor camp. One Cambodian
> in five died of overwork, disease and systematic
> executions before the Khmer Rouge were toppled by an
> invasion from Vietnam.
>
> Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk recently described Pol
> Pot as ``one of the most horrible monsters ever created
> by humanity.''
>
> His jailer, Non Nou, said Pol Pot's heart stopped at
> 11:15 p.m. (12:15 p.m. EDT) Wednesday.
>
> ``At 12 midnight, (Pol Pot's) wife came to us. She
> learned that her husband was dead when she was tying
> the (mosquito) net for him,'' Non Nou said. ``He died
> in a hut built for him after he lost his power.''
>
> The government demanded the body be turned over, but
> Non Nou said it would be cremated in a day or two.
>
> Pol Pot's death is unlikely to have much impact on
> Cambodia, preoccupied with a forthcoming election
> between current strongman Hun Sen and rivals loyal to
> Ranariddh.
>
> Khmer Rouge leaders recently said they were preparing
> to hand over Pol Pot, but had not decided how or to
> whom. There were reports Washington wanted to take him
> into custody.
>
> ``I think we could almost have arrested him tomorrow.
> It was very close,'' said Youk Chhang, director of the
> Documentation Center of Cambodia, a Yale
> University-affiliated project gathering evidence
> against Khmer Rouge leaders for any future trials.
>
> But Non Nou said that was unlikely: ``The international
> community was too late. They said they wanted Pol Pot,
> but they never contacted us. They only talked.''
>
> He said Pol Pot's death would benefit the Khmer Rouge.
> ``No one will say anything about the Pol Pot regime any
> more. It's finished. Who else bears the guilt like Pol
> Pot? This time, the movement is very clean.''
>
> The Thai military estimates Ta Mok still has 2,000 men
> under arms, but the Cambodian government puts the
> figure at a few hundred.
>
> Youk Chhang questioned the timing of Pol Pot's death,
> saying countries like Thailand and China must be
> ``relieved'' because Pol Pot would not be able to
> disclose how much they helped his movement.
>
> Asked if it was possible someone had killed Pol Pot,
> Non Nou said, ``If they are afraid the body was
> tampered with, ask his wife. She was there. No one has
> done anything like that.''
>
> After a five-year civil war, the Khmer Rouge toppled
> the U.S.-backed Lon Nol government in 1975 and began a
> Maoist-style purge of Western influences.
>
> Phnom Penh's residents were herded out of the city at
> gunpoint, vast communes were established, schools and
> money abolished and the slightest infractions of
> draconian rules were punished by execution.
>
> After Vietnam's army toppled the Khmer Rouge in 1979,
> the guerrillas retreated to the jungles to fight
> successive governments. The group fragmented in 1996
> when thousands of rebels made peace. In return, some
> leaders as bloodstained as Pol Pot received amnesty.
>
> © Copyright 1998 The Associated Press
JNKrause
Easy, too!
All we haveta do is catch him when he visits somewhere, and embalm him.
Doesn't matter if he complains that he's OK, the embalming will do the job, and
we'll be rid of a famous and evil bastard.
That's an order.
JK
Song
I will order some 5T gang in Australia to blow his head or take another one
of his eye away, When he come to Visit Australia again. Cambodia Will leave
in Peace if that country don't have a person named called Hun Sen.
Proleng Khmer
Song
JNKrause wrote in message <19981204014742...@ng-cc1.aol.com>...