Four
years after his death, much about Pol Pot remains a mystery. His whereabouts
and true identity were concealed for much of his 30-year career as leader
of the Khmer Rouge. Only in 1977 was it revealed that "Brother Number
One" was a soft-spoken former schoolteacher named Saloth Sar. Sar was
first drawn to communism while studying in France in the 1950s and eventually
became a Maoist after visiting China in the 1960s. Those who met Sar
remember him as mild-mannered and modest, but disagree on what motivated
him or whether he was sane. Today his revolutionary nom de guerre
is synonymous with the genocide that killed millions of Cambodians during
the mid-1970s. Despite this notoriety, Pol Pot lived the rest of his
life a free man and died of natural causes -- a reminder of the elusive
nature of justice in Cambodia.
Four
years after his death, much about Pol Pot remains a mystery. His whereabouts
and true identity were concealed for much of his 30-year career as leader
of the Khmer Rouge. Only in 1977 was it revealed that "Brother Number
One" was a soft-spoken former schoolteacher named Saloth Sar. Sar was
first drawn to communism while studying in France in the 1950s and eventually
became a Maoist after visiting China in the 1960s. Those who met Sar
remember him as mild-mannered and modest, but disagree on what motivated
him or whether he was sane. Today his revolutionary nom de guerre
is synonymous with the genocide that killed millions of Cambodians during
the mid-1970s. Despite this notoriety, Pol Pot lived the rest of his
life a free man and died of natural causes -- a reminder of the elusive
nature of justice in Cambodia. 