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| Published in Washington, D.C. August 4, 1997 |
Khmer Rouge has copy of Pol Pot
Ta Mok, known as 'the Butcher,' may be its new leader
By Richard S. Ehrlich
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
PHNOM PENH Cambodia
Pol Pot's show trial conviction last month may signal the rise of a new Khmer Rouge leader in Ta Mok, a brutal, one-legged mass murderer, known by his homicidal nickname, "the Butcher."
"If Pol Pot is no longer in charge, the person who most likely is in power is Ta Mok," said Christophe Peschoux, an expert on the Cambodian guerrilla group and author of a book titled "The 'New' Khmer Rouge."
"Ta Mok is a step backwards," Mr. Peschoux said in a recent interview. "He is even more ruthless and radical and unsophisticated in his views compared with Pol Pot."
Ta Mok -- a close comrade of Pol Pot's from the earliest days of the Khmer Rouge -- was chief of the general staff of the group's armed forces and is accused of having tens of thousands of people slaughtered, often doing the killing himself.
Mr. Peschoux sees Pol Pot's July 25 trial and conviction by his former followers as a desperate propaganda ploy to "whitewash the Khmer Rouge of its bad name and make the movement more palatable.
"They would want [political] recognition of the new Khmer Rouge. But with Ta Mok calling the shots, how can anyone recognize them?" Mr. Peschoux added.
Brad Adams, a human rights lawyer who has worked in Cambodia for several years, agreed with Mr. Peschoux.
"Ta Mok is in charge. It is not good news. They have traded one barbarian for another," he said.
"Ta Mok and Pol Pot had deep enmity for each other. Scholars will probably put it down to ideology. But I think they are just two people who hate each other, ideology has nothing to do with it."
But some analysts, such as Documentation Center of Cambodia director Youk Chhang, think Pol Pot could have scripted his own trial in a scheme to clear the way for his organization to acquire a share of political power.
"This is proof the Khmer Rouge have no other solution now...so they try to convict themselves to gain trust by the public," said Mr. Chhang, whose center is massing evidence against Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge leaders.
"Pol Pot is willing to trade a bad reputation for power. He is willing for you to curse him 1,000 times, or for someone to rape his wife, or for someone kill his kid...
"If it is real, they should hand over Pol Pot to the government."
Whether Pol Pot orchestrated the trial or not, his former followers seem to think they have cleared their own reputations with the hearing.
"From now on, international opinion cannot accuse our resistance movement of being something it is not," one new Khmer Rouge military commander announced at the trial. "There is no Pol Pot."
The group is expected to try now to join mainstream Cambodian politics by allying themselves with one of the two prime ministers who are vying to rule this Southeast Asian nation.
The remaining Khmer Rouge "hard-liners" are more likely to find favor among supporters of the recently toppled prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who are trying to establish a base for military resistance along the Cambodia-Thai border, near where Pol Pot is being held.
It is thought that Prince Ranariddh's forces could form an alliance with Khmer Rouge rebels in a bid to fight their way back to power.
The Khmer Rouge would find it harder to come to terms with victorious Prime Minister Hun Sen, whom they have publicly criticized as a "puppet slave" of Vietnam because of the military and political support he received from Hanoi during the 1980s.
Hun Sen himself ascribes to the theory that Pol Pot orchestrated his own trial. "Now I know Pol Pot is still alive in Anlong Veng, and he's the leader of the Khmer Rouge forces," he has said.
But Mr. Peschoux argues that Hun Sen would want to suggest Pol Pot is still running the Khmer Rouge as this would make it harder for Prince Ranariddh to form an alliance with it.
U.S. official want Pol Pot to face trial before an international tribunal for his crimes, but analysts say his successors will not want to give him a chance to tell what he knows about them.
Even if Khmer Rouge turncoats offer to send Pol Pot to a tribunal, they would probably make unacceptable demands, analysts say.
Stunning photographs released last week of the white-haired Pol Pot at his trial sent ripples of fear and amazement through Phnom Penh, where residents were still reeling from Hun Sen's bloody power grab.
"Oh, Pol Pot looks old. And sick. I'm happy. This means he cannot come back and attack us anymore," said one businesswoman who lost relatives under Pol Pot's reign.
There is no indication who now controls the vast fortune acquired by Pol Pot during the past 20 years through logging and gem deals with businessmen in Thailand.
"He is rich, and has up to 400 million U.S. dollars," Pol Pot's brother-in-law, Ieng Sary, said in February, shortly after defection from the Khmer Rouge to join Hun Sen.