POL POT

POL POT

By MEY Sopheakdei

1928: Born as Saloth Sar in Kompong Thom, Cambodia.

1949-1952: Studies electronics in Paris, earns no degree.

1953-1954: Returns to Cambodia; joins Vietnamese-led resistance to French.

1955-1963:  While a teacher in a junior high school in Phnom Penh, is active in Cambodia’s secret Communist movement.

1956: Marries Khieu Ponnary, also a revolutionary.

1960: Helps to found the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and is elected to its central committee.

1963: Becomes secretary of CPK central committee, flees to forest to avoid arrest. He remains in the countryside and abroad until 1975.

1965-1966: Visits North Vietnam, China, and North Korea.

1970: Sihanouk overthrown in anti-Communist coup. CPK forms alliance with him and Vietnamese to remove new government from power.

1975: Phnom Penh falls to forces of the “revolutionary organization.”

1976: Democratic Kampuchea (D.K.) proclaimed. Saloth Sar takes the name “Pol Pot” becomes prime minister.

1976: Following a coup attempt, Pol Pot resigns briefly.

1976-1979: Purges in CPK cause the deaths of over 10,000 Party members.

1977: Existence of CPK revealed just before Pol Pot makes visit to China. Fighting breaks out along the border with Vietnam.

1979: Vietnamese armies invade Cambodia, occupy Phnom Penh, set up satellite Cambodia government. Pol Pot flees to Thailand.

1979-1980: Rebuilds D.K. army with Chinese and Thailand assistance.

1981: CPK dissolved, but its leaders remain in command of guerrilla army.

1982: Joins a government-in-exile with Prince Sihanouk and former conservative prime minister, Son Sann.

1982-1989: Directs D.K. troops fighting Vietnamese forces in Cambodia. Remains in political control of D.K. segment of coalition, but is inaccessible to reporters, makes no public statements.

1987:  Remarries after his first wife is hospitalized.