Sick and barely able to walk, Pol Pot, architect of Cambodia's holocaust shuffled to his own trial by former loyalists of his Khmer Rouge movement a physically and spiritually broken man. Such is the image presented by American journalist Nate Thayer, who became the first Westerner to see Pol Pot in 18 years when Khmer Rouge contacts led him from the Thai border to the guerrillas' last major base of Anlong Veng in the forest hinterland of northern Cambodia.
He and a cameraman found and filmed the leader whose name is synonymous with genocide, now a prisoner of his former followers and in the process of being purged in what Mr Thayer describes as "a classic 1960s Cultural Revolution-style show trial".
Pol Pot, clothed in loose grey shirt and black cotton trousers, a blue scarf round his neck, sat silent but visibly "anguished" as a succession of speakers denounced him before a crowd of around 500 villagers.
"Crush, crush, crush Pol Pot and his clique," chanted the crowd, many of whom Mr Thayer said were missing an arm, a leg or an eye, proof of the ravages of decades of Cambodian conflict.
The experience of public trial proved so traumatic for the 69year-old leader, who sent thousands to hideous torture before execution in his obsessive purges, "that I thought he might die during the process", Mr Thayer reported.
Pol Pot walked onto the stage with the help of a piece of bamboo cane to take his seat for the trial, but he was carried away at the end by men holding his arms.
"You could see the anguish on his face as he was denounced by his former loyalists. He was close to tears," Mr Thayer said of Pol Pot in a press release issued by the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review. Video film of these extraordinary events was due to be shown last night on ABC's Nightline programme.
Pol Pot stands accused of causing the deaths of two million Cambodians through executions, overwork, starvation and disease in a four-year reign of terror, but even now seems in no danger of falling into the hands of international prosecutors.
In the trial staged at Anlong Veng, Khmer Rouge leaders denounced Pol Pot and three commanders for the execution of his former security chief Son Sen in early June, for "destroying national reconciliation" and stealing party funds. His commanders, described as "drunk and corrupt", were also charged with raping the wives of colleagues.
The official presiding over the trial announced Pol Pot and his colleagues had been sentenced to life imprisonment but, according to Mr Thayer, the official said they would not be handed over for trial by an international court.
It is not yet, however, the end of the Khmer Rouge as a highly volatile ingredient in Cambodia's power struggles. The rupture came in the course of talks with royalist leaders in Phnom Penh on the terms of a deal under which the Khmer Rouge would give up armed rebellion, recognise the constitution and enter politics in a broad front under co-Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
In early June it seemed Pol Pot would be allowed to escape Cambodia and go into exile. For reasons that are not clear but may reflect resistance outside Cambodia, the arrangement collapsed. After he ordered the execution of Son Sen, apparently for pursuing contacts with Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, Pol Pot fled and was reportedly brought back, sick and a prisoner.
Mr Hun Sen yesterday dismissed the trial as "a political game of the Khmer Rouge". Pol Pot, he said, "is still the leader of the Khmer Rouge forces". As Cambodia's now unrivalled political strongman, he has a vested interest in holding this line, analysts note.
Mr Hun Sen, who used to say Pol Pot was already probably dead, used the royalist negotiations with the Khmer Rouge as a justification for his violent July 5th overthrow of Prince Ranariddh.
Leaders of the younger generation of Khmer Rouge met by Mr Thayer vowed to "continue the struggle against the Vietnamese aggressors" they believe are still present in Cambodia. In their lexicon the targets include Mr Hun Sen, brought to power in Cambodia after Vietnam ousted Pol Pot.
The rising generation of Khmer Rouge leaders, Mr Thayer reports, now claim to have given up their former fanatical Maoism in favour of "liberal democracy".