Pol Pot

When Pol Pot says that his conscience is clear despite his having caused the deaths of approximately 1 million Cambodians ("Ailing Pol Pot Looks Back on Reign Without Remorse," Oct. 23), we laugh or shake our heads in skeptical disbelief. When even such a one as Robert McNamara expresses regret over only our 50,000-plus casualties (conveniently forgetting the possibly 2 million Southeast Asians killed by our weaponry), we, for the most part, experience little or nothing in the way of conscience pangs.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Moy Da hasn't seen his sister in nearly 40 years. Like countless Cambodian families, they were separated during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. The brutal communist regime made it official policy to dismantle the nuclear family, which it considered a capitalist relic, and divided much of the population into slave labor camps. In 1975, Moy Da, then 5 years old, and his parents, who died three years later, lost track of 15-year-old Pheap when the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh and marched residents to the countryside.

First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh denied reports that Khmer Rouge strongman Pol Pot, held responsible for the deaths of more than a million people during the 1975-79 "killing fields" regime, had surrendered. "Pol Pot has not been found," Ranariddh said. Ranariddh, locked in a bitter feud with Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, said that most of Pol Pot's supporters had deserted him and were now trying to bring the man reviled by millions of Cambodians to justice.

Vann Nath, whose talent as an artist helped him survive Cambodia's most notorious prison during the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror in the 1970s and whose later paintings bore witness to the prison's many horrors, has died. He was 66. Vann Nath, who suffered chronic kidney disease that required regular dialysis treatment in recent years and who was hospitalized with a hemorrhaging ulcer in 2010, died Monday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, after falling into a coma in late August, his daughter, Vann Chan Semin, told the Associated Press on Monday.

Pol Pot, the former leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge guerrilla group, has been found, according to a Thai newspaper: sick, dispirited and still in the custody of his former comrades in their jungle stronghold in northern Cambodia. The Bangkok Post today knocked down recent rumors that the elusive Communist leader had fled from Cambodia to China, reporting that one of its journalists traveled to Anlong Veng near the border with Thailand and spoke with and photographed Pol Pot.

The body of former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, one of the century's most reviled dictators, was cremated today by his comrades in a simple ceremony. A Khmer Rouge spokesman told Reuters that the architect of Cambodia's 1975-79 "killing fields" regime was cremated just opposite a hut where his body was displayed to the press on Thursday. Journalists were not allowed to attend the cremation.

Your editorial ("Killing Fields Unavenged," April 17) is correct to call for continued efforts to bring before an international tribunal all those who are guilty of war crimes during the reign of terror in Cambodia in the 1970s. Such efforts should not end simply because of Pol Pot's death. But you make the mistake of limiting those guilty of war crimes in Cambodia to leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Have you forgotten about the bloody U.S. bombing campaign of Cambodia that preceded (and arguably facilitated)

It was fitting symbolism of his legacy to Cambodia: Pol Pot apparently died in his sleep at a ripe old age, his hands clasped together peacefully, his wife at his side. Cambodia's political structures have changed in the past two decades. Pol Pot led a fanatical communist regime; today, the Cambodian Constitution says the country is a liberal democracy.

Up and down the treeless commercial strip that serves as the hub of Little Cambodia in Long Beach, the memory of dictator Pol Pot was alive as recollections of his atrocities reappeared Thursday like an exorcised ghost making an unwelcome appearance. The community around Anaheim Street--the largest concentration of Cambodians outside of Asia--was asking if rumors of the Cambodian leader's death were true.

The Khmer Rouge guerrillas, making a rare mention of the man who orchestrated their 1975-79 reign of terror in Cambodia, said Monday that Pol Pot has definitely retired. The statement was issued at a time of increased concern over a Khmer Rouge refusal to go along with a U.N.-supervised peace plan for Cambodia and speculation they may have a secret agenda to regain total power. It has been widely assumed that the seldom-seen Pol Pot is still directing the Communist group from secret bases.

I enjoyed Christopher Reynolds' article on Orange County ["A Swell Time," May 29]. He covered it well, in an entertaining way, but failed to mention Newport's Back Bay. I guess he thought there was nothing of interest there for travelers. Or maybe he had to cut it to save space. Too bad either way. It's a central part ofOrange County. George Carlyle Newport Beach Why did Reynolds sully an otherwise fine survey of coastal sights and doings by referring to "plutocrats" frequenting the Ritz-Carlton and the Montage?

