Assassination Of Pol Pot Predicted

Pol Pot’s former allies may never let him leave Cambodia’s jungle alive, fearing what the Khmer Rouge leader may reveal about their roles in his genocidal rule, one of Cambodia’s co-premiers said Monday.

Many inside and outside Cambodia fear being implicated if a U.S.-led effort to bring Pol Pot before an international tribunal succeeds, Prince Norodom Ranariddh said.

The prince named no one. However, he clearly was alluding to his co-premier, Hun Sen, a Khmer Rouge cadre until 1977, and to China and Thailand - Pol Pot’s allies in a guerrilla war he waged against the Vietnam-installed regime that toppled him in 1979.

“It appears to me that some Cambodians and maybe some countries are not really willing to see Pol Pot alive and brought to justice,” the prince told reporters near Kompong Speu, 30 miles south of Phnom Penh.

Pol Pot was in the custody of mutinous guerrillas, according to Gen. Nhek Bunchhay, the government’s chief negotiator with the Khmer Rouge.

Nhek Bunchhay has denied rumors Pol Pot is dead, saying he saw the 69-year-old guerrilla leader, weak and ailing, at the Khmer Rouge’s northern jungle stronghold in Anlong Veng.