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ACHIVE ARTICLES

Cambodia: 1998

1956: Cambodia

1957: Cambodia
1958: Cambodia
1959: Cambodia
1960: Cambodia
1961: Cambodia
1962: Cambodia
1963: Cambodia
1964: Cambodia
1965: Cambodia
1966: Cambodia
1967: Cambodia
1968: Cambodia
1969: Cambodia
1970: Cambodia
1971: Cambodia
1972: Cambodia (Khmer Republic)
1973: Cambodia (Khmer Republic)
1974: Cambodia (Khmer Republic)
1975: Cambodia
1976: Cambodia
1977: Cambodia
1978: Cambodia
1979: Cambodia
1980: Cambodia
1981: Cambodia
1982: Cambodia
1983: Cambodia
1984: Cambodia
1985: Cambodia
1986: Cambodia
1987: Cambodia
1988: Cambodia
1989: Cambodia
1990: Cambodia
1991: Cambodia
1992: Cambodia
1993: Cambodia
1994: Cambodia
1995: Cambodia
1996: Cambodia
1997: Cambodia
1998: Archaeology: Radar Reveals Hidden Ruins in Cambodia
1998: Cambodia: Hun Sen Declares Election Victory
1998: Pol Pot Dies at 73
1998: Coalition Government

Cambodian Despot Pol Pot Dies at 73

Archives consist of articles that originally appeared in Collier's Year Book (for events of 1997 and earlier) or as monthly updates in Encarta Yearbook (for events of 1998 and later). Because they were published shortly after events occurred, they reflect the information available at that time. Cross references refer to Archive articles of the same year.

 

1998: Cambodian Despot Pol Pot Dies at 73

Pol Pot, the onetime leader of Cambodia's Communist Khmer Rouge movement—one of the 20th century's bloodiest and most brutal regimes—died on April 15, 1998, in the jungles of northern Cambodia, leaving behind a country still struggling with the legacy of his murderous rule. The details of his birth are disputed, but he was reportedly 73 years old.

According to the Khmer Rouge, now renamed the National Solidarity Party, Pol Pot died peacefully in his sleep of a heart attack, but his body was cremated before an autopsy could be performed. Some analysts speculated that Pol Pot was murdered by his Khmer Rouge colleagues in order to prevent him from testifying about the atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge's four-year reign of terror from 1975 to 1979. In the weeks before his death a United States-led effort to bring Pol Pot to trial appeared to be making headway, and his testimony might have proved damaging to other Khmer Rouge leaders.

Pol Pot was regarded as the mastermind behind the Khmer Rouge's bizarre attempt to empty Cambodia's cities and move the entire population into rural communes. Buddhist monks, ethnic minorities, intellectuals, and anyone from a middle class background were singled out for extermination. In four years about 1.7 million Cambodians died at the hands of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, victims of starvation, disease, overwork, torture, and summary execution.

Known as “Brother Number One” during his time in power, Pol Pot's influence had long since ebbed. He and his forces fled to the jungle in 1979 when they were overthrown by a Vietnamese invasion. Although the Khmer Rouge remained a potent guerrilla force for many years, the movement began to fragment in the 1990s. In 1996 one of Pol Pot's top lieutenants, Ieng Sary, defected to the Cambodian government and took with him thousands of Khmer Rouge soldiers. And in July 1997 Pol Pot was put on trial by the Khmer Rouge and sentenced to life in prison.

 

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