1925: Saloth Sar, alias Pol Pot, born in central Cambodia. 1949: Pol Pot goes to Paris where he joins a group of young Cambodian revolutionaries, most of them Marxists. 1953: France grants independence to Cambodia under King Norodom Sihanouk; Pol Pot returns to Phnom Penh, trains with Vietnamese communist guerrillas, then works for his cause in the countryside. 1969: Secret U.S. bombing raids begin against Vietnamese communist guerrillas hiding in Cambodia. 1970: Sihanouk deposed by U.S.-backed strongman Lon Nol; the Khmer Rouge and Sihanouk join forces against the nationalists.

The fascinating documentary "Enemies of the People" explores the under-told story of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge and the mass genocide that occurred between 1975 and 1979 under notorious regime leader Pol Pot. This investigation grippingly unfolds through the eyes of Phnom Penh Post reporter Thet Sambath (who co-produced and co-directed with Rob Lemkin), whose mother, father and brother all perished during the communist dictator's brutal reign. Sambath arranges unprecedented interviews with several of the henchmen responsible for executing so many of their party's so-called traitors or "enemies of the people" as well as countless innocent villagers.

Last week in a Cambodian courtroom, I watched as the former commandant of the Khmer Rouge's notorious Tuol Sleng prison and torture center was sentenced to 35 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity. During Monday's 70-minute session, the former executioner, now a born-again Christian, listened attentively from the dock, holding what appeared to be a small Bible. "If you want to stone me to death, as they did when Christ was with us, the Cambodian people can do so and I will accept it," he told the tribunal during his trial.

I like Lane Kiffin . And I certainly wasn't expecting that. Have no idea if he can coach, 12 wins in his career between the Raiders and Volunteers not much of a resume, but knowing a little something about alienating people, I thought I'd be dealing with an expert at the Pac-10 Media Day. But Kiffin was nothing like the stiff, double-talking clumsy new hire who greeted everyone in his first USC news conference. Not a hint of arrogance — although someone will suggest so by pointing out he was wearing sunglasses during his time on stage Thursday — and much to everyone's disappointment, he came and went without a whiff of controversy.

It rattles along at 20 miles an hour, swaying back and forth on uneven rails, the engine so loud it makes your teeth hurt. Then, rather unceremoniously, it runs out of gas and dies. And you find yourself stranded in the middle of Cambodia on a handmade "norry" train, feeling a bit exposed on a 25-square-foot platform made of bamboo and scrap metal attached to wheels salvaged from old tanks. Picture one of those hand-pump rail cars depicted in old Westerns, and you're close.

Pol Pot, the revolutionary who turned Cambodia's lush countryside into a vast death camp, has surrendered to defectors from his fast-disintegrating Khmer Rouge movement, a top army general said. Now 69 and said to be seriously ill, the man blamed for leading the slaughter of as many as 2 million people has not been seen by the outside world since he and his followers fled the capital, Phnom Penh, in 1979. "This evening, Pol Pot surrendered with 15 people," said Gen.

On a rainy night nearly 14 years ago, Haing Ngor parked his gold Mercedes in a graffiti-lined alleyway behind his apartment on the edge of Chinatown. The Cambodian refugee-turned-actor had won an Academy Award for his role in 1984's "The Killing Fields," but he still lived in a tiny apartment where he kept his Oscar next to a large Buddha statue. As he stepped out of his car, gunshots echoed off the alley walls. A neighbor rushed outside to find Ngor slumped on the pavement of his carport.

He was one of the greatest mass killers of the 20th century, but that doesn't stop the hopeful from praying at Pol Pot's hillside grave for lucky lottery numbers, job promotions and beautiful brides. Nor does it stop tourists from making off with the bone remains and ashes from the Khmer Rouge leader's burial ground in this remote town in northwestern Cambodia. The grave is among a slew of Khmer Rouge landmarks in Anlong Veng, where the movement's guerrillas made their last stand in 1998 just as Pol Pot lay dying.