Pol Pot

Following Son Sen's murder, Ta Mok turned against Pol Pot, had him arrested and placed under house arrest after an internal Khmer Rouge proceeding. Pol Pot died on 15 April 1998 at a border camp before he could be tried by an international court.

State of the evidence

Documented

Amid the Khmer Rouge's internal crisis, Son Sen, his wife Yun Yat and several members of their family were killed on Pol Pot's orders.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The regime imposed a radical transformation of society: displacement, cooperatives, agricultural labour and construction projects under coercion, accompanied by extreme deprivation, famine, disease and punishments for those who resisted.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The CPK targeted former officials, military personnel and civil servants of the Khmer Republic, together with other categories regarded as political enemies, through arrests, executions, disappearances and exclusion.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The Khmer Rouge regime persecuted Buddhist monks and institutions, suppressed or obstructed religious practices and incorporated this policy into its project of radical social transformation.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The regime established a network of security centres, of which S-21 in Phnom Penh became the best known. The ECCC concluded that at least 10,887 detainees were imprisoned there and that at least 11,742 were executed on site or nearby, figures presented as minimum estimates.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Vietnamese people in Cambodia were expelled, persecuted and subsequently targeted in mass killings. In Case 002/02, the ECCC convicted CPK leaders of genocide against the Vietnamese group.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

The regime persecuted Muslim Cham people, notably through bans on religious practices, dispersal of communities and massacres. The Case 002/02 proceedings resulted in findings of genocide linked to CPK policy.

State of the evidence

Documented

After Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh, Pol Pot and other leaders withdrew and organised the continuation of armed resistance from border areas.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The People's Revolutionary Tribunal tried Pol Pot and Ieng Sary in their absence, found them guilty of genocide and sentenced them to death.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Accused

As political paranoia intensified