Dictators entered the history of many countries of the world, whose period of rule was reflected in mass executions and dramatic changes in the country. The universally recognized standard of this phenomenon is Adolf Hitler. However, in the Asian world there is its analogue. This is Pol Pot.
General information
He was the General Secretary of the Communist Party in Cambodia (then Kampuchea) from 1963-1979. The dictator Pol Pot caused great harm to his country. In just 3 years of his reign, the 10 million population of the state decreased by a quarter. About 4 million people died because of his actions.
On merit
Establishing his regime in Cambodia, Pol Pot set a clear goal - to destroy traditional culture along with its social groups. According to this logic, his companions should have started with themselves, but they did not.
Being the ideological successor of Stalinism, Pol Pot began his reign by establishing a strict hierarchical vertical in power, executing those who were able to unite to resist the regime.
The national question was resolved by radical methods - representatives of manynationalities living in the country (except the Khmer Pol Pot) were executed. The dictator evicted about 90% of its population from the capital city of Phnom Penh. All who protested, Pol Pot executed. Then a wave of similar procedures began in all other cities. At the same time, the evicted citizens were accepted by the inhabitants of the jungle with extreme negativity.
On the orders of Pol Pot, the country got rid of everything that belonged to the "white civilization". Even cars and electrical appliances got here. They were destroyed en masse, burying equipment in the ground, destroying vehicles. During the reign of Pol Pot, money was abolished. The Central Bank was blown up in the capital, fertilizers were stored there. Monks were executed, all religious objects were destroyed. In the country, Pol Pot destroyed all Christians and Muslims.
Often underage boys acted as executioners. There are cases when children from 7 years old were officially recruited. For exposing the "enemies of the people" the children were rewarded with 1 cartridge.
During his atrocities, Pol Pot declared all women public property. All sexual relations were carried out on the orders of the Party. It is noteworthy that Pol Pot himself had a daughter. Schools were destroyed, many textbooks were destroyed. During the period of the Pol Pot regime, the works of Karl Marx mainly remained from the books in the country.
The communes that were organized instead of the destroyed society consisted of 10,000 people. People in them worked for food, while the bones of the dead were used as fertilizer. Pol Pot renamed Cambodia to Kampuchea. The reason was simple: it was believed that the original name was borrowed from the Aryans.
The executions of Pol Pot in Kampuchea were particularly brutal. To conserve ammo, he exterminated the population by mass-feeding people to crocodiles, killing people with hoes in the head, ripping open their stomachs and then donating organs for the manufacture of traditional medicine, placing cement in the mouth and nose and filling them with water, and so on.
About 4 million people were destroyed in this way. Researchers of Cambodia, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge note that many died from starvation and disease, as well as wars with neighboring states. Of course, in the process, no one conducted accurate censuses in the jungle, however, data on a significant reduction in the country's population are official.
Biography
There is no exact information about when exactly Pol Pot was born. Cambodian Hitler shrouded his personality in mystery, rewrote his biography. Most historians are of the opinion that he was born in 1925. Pol Pot himself told about his fate as follows: he was the son of peasants, which was considered honorable. He had 8 brothers and sisters. However, in reality, members of his family held high positions in the government of the country. His older brother was a high-ranking official, and his cousin was the concubine of King Monivong.
Pol Pot's name in Cambodia was originally different. From birth, his name was Saloth Sar. And Pol Pot is a pseudonym.
He grew up in a Buddhist monastery, and when he was 10 years old he studied at a Catholic school. Thanks tointercession sister (royal concubine), he was sent to study in France. There the future dictator found his like-minded people. Pol Pot and Ieng Sari, along with Khieu Samphan, became fascinated with Marxist ideology and then became communists. When the future dictator was expelled from the university, he returned to his homeland.
The situation in the country
At the time of Pol Pot's arrival in Cambodia, the situation in the country was difficult. Cambodia was a French colony but gained independence in 1953. With the coming to power of Prince Sihanouk, Cambodia tried desperately to get closer to China and North Vietnam, and to break off relations with the United States. Among the main reasons for this move was that America was invading Cambodian territory in pursuit of North Vietnamese fighters. When the United States apologized to Cambodia and promised not to enter its territory again, the prince gave permission for North Vietnamese soldiers to be based in Cambodia.
This greatly weakened the position of the United States and caused their displeasure. The local population suffered from such a step of their government. The constant incursions of the North Vietnamese caused a lot of harm to their economy. The government bought their stocks at extremely low prices, the communist underground operated in the country. This is the Cambodia where Pol Pot and the Reds started their movement.
