SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN
WorldView
July 9, 1997
Conspiracies in Cambodia
by Richard S. Ehrlich
PHNOM PENH , CAMBODIA -- Amid last week's fighting
between political factions, people are still wondering
what the outcome will be of the seizure and trial of
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
The latest conspiracy theory places the genocidal maniac
and his henchman in a secret location inside China,
former ally of Pol Pot's Cambodia, where they are
counting the millions of dollars they amassed over the
past 20 years from foreign aid, logging, and gem
contracts.
A gorier scenario portrays Pol Pot's pudgy head jammed on
a spike, with flies buzzing around it, somewhere in the
jungle of northwest Cambodia. Then there is the Michael
Jackson scenario: Pol Pot is indeed alive in the jungle,
but so ill that he requires oxygen tanks to stay alive.
This last rumor begs the question: How is he getting
sophisticated medical treatment in a land where most
hospitals don't have what it takes to treat simple
diseases?
Ranariddh recently said Pol Pot was being brought down a
northwest mountain on a stretcher by his own guerrillas,
who recently rebelled against him. Ranariddh's latest
update claims that the mountain trip -- and the
treacherous politics involved -- is so brutal that Pol
Pot either is dying, is dead, or will be killed before
reaching flat land.
"It appears to me that some Cambodians, and maybe some
countries, are not really willing to see Pol Pot alive
and brought to justice," Ranariddh said. "You see, maybe
Pol Pot would say something not very nice to them. Pol
Pot will say, 'Those people were involved,' or 'Those
countries were supporting me for years.' "
The United States and many of its Western allies, along
with China and Vietnam, have at various times supported
Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge either directly or through
financial aid to his coalition guerrilla forces.
Many people in the current Cambodian government,
including Ranariddh and his father, King Norodom
Sihanouk, either fought alongside the Khmer Rouge or
spoke out in support of the guerrillas' efforts to rid
the country of Vietnamese domination.
Hun Sen, Ranariddh's powerful rival, claims that
Ranariddh is using Pol Pot -- dead or alive -- as a trick
to bolster Ranariddh's weak military forces by adding
Khmer Rouge defectors to his ranks.
Hun Sen, himself once a Khmer Rouge fighter under Pol
Pot, insists such deviousness is behind the current hunt
for Pol Pot. Hun Sen reportedly suggested Pol Pot's
corpse could be injected with formaldehyde to stop it
from rotting, so Cambodians and the rest of the world
could see for themselves he was truly dead.
The two feuding prime ministers have stirred the various
Pol Pot rumors by passing on unsubstantiated reports from
their colleagues. Hun Sen recently announced, "I have
just received a phone call from [Interior Minister] Sar
Kheng 15 minutes ago telling me that Pol Pot is already
dead."
Sar Kheng, however, later said "Pol Pot is not dead yet.
My staff got confused when listening to Khmer Rouge rebel
radio from Anlong Veng, and then I sent this
information." He added, "We don't know where Pol Pot is."
'Brother Number One'
Meanwhile, people wonder why the man is named Pol Pot.
Born Saloth Sar, he first led a communist guerrilla
movement against Cambodian president Lon Nol's
U.S.-backed regime and Richard M. Nixon's so-called
secret bombing of Cambodia during the late 1960s and
early 1970s.
When Khmer Rouge guerrillas toppled Lon Nol in 1975 and
began their "killing fields" reign, Saloth Sar changed
his name to Pol Pot, apparently to remain obscure.
Some Cambodians say the pseudonym was short for
"political potential." But the truth of that truncation
remains unconfirmed.
After seizing power, Pol Pot titled himself "Brother
Number One" and hid behind a dreaded Leninist-style
collective called the Angkar, an all-seeing organization
said to have "more eyes than a pineapple," which spied on
citizens and liquidated anyone deemed untrustworthy or
racially impure.
None of that spared Pol Pot from a 1979 Vietnamese
invasion that ousted him and his Khmer Rouge supporters,
forcing them to flee. But the decade-long Vietnamese
occupation of Cambodia failed to destroy Pol Pot. Hanoi
reluctantly withdrew its troops in 1989. New Cambodian
armies took up the Pol Pot manhunt, but with no more
success.
Today, some Cambodians and diplomats insist the specter
of Pol Pot may essentially be a Trojan horse.
According to this scenario, Pol Pot's senior comrade,
Khieu Samphan, has put out word that he has captured Pol
Pot and will exchange him for amnesty. Khieu Samphan and
the top leadership of the Khmer Rouge face a possible
tribunal for their genocidal regime, which resulted in
the deaths of more than one million Cambodians. If Khieu
Samphan can cut a deal with the Cambodian government to
gain immunity from prosecution in exchange for Pol Pot,
then Khieu Samphan would be able to enter mainstream
society.
Pol Pot, meanwhile, would suddenly disappear at the last
minute -- either by faking his death or by escaping over
the border or down the Mekong River. Khieu Samphan and
other Khmer Rouge "defectors" would then seize power and
Pol Pot could emerge and rule Cambodia again.
Recently, Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly warned, "It is
not OK to let Khieu Samphan in Cambodia. People are so
frightened of the Khmer Rouge that if he does return,
people will surely split his flesh with a cleaver." But
Prime Minister Ranariddh complained that another Khmer
Rouge leader, Ieng Sary, was earlier allowed to switch
sides with Hun Sen's blessing.
Ranariddh said Khieu Samphan was less evil, and "is
unlike Ieng Sary, because [Khieu Samphan] not only cut
himself off from Pol Pot but also caught Pol Pot."
If the Trojan horse conspiracy unfolds as many predict,
Ranariddh would push to clear Khieu Samphan's name, then
enjoy the support of possibly thousands of Khmer Rouge
loyalists, in addition to Ranariddh's own royalists.
Occasional gun battles in the capital and outlying cities
are alleged to be part of various assassination and coup
attempts, timed to take advantage of the current
political confusion.
Dead or alive?
When armed forces deputy chief of staff General Nhiek Bun
Chhay, a royalist, recently returned from the northwest
Anlong Veng region, he claimed to have seen Pol Pot
alive, in a room, and looking "very old" -- not
surprising, considering he would be about 70.
Nhiek Bun Chhay, who failed to produce any evidence of
the sighting, has been told to bring a camera next time.
For greater certainty, some suggest bringing back a lock
of Pol Pot's hair to test against the DNA of his
relatives, who are still alive in Cambodia and
California.
Pol Pot's nephew was an air force pilot who escaped by
flying to Thailand two days before the Khmer Rouge
achieved power in 1975. In 1990, Pol Pot's nephew was
living in California with a Cambodian wife and two
U.S.-born sons, according to Pol Pot's brother Saloth
Suong, who recently died.
Cheerful photographs recently reviewed by the Bay
Guardian showed a man identified as Pol Pot's nephew on a
southern California beach -- in a Levi's jacket, white
pants, and aviator shades.
Richard S. Ehrlich is an Asia correspondent based in
Bangkok, Thailand.
Website, more Asia news plus the non-fiction book of interviews, documentation and investigative journalism, titled: "Hello My Big Big Honey!" Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews
at: http://www.oocities.org/asia_correspondent