Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
later Mok would die in prison awaiting trial. What the UN had been unable to do via
resolutions and mandates was accomplished through arms, amnesties, and political deals.
Cambodia was finally at peace.
Pol Pot's grave remains in the hills north of Anlong Veng, marked by a simple mound
of earth, a low roof of rusting corrugated iron, and a hand-stenciled sign. The surround-
ing jungle has long been cleared. Day laborers working on a Thai border casino lounge in
hammocks in the shade of scrawny trees as stray dogs poke about in the dirt. The ghost
of
Angkar
still exercises a magnetic pull in this forgotten corner of Cambodia. On a small
wooden platform above the pyre there are two tins of burnt-out joss-sticks.
Locals often come to pray at the grave, in the hope that Pol Pot's spirit will bring good
luck or reveal magic numbers that will fetch them riches in the Thai lottery. Others nur-
ture a genuine sympathy for the departed tyrant and his revenant plea that Cambodia's
road to hell was paved, as always, with the noblest of intentions. Khim Suon, a hunched
56-year-old woman, spends her days in a small wooden hut selling tickets to the crema-
tion site and keeping the grave swept and planted with flowers. She described Brother
Number One as a patriot: “Pol Pot tried to protect the nation … He did not kill people.
What the people say is not true.”
*
Since Pol Pot's death, rumors persist that he either committed suicide or was poisoned by former
colleagues to prevent him from being arrested and put on trial in an international court. In January
1999, Nate Thayer wrote in the
Far Eastern Economic Review
that Pol Pot committed suicide by
taking an overdose of valium and the powerful antimalarial drug chloroquine. But no autopsy was
done before the body was cremated and little other corroborating evidence has come to light. Philip
Short, the author of a biography of Pol Pot, has described rumors of suicide as “bunkum.”