Becoming a dictator
During this period, the future dictator worked as a school teacher. Using his position, he promoted communist ideas among schoolchildren. Such a policy and activities of the underground led tocivil war in the country. The Vietnamese, together with the Cambodians, robbed the civilian population of the country. Each villager faced a choice - to join the ranks of the communists or to leave for a large settlement.
In his army, Pol Pot mainly used teenagers aged 14-18. They were the easiest to succumb to his influence. And he called the adult population "too exposed to Western influence."
Last days of royal rule
The head of the country (Prince Sihanouk) himself was forced to turn to the United States for help. And the United States went to meet him, but with one condition. They were allowed to attack the North Vietnamese bases in Cambodia. As a result of their attacks, both civilians of the country and the Vietnamese were killed. In fact, this decision only made things worse for Sihanouk. He turned to the USSR and China, and in 1970 even flew to Moscow. As a result of all these actions, a coup took place in Cambodia. Then the Americans put their henchman, Lon Nol, at the head of it.
Lon Nol's actions
First of all, Lon Nol expelled the Vietnamese from the country. This was done in 72 hours. But the communists were in no hurry to leave the chosen place. US troops, together with South Vietnam, staged large-scale military operations to destroy them in Cambodia itself. It was a successful operation for the United States and South Vietnam, but undermined the position of Lon Nol, as the population was tired of someone else's war. When US troops left Cambodia after 2 months, the situation in it remained very acute.
In the midst of a war between the troops of the former government, the redKhmer, North and South Vietnamese. In addition, there were many different groups. Until now, in the jungle of a wounded country, many mines have been preserved, on which civilians are dying.
The coming to power of the Khmers
Little by little the Khmers began to win. They managed to attract a large number of peasants to their side. In 1975, this army surrounded Phnom Penh. The Americans did not fight for their own henchman, Lon Nol. He fled to Thailand. The country was ruled by the Khmer communists. At that time, they seemed like heroes to the civilian population, who applauded them at the moment of ascension to power. But a couple of days passed, and the communist army began to plunder the civilian population. Anyone who began to protest was pacified by force. Then mass shootings began. At that moment, civilians realized that this was not arbitrariness, but a deliberate policy. The bloody regime of Pol Pot was established.
Teenagers who obeyed him forcibly took the population of the capital out of the city. Any disobedience led to execution. 2,500,000 people were evacuated from the capital and were effectively homeless.
Anonymous
It is curious that among the residents of the capital expelled from their homes were relatives of Salot Sara, who once gave him protection. The fact that the new dictator is their relative, they learned later quite by accident. In the best tradition of Orwell's 1984, the dictator was completely anonymous. He was known under the pseudonym Bon (elder brother) with serial number 1. Each orderpublished on behalf of the "organization". The first founding documents proclaimed a total ban on religion, the party, free thought and medicine. Their legality was accompanied by executions, the destruction of people belonging to these categories. The state did not have enough medicines after the war, and the authorities officially issued a decree to use "folk remedies". Unrealistic demands were made to harvest from 1 hectare to 3.5 tons of rice, which became the main emphasis in domestic policy.
Because the government was nationalist, the country massacred people on the basis of ethnicity. It was a mass genocide, during which all the Chinese and Vietnamese who were in the country were executed. This affected relations with China and Vietnam in a negative way, although they initially supported the new regime. This fact influenced the fate of Pol Pot very much.
Falling regime
A large-scale conflict was growing with China and Vietnam. In response to criticism of states whose citizens were massacred on the territory of Cambodia, the dictator responded with threats of occupation. The border troops of Cambodia made sorties with brutal reprisals against the civilian population of neighboring Vietnam. Preparations began for war with this country in 1978.
Pol Pot formally demanded that every Khmer kill at least 30 Vietnamese. The slogan was openly proclaimed that Cambodia is ready to fight with its neighbors for at least 700 years. In the same year, Cambodia invaded Vietnam, whose troops launched a counterattack. Just 14 daysthe teenage Khmers were defeated and Phnom Penh (the capital of the regime) was captured. Pol Pot himself escaped by helicopter.
After Khmer
When the capital was captured, the Vietnamese established a government of their proteges in the state, announced the death sentence to Pol Pot in absentia. The USSR began to actually control 2 states at once. This did not suit the US. A paradoxical situation arose: the democratic state of the United States supported the Khmer communists.
Pol Pot was hiding in the jungle on the border of Cambodia and Thailand. At the request of the United States, Thailand granted him asylum. Any attempt since 1979 by Pol Pot to return to power ended in failure, as he lost his influence. When in 1997 he decided to execute one of the most senior Khmer Son Sen along with his family, all Pol Pot's supporters were convinced that he had lost touch with the real world. He was removed. And in 1998, according to the documentary, Paul Pot was put on trial. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was found dead in April of that year.
Pol Pot is dead, but there are a few mysteries surrounding his death. According to a number of versions, the cause of his death was heart failure, poisoning, suicide. The photo of Pol Pot, taken after his death, shows how ingloriously he ended his life, which brought millions of deaths and a lot of grief to this world.
Different point of view
Of course, an alternative point of view about the activities of the bloody dictator has been preserved in history. He was compared witha collective of unconscious teenagers who dreamed that the leadership of the educational institution would be overthrown. They staged a riot, but in the end, the adult world won, and the teenagers returned to their usual schoolyards.
It should be noted that the main striking force of Pol Pot were children aged 12-18. They were armed with Kalashnikovs. The peasant population easily gave their children to the Khmer Rouge army, and Pol Pot gave them a promise to restore order in the country. Although half the country was bombed by American air raids, the Khmer army held out.
Every decision during the reign of the dictator was made on behalf of "Agka", which means "organization" in Russian. Several times the dictator spread the news of his death - this was his trick. He signed many of the decisions with the name “Comrade No. 87.”
It was forbidden to mention his name, hang portraits. Even the artist who painted him was executed. The same was done with those who hung the portrait of the dictator on a campaign poster.
Only Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung and Nicolae Ceausescu saw him in his true form.
More about the last days of power
The overthrow of the Khmers began with the uprising of General Heng Samrin. The Vietnamese supported him. The latter tried to lure the USSR to their side, but China stood up for Pol Pot for some time.
During the war between Vietnam and Cambodia, the USSR was the first to provide humanitarian aid. Although the remnants of the Khmers were defeated, they guerrillad in the forests of the border for another ten years. Cambodia and Thailand.
Starting in January 1979, Pol Pot went into hiding in Thailand with 10,000 followers. Heng Samrin became the ruler of Cambodia, who returned the royal government. At this time, the former dictator settled in a hut in the jungle. Here the biography of Paul Pot ended. It should be noted that there are categories of the population that can remember the executioner with a kind word.
Other counts
A number of researchers question the scale of executions under the dictator's regime. So, a special commission was created to investigate his crimes. It was found out that in 3 years 3,314,768 people were killed and tortured.
The commission has been busy calculating the natural increase of the population to ensure the accuracy of the indicated victims. Known population in 1970 and 1980, as well as a jump in 1978.
Including these data, there were less than 2,300,000 victims. It must be remembered that the years when Pol Pot came to power were already bloody: US troops were on the territory of Cambodia, aircraft bombarded the country's territory, and a bloody war lasted for 5 years. Therefore, many believe that it is unreasonable to attribute all the victims to the hand of Pol Pot, although the regime was accompanied by many episodes of unjustified cruelty,
More about domestic politics
When the people of Phnom Penh greeted the "liberator" who overthrew Lon Nol, they did not know that the new government would "cleanse" the cities from them. At a meeting of the Central Committee, it was announced that the evacuation of the city's population is one of the most important tasks, sincehow it was necessary to neutralize the political and military opposition that was in the city. Pol Pot was afraid that many would oppose him with his tough policy. Therefore, 2,500,000 people were evicted in 72 hours. People evicted to the countryside experienced difficulty organizing.
Officially, the dictator claimed that cities "create inequality between people." Residents were told that vices live in cities, that people can be changed, but not cities, that only in the work of uprooting the jungle will a person understand the meaning of life. The regime sought to turn all Cambodians into peasants. Many settlers decided that with this decision the dictator wants to change the capital. The Khmers did it 4 times.
As a result, millions of people, including the elderly and pregnant women, moved on foot in the harshest conditions of the hot tropics. Tens of thousands of people were shot along the way. Many died from loss of strength, sunburn, hunger. Those who made it to the end died a slow death. There was such a crush that family members were losing each other.
In 1979, an official study was conducted, during which it turned out that out of a group of 100 families who were evicted from the city, only 41% remained alive. On the way, the elder brother of Pol Pot himself, Salot Chhai, died. The dictator's nephew died of starvation and bullying when he reached the end of the road.
The dictator's policy was based on 3 directions: stopping the plunder of peasants, eliminating Cambodia's dependence on other states, restoring order in the country by establishing a strict regime.
The population of the state was dividedgovernment into three main categories:
- "Basic People". This included peasants.
- "People April 17". This included everyone who had been evicted from their city dwellings.
- "Intelligentsia". This category included former civil servants, clergy and officers.
The second category was planned to be thoroughly re-educated, and the third one was to be “cleansed”.
There are 20 ethnic groups in Cambodia. The largest are the Khmers. Many of the dictator's own bodyguards were not Khmer, they barely spoke Khmer. Despite this fact, other representatives of non-Khmer groups were massacred throughout the country.
The peoples who lived in the Pailin area were massacred. A very large number of Thais were destroyed. If in 1975 there were 20,000 Thais in Koh Kong province, then in 1979 there were only 8,000 of them. Pol Pot especially zealously persecuted the Vietnamese. Thousands of them were executed, many were exiled.
Muslims were severely persecuted. All the Chams were evicted from their places of residence to remote areas. It was forbidden to use any language other than Khmer. All representatives of other ethnic groups had to abandon their customs, the characteristics of their culture. Anyone who was against it was instantly shot. In addition, they were forbidden to create marriages among themselves, and all children were given to be raised in Khmer families. As a result, about 50% of the Chams were exterminated.
It was believed that any religion harms Kampuchea. Representatives of Buddhism, Islam and Christianity were persecuted. The head of the Muslims, Imam Hari Roslos, and his assistants were tortured, after which they were executed. 114 mosques were destroyed throughout the country. Religious books were burned. The Catholic population of the state has decreased by 49%.
Of course, when such a regime came to power, waves of protests began, which became more and more massive. One by one, the provinces rebelled, which were dissatisfied with the new situation. However, the Khmer suppressed the uprisings, brutally killing all the rebels.
The 1977 uprising of 650 soldiers in Phnom Penh is known. He was suppressed, and the commander of Cha Krai was shot, his close associates were burned at the stake in public right in the capital. Increasingly, representatives of the current government took part in the protests. Someone defected to the Vietnamese side to help bring down the Pol Pot regime. An uprising led by Sai Tuthong resulted in a real partisan movement. This led to a disruption of transport communications in one of the provinces. And in 1978, the first deputy chairman of the State Presidium, Sor Phim, became the head of the uprising.
Private life
Pol Pot got married twice. In the first marriage, he failed to have children, but in the second he had a daughter, Sar Patchada. She lives in the north of Cambodia, leads a bohemian lifestyle. There is information that the dictator's wife has disappeared. But how it affected him is a mystery.
Not much is known about the personal life of the dictator himself. He had a serioussecurity, he constantly moved from place to place and was very afraid for his life. It is not known exactly where he lived, but according to surviving information from a person who wished to remain anonymous, he lived "next to the Independence Monument." This building was a kind of Kremlin outside the walls.
It is known that the mansion had running water, electricity. When they disappeared, the workers were executed for it. Pol Pot was surrounded by servants - drivers, security guards, mechanics, cooks.
The dictator was constantly worried about being killed. When he appeared at meetings with the party, each participant was searched. The communist spent a lot of time reviewing cases, talking with his comrades-in-arms. He looked at the world and people through the prism of documentation. The country for him was just a territory divided into circles with the party leadership in the center.
About the killing fields
After all these phenomena, the country remained wounded. Many Khmer Rouge and residents untouched by the horrors of the regime have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for decades. In a destroyed country, no one made such diagnoses, did not treat this disease. Therefore, the disease progresses.
Many people panic, followed by a heart attack. The dictator had already been overthrown, but even then the fields in Cambodia continued to serve as mass grave sites with dozens and hundreds of remains. To this day, locals often find human bones sticking out of the ground.
International reaction
It was not easy to bring to justice those responsible for everythingcrimes committed by the bloody regime. 30 years after the expulsion of the Khmer Rouge dictator from the capital, the country's government turned to the UN to prosecute the criminals.
The United Nations wanted to set up a trial, but Cambodia was wary of Western influence in assessing what was going on. As a result, an Extraordinary Chamber was created in the Cambodian judiciary, which took up the investigation.
But this process began so late that the defendants managed to die a natural death in peace. It lasted for over a decade. All this time, responsible persons continued to live out their lives in freedom.
The Chamber managed to prosecute Kang Kek Meng, who led the internal security under Pol Pot. He was in charge of Phnom Penh prisons. About 16,000 people were killed in them, only seven survived. During the trial, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The regime's ideologist "brother No. 2" Nuon Chea was also arrested. He denied guilt, but was sentenced to life in prison. "Brother 3" Ieng Sary was also caught in 2007, but he died before the start of the trial.
Ieng Tirith was prosecuted in 2007, but she suffered from Alzheimer's disease, so she did not appear in court.
Hiu Samphan was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The entire trial was repeatedly criticized for being lengthy, for sentencing only 3 people. The process was described as corrupt and politicized, as the costs of the judiciary amounted to $200,000,000. This isreally weird. In fact, the people who committed the mass genocide remained unpunished. In 2013, Camobja's Prime Minister Hong Sun approved a bill recognizing the Khmer Rouge's genocide and atrocities.
