Pol Pot

[cruororism]

Former Cambodian Communist Leader
1925 - 1998

Born: Saloth Sar, May 19, 1925 in Kompong Thom Province, Cambodia
Education: Lived in Buddhist monastery for six years; Studied carpentry for one year at a technical school in Phnom Penh; Studied radio electronics in Paris (1949).
Military Service: Assumed leadership role in guerrilla warfare.
Occupation: Military and political leader.
Early Years: Taught at private school in Phnom Penh (1954-1963).
Political Career: Joined anti-French resistance under Ho Chi Minh (1940s); Joined Cambodian Communist Party (1946); While a student in Paris, engaged in revolutionary activities (1949-53); Fled from Phnom Penh because police suspected his Communist activities (1963); Built up Cambodian Communist Party, served as party secretary (1963- 1975); Led Khmer Rouge guerrilla forces in overthrow of Lon Nol regime (1975); Prime minister of new Khmer Rouge government (1976-1979); Headed Khmer Rouge forces in mountains of southwestern Cambodia against Hanoi-backed government (1975-1985); Alleged removed from military and political leadership of Khmer Rouge (1985).


Pol Pot
1925 - 1998

Pol Pot, whose name became synonymous with the Khmer Rouge guerrillas and genocide, was born into a peasant family in Cambodia. He spent six years of his youth in a Buddhist monastery, including two years as a Buddhist monk. He studied carpentry at a technical school in the nation's capital and joined the anti-French resistance organized by Ho Chi Minh. He entered the Cambodian Communist Party in 1946. In 1949 Pol studied radio electronics in Paris, France, on a scholarship. He spent more time on his clandestine Communist activities than studying radio, and failed his examinations and returned to Cambodia in 1953.

Pol Pot taught at a private school from 1954 to 1963 but had to flee the capital when the police discovered his Communist activities. From that time on, he devolved himself to building up the Cambodian Communist Party and serving as its secretary. In 1975 he led the Khmer Rouge in its overthrow of the government of Norodom Sihanouk and the military government of Lon Nol. Between 1975 and 1979 Pol Pot was prime minister of the infamous "killing fields" Communist government . His radical Maoist version of Communism centered on a return to a utopian agricultural society and rejection of modern urban life. The populations of Cambodia's cities were forced to evacuate the cities, move to the countryside and engage in agricultural labor. In the forced mass exodus, the government caused the deaths of an estimated 2 million Cambodians through imprisonment, torture, overwork, starvation and execution. Finally in 1979, a border dispute led to a Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia which overthrew Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government and installed a regime friendly to the Vietnamese.

Pol Pot fled to southwestern Cambodia where he led a Khmer Rouge insurgency against the Vietnamese-backed central government. China and Thailand in the 1980s supported a three-party guerrilla alliance that included the Khmer Rouge and royalists against the Vietnamese-supported government of Premier Hun Sen. The government would not negotiate with the Khmer Rouge as long as Pol Pot remained its leader.

In 1985, Pol Pot was allegedly removed from military and political leadership of the Khmer Rouge, but he stayed in the Khmer Rouge in an ill-defined defense position. In 1991 the Khmer Rouge signed a peace treaty officially ending the Cambodian war. In 1992 Prince Sihanouk denounced the Khmer Rouge and allied with Hun Sen, upsetting the balance of power. The Khmer Rouge withdrew from the peace process, resumed fighting, and in 1993 boycotted a national election. Royalists won the election, a new constitution reestablished the monarchy, and Norodom Sihanouk again became king.

In the mid-1990s, the Khmer Rouge suffered reverses due to internal factionalism and government military offensives against them. The Khmer Rouge split apart in 1996 and its moderate faction based in the north defected to the government. Hard-liners under Pol Pot stayed in their mountain jungle stronghold.

Pol Pot died on April 15, 1998 in Bangkok, Thailand, evading prosecution for the deaths of as many as 2 million of his countrymen.