Jump to content

Pol Pot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Olivier (talk | contribs) at 09:17, 12 September 2002. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Pol Pot (1925-1998) was born in 1925 in Cambodia, then a part of French Indochina. His real name was Saloth Sar. In 1949, he got a scholarship to study radio engineering in Paris. During his study, he became a communist, and joined an emergent Khmer communist group. In 1953, he returned to Cambodia.

At that time, a communist-led revolt was taking place in French Indochina. The centre of this uprising was in Vietnam, but it also took place in Cambodia and Laos. Saloth Sar joined the Viet Minh, but found that they regarded only Vietnam of importance, not Laos and Cambodia. In 1954, the French left Indochina, but the Viet Minh also withdrew to North Vietnam, and King Norodon Sihanouk called elections. Sihanouk abdicated, and formed a political party. Using his popularity and some intimidation, he swept away the communist opposition and gained all of the government seats.

Pol Pot was forced to flee Sihanouk's secret police and spent twelve years in hiding, training recruits. In the late 1960s, Sihanouk's head of internal security, Lon Nol took brutal action against the revolutionaries, known as Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot started an armed uprising against the government, supported by China. In 1970, Lon Nol deposed Sihanouk, because the latter was seen as supporting the Viet Cong. In protest, Sihanouk supported Pol Pot's side. Sihanouk's popularity, as well as bombings by the anti-Communist United States, drove many to Pol Pot's side and soon Lon Nol's government controlled only the cities. Sihanouk was soon side-lined by his more radical colleagues. When the United States left Vietnam in 1973 the Viet Cong left Cambodia, but the Khmer Rouge continued to fight.

In early 1975, the Khmer Rouge unleashed a massive offensive that resulted in Lon Nol's forces being driven back to the suburbs of Phnom Penh. On April 17, the Khmer Rouge took the city and Lon Nol fled to the United States of America. Following the fall of Phnom Penh, politicians and bureaucrats were killed, all other inhabitants were driven out of the city into the countryside, where they were forced to do physical labour. Phnom Penh was turned into a ghost city, and many died of starvation, illnesses or execution. Education, religion, private possessions and families were abolished. Pol Pot became paranoid, and saw internal and external (Vietnamese) plots everywhere. Enormous numbers of suspects were tortured and killed.

In 1978, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia. The Cambodian army was easily beaten, and Pol Pot fled to the Thai border. The Vietnamese installed a puppet government of Khmer Rouge who had fled to Vietnam to avoid the purges, but Pol Pot kept fighting from his base on the Thai border, again supported by China, Thailand and the US. In 1985 Pol Pot officially resigned but continued to lead the Khmer Rouge.

In 1989, the Vietnamese withdrew from Cambodia. Pol Pot refused to cooperate with the peace process, and kept fighting the new coalition government. The Khmer Rouge kept the government forces at bay until 1996, when the demoralised troops started deserting. Several important Khmer Rouge leaders also defected.

In 1997, Pol Pot executed his life-long right hand Son Sen for wanting to make a settlement with the government, but then he himself was arrested by Khmer Rouge military chief Ta Mok, and was sentenced to lifelong house arrest. In April 1998, Ta Mok fled into the forest following a new government attack, and took Pol Pot with him. A few days later Pol Pot died, reportedly of a heart attack.

External links:

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pol_Pot&oldid=458492"