April 15, 1998 - Pol Pot

Human Rights a Day

Former Cambodian dictator Pol Pot dies. Pol Pot was born Saloth Sar on May 19, 1925 in Cambodia. Though he did not graduate from high school, he studied in Paris, where he developed a strong interest in the teachings of Marx and Lenin and linked up with other Cambodians pursuing communism. After returning to Cambodia in 1953, he took a leadership role in the country’s communist parties and by 1963, headed up the Workers’ Party of Kampuchea, later known as the Khmer Rouge. At first, the American government supported the Khmer Rouge, but then worked against it. Between 1969 and 1973, the U.S. secretly carpet-bombed Cambodia, unintentionally enhancing the Khmer Rouge’s appeal among Cambodians. Pot and his party controlled most of the country by 1975, when they began “purifying” the country of capitalism, foreign influence and religion. Millions of people were forceably moved from the cities to live agrarian lives. During Pot’s less than four years in power, between 1.5 and 3 million people died from hard labour, starvation, disease – or execution in what was known as the “killing fields.” When Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978, Pot and his party fled to the far reaches of the country, where they led a guerilla war for more than 20 years. In 1997, the Khmer Rouge convicted Pot of the murder of a family. He died on April 15, 1998 – officially of a heart attack, although the real cause is unknown.