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Died 15 April 1998 (aged 72)
Anlong Veng, Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia

“.......Pol Pot ordered the execution of his lifelong right-hand man Son Sen on 10 June 1997 for attempting to make a settlement with the government. Eleven members of his family were killed also, although Pol Pot later denied that he had ordered this. He then fled his northern stronghold, but was later arrested by Khmer Rouge military Chief Ta Mok on 19 June 1997. Pol Pot had not been seen in public since 1980, two years after his overthrow at the hands of an invading Vietnamese army. He was sentenced to death in absentia by a Phnom Penh court soon afterward. In July, he was subjected to a show trial for the death of Son Sen and sentenced to lifelong house arrest.

“On the night of 15 April 1998, two days before the 23rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge takeover in Phnom Penh, the Voice of America, of which Pol Pot was a devoted listener, announced that the Khmer Rouge had agreed to turn him over to an international tribunal. According to his wife, he died in his bed later in the night while waiting to be moved to another location. Ta Mok claimed that his death was due to heart failure. Ta Mok later described the way he died: “He was sitting in his chair waiting for the car to come. But he felt tired. His wife asked him to take a rest. He lay down on his bed. His wife heard a gasp of air. It was the sound of dying. When she touched him he had already passed away. It was at 10:15 last night.”

Despite government requests to inspect the body, it was cremated a few days later at Anlong Veng in the Khmer Rouge zone, raising suspicions that he committed suicide by taking an overdose of the medication he had been prescribed. Journalist Nate Thayer, who was present, took the view that Pol Pot killed himself when he became aware of Ta Mok’s plan to hand him over to America. He concluded that “Pol Pot died of a lethal dose of a combination of Valium and chloroquine.” Ta Mok’s assertion that “no one poisoned him” encouraged speculation that this was exactly what did happen. Thus some sources state that he was murdered by his own colleagues.”