Cambodia's Khmer Rouge guerrilla chief Pol Pot has been seen by outsiders for the first time in almost 20 years, an American journalist said yesterday. Nate Thayer, a correspondent for the Hong-Kong based Far Eastern Economic Review, said he and a colleague saw Pol Pot in the guerrillas' last major stronghold in northern Cambodia on Friday.
"I did see Pol Pot in Anlong Veng," Thayer said by telephone from Bangkok. He declined to give further details of his trip to the Khmer Rouge stronghold.
Pol Pot, now almost 70, was last seen by reporters in late 1979 when he gave a news conference on the Thai-Cambodian border a year after he and his Khmer Rouge government were forced from Phnom Penh by a Vietnamese invasion.
There have been rumours he was already dead and recent reports that he was sick.
More than one million Cambodians died during Pol Pot's 197579 rule, victims of starvation, disease, forced labour and execution.
Clandestine Khmer Rouge radio announced on Saturday that Pol Pot and his "clique" had been condemned and sentenced to life in prison at a mass rally the previous day for crimes against the people and the nation.
The radio first denounced Pol Pot in mid-June, shortly after a bloody split in the secretive Maoist group's top leadership in which defence chief Son Sen and almost a dozen members of his family were slaughtered. The radio blamed Pol Pot for the massacre.
Bitter disagreement over how to handle the Khmer Rouge between Cambodia's two prime ministers was a key factor leading to a bloody takeover by the powerful Second Prime Minister, Mr Hun Sen, on July 6th.
Ousted First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh was negotiating with the Khmer Rouge leaders who broke with Pol Pot in June at the time of his removal. He said he was willing to strike a political agreement with more moderate Khmer Rouge leaders, angering Mr Hun Sen, who wanted to prevent any deal which would boost Prince Ranariddh's political and military strength.
Political analysts said renewed pressure might now be on both Prince Ranariddh's royalists and the Khmer Rouge to restart their talks and pave the way for an acceptable alliance. Pol Pot could be a key bargaining chip in any negotiations, they said.
Government forces under Mr Hun Sen are pushing Ranariddh royalist fighters back to the Thai border in northern Cambodia. Mr Hun Sen's commanders say the Khmer Rouge is helping the royalists but the prince denies any link with the rebels.
The Khmer Rouge, meanwhile, sees its old enemy Mr Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge member who broke with the group during its period in government, in sole power in Phnom Penh.
The royalists and the Khmer Rouge were battlefield allies during the 1980s when they fought a Vietnamese army of occupation and Mr Hun Sen's Hanoi-backed government. The Khmer Rouge boycotted the 1993 election and fought a low-intensity war against the coalition government led by Prince Ranariddh and Mr Hun Sen. - (Reuter)
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, tried in vain yesterday to persuade Asian nations to use aid as a lever to end the government crisis in Cambodia and faced an uphill task urging them to curb repression in Burma. On her way to a security forum convened by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Ms Albright had said one of her priorities would be restoring the Cambodian coalition government torn apart by the coup earlier this month. Washington hoped Asian countries would withhold at least some aid to the Phnom Penh government to win concessions from Mr Hun Sen.
The meeting - attended by 21 foreign ministers from Asia, the EU, Australasia and North America - agreed that ASEAN should take the lead in steering Cambodia back into line with the 1991 peace agreements that underpin its constitutional commitment to multi-party politics and an elected parliament.
But this consensus embraces a range of different approaches which, diplomats believe, may yet leave Hun Sen in charge. The US has suspended aid but Japan, Cambodia's biggest donor, is maintaining its assistance. China wants a peaceful reconciliation but says it will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs.