IT was perhaps wishful thinking on the part of those sources who said the infamous Khmer Rouge leader lay dead or dying in a South Asian jungle last week. Any hopes that the man responsible for one of the worst genocidal acts this century were dampened when last Sunday a Cambodian general emerged from the same rain-soaked hideaway with a dramatic announcement: "Pol Pot is alive. I met him this morning."
Reports of Pol Pot's death have always been greatly exaggerated. Exactly one year ago Time magazine suggested that "one of history's great villains may finally have joined the two million or so Cambodians he killed".
The story was the same as the one now circulating. After a long illness, sources said, Pol Pot lay close to death from malaria. Again, as many commentators were announcing his death as were vehemently denying it. Could this confirmed sighting of Pol Pot be merely another twist in a gruesome tale?
Whatever the truth about Pot Pot's whereabouts and state of health the facts about his reign of terror have been well recorded. However, those who knew him before he eradicated more than 30 per cent of his country's population, described, him invariably as a soft-spoken teacher and a charismatic leader.
Saloth Sar was born on May 19th, 1928, to a prosperous rural family in central Cambodia's Kompong Thom province. He spent part of his youth as a novice monk and student in the capital Phnom Penh. It was while studying electronics in Paris that he became enamoured of radical politics, immersing himself in the ideology of Mao Tse-tung. He failed his exams and returned home without completing his studies.
After a stint teaching history and geography in Phnom Penh he rose to become secretary-general of the Communist Party in 1963. Adopting a selection of noms de guerre before settling for Pol Pot he set up the Khmer Rouge in the intellectual pursuit of a sort of rural utopia, a purified Cambodia. He began his mission in 1975.
The Khmer Rouge had been allowed to thrive largely because of the failure of the then Cambodian leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk to keep the country out of the Vietnam war. As the United States embarked on large-scale bombing of the Cambodian countryside, the Khmer Rouge, viewed as nationalist reformers, emerged as the dominant political force.
Known as Brother Number One to his subordinates, Pol Pot became prime minister and introduced what has been described as a "bloody restructuring" of Cambodia.
His guerrillas emptied Phnom Penh at gunpoint. The elderly and sick were forced from their beds. Women and children were ordered into the countryside and put to work in labour camps. They died of disease, starvation and overwork.
Intellectuals, bureaucrats, those unfortunate enough to have a high school education or wear glasses were murdered. Thousands were transported to the extermination camp at Choeng Ek (the Killing Fields) for execution.
Before the recent reported sighting, Pol Pot had not been seen in public since 1980. Reports say he emerged smiling and looking healthy from his jungle hideaway and told journalists that thousands may have died because of "a few mistakes". Despite being sentenced to death in absentia, he has managed to remain untouched by authorities.
His luck, however, may be running out. Cambodia's First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Co-Premier Hun Sen have said Pol Pot had been captured by a breakaway faction of the Khmer Rouge. They signed a request to the United Nations asking that a tribunal be set up outside the country to try Pol Pot for crimes against humanity. This is significant as it marks the first time these political rivals have acted in unison over the Khmer Rouge.
Even allowing for his dwindling support and reports of severe ill health, commentators say Pol Pot's resilience should not to be underestimated.
"He is a master of deception and illusion," says journalist John Pilger who has written extensively on the Pol Pot regime. "He managed for years to keep a veil of secrecy around himself. That is why we should be so sceptical about believing these stories now.