[news] Thailand promises to help Cambodia capture Pol Pot

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

Thais to help Cambodia nab Pol Pot

The Straits Times (Singapore), Jun 14 97.

BANGKOK -- Thailand yesterday promised to help Cambodia capture Khmer
Rouge leaders Pol Pot after he killed his defence chief and fled his base
with loyalists and hostages. 

A Thai general made the pledge after Cambodia's First Prime Minister
Prince Norodom Ranariddh said in Phnom Penh that Pol Pot had killed his
defence chief Son Sen and taken the rebel group's nominal leaders Mr Khieu
Samphan, hostage. 

"The immediate task for the Cambodian troops is to rescue Khieu Samphan
and later join hands in crushing the remaining Khmer Rouge guerrillas led
by the hardliner Pol Pot," said the general. 

He said Thai troops had sealed off the northern Thai-Cambodian border and
would co-operate with the Cambodian government to capture the ailing Pol
Pot, who is believed to have left his northern Anlong Veng base carried in
a sling by his men. 

"Pol Pot would have nowhere to go but to die in Cambodia," the general
said, adding that Pol Pot's actions in killing Mr Son Sen and abducting Mr
Khieu Samphan were unforgivable. 

The Thai general, who declined to be identified, was a confidant of the
Maoist Pol Pot, whose Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia with an iron hand from
1975 to 1979. 

More than one million Cambodians died under the "killing fields" reign of
terror of the Khmer Rouge. 

The latest reports on Pol Pot's movements prompted the Thai military to
close its border in north-eastern Si Sa Khet province, bordering
Cambodia's Phre Vehear province which is close to Anlong Veng, an army
source said. 

Thailand was the closest ally of the Khmer Rouge, who worked with Asean to
establish a coalition of rebel factions to fight the then
Vietnamese-installed Cambodian government in the early 80s. 

With supplies from China, the Khmer Rouge were alleged to have used Thai
territory as a springboard to fight the Phnom Penh government. 

"The Thai connection with Khmer Rouge has stopped since 1991, when the
warring faction signed a peace agreement in Paris.  This time we will
prove that we are serious in helping the Cambodian government to end the
Khmer Rouge rebel group," an authoritative source told Reuters. 

Pol Pot, 69, was last seen in public in 1979 when 250,000 Vietnamese
troops invaded Cambodia and drove him from Phnom Penh. 

Thai Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who said he had met Pol Pot
several times during the 80s, told Reuters recently that Pol Pot was
determined not to repent for his deeds. 

"I took him to several temples to listen to the preachings of Buddhist
monks but he was too tough and unchangeable," Gen Chavalit said. 

A retired Thai general, who helped organise the Khmer Rouge and several
resistance groups against the Cambodian government in the 80s, said he
believed Pol Pot's movement might be finished. 

"If the reports that Pol Pot has killed Son Sen and abducted Khieu Samphan
are true, this means he has decided to end his struggle and everything,"
the general said. -- Reuter.