Pol Pot killed Son Sen and his family / Pol Pot fled ?

[Dam Son <son@fermi.phys.washington.edu>]

South China Morning Post,  Friday  June 13  1997
                                   
Pol Pot executes top comrade, flees: PM 
                                   
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Phnom Penh
Updated at 1.55pm:

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot executed another guerrilla leader and fled his
last remaining base with several hostages, Cambodia's First Prime Minister
Prince Norodom Ranariddh said on Friday. 

The notorious leader of Cambodia's ''Killing Fields'' regime of the 1970s
apparently changed his mind about negotiating the surrender of remaining
rebel troops and ordered the execution of former Khmer Rouge defence
minister Son Sen and his family for alleged espionage. 

Pol Pot, accompanied by his ''hostages'' - nominal guerrilla leader Khieu
Samphan, ''finance minister'' Mak Ben and ''minister of territorial
integrity'' Tep Khunnal - and 200 armed supporters, fled from Anlong Veng
near the Thai border on Wednesday, Prince Ranariddh said. 

The prince, citing information from his deputy Chief of Staff Nhiek Bun
Chhay, said Pol Pot, who is very ill was being carried on a hammock and
had intravenous injections hanging from his arms. 

Prince Ranariddh said his location was unknown but that a neighboring
''friendly country'' - presumably Thailand - had sealed its borders and
that Khmer Rouge renegades who disagreed with the decision to break off
negotiations had surrounded the fleeing party. 

Nhiek Bun Chhay went to the Anlong Veng area on Thursday and the prince
said he returned to the region on Friday carrying supplies for the
renegades with the permission of the co-ministers of defence. 

''First, Pol Pot agreed for Khieu Samphan to solve the (ongoing
insurgency) through national reconcilation, but he changed his mind,'' the
prince said. 

He said Pol Pot had then accused Son Sen of treason and espionage for
allegedly being an agent of Second Prime Minister Hun Sen and forced Khieu
Samphan to read a statement to that effect on clandestine Khmer Rouge
radio. 

''Then he killed Son Sen and his family, all of his children and drove
cars over their bodies,'' the prince said, adding that 11 people in all
had been killed and that he had photographic evidence of the deaths. 

Khmer Rouge radio, which on Wednesday broadcast allegations against Son
Sen and his wife, Yun Yat, another senior cadre, was silent on Friday.
Analysts said this indicated there may be a crisis in the guerrilla
leadership. 

Prince Ranariddh's royalist Funcinpec party has been negotiating with the
hardline leadership to secure the surrender of their troops in exchange
for top rebel leaders Pol Pot and Ta Mok to go into exile. 

The prince has said such a deal would allow Khieu Samphan to form a
llegitimate political party that could join a royalist-led political
alliance expected to oppose Hun Sen's formerly communist Cambodian
People's Party (CPP) in upcoming elections. 

Hun Sen, noting that the Khmer Rouge were outlawed by 1994 legislation,
has said any contact with the guerrillas before they completely split with
Pol Pot and the hardline central leadership is illegal. 

Some senior members of the CPP were cautious in their assessment of Prince
Ranariddh's announcement. One military commander hinted that it could be a
ruse to try to convince people that Khieu Samphan had split with Pol Pot. 

The prince defended the negotiations, saying no chance to end the Khmer
Rouge should be wasted and saying he was acting not for himself or his
party but for the country as a whole. 

''This is the end of life for the Khmer Rouge,'' he said. ''What I have
done is not for Ranariddh, but for the government.''

                                   
                                   
Top guerilla in Bangkok? So what? 
                                   
WILLIAM BARNES

The Thai authorities have had a long, discreet and mutually beneficial
relationship with the Khmer Rouge. 

So when rumours resurfaced that Pol Pot might be far from his jungle
hideouts and in Bangkok the response from some observers of the mass
murderer was "So what?" 

No outsider has been able to confirm whether Pol Pot is even still alive;
let alone paddling in some hotel swimming pool in Bangkok. 

Even if the Thai military really knows, it has had nearly two decades of
practice at keeping secrets about the man's whereabouts - ever since he
was bounced out of Cambodia by the invading Vietnamese. 

The diplomatic corps in Bangkok has long suspected Pol Pot and his
henchmen have visited Bangkok many times. Up until the UN-sponsored
elections four years ago Pol Pot had a semi-secret house in Trat near the
Cambodian border. 

In recent years Thai governments have tried to distance themselves from
the Khmer Rouge: Pol Pot is no longer allowed to live blatantly in
Thailand and Thai diplomats are shocked at the suggestion he could retire
there. 

But the suspicion remains that a relationship still exists, at least with
some elements of the Thai military who have traditionally considered
border security their prerogative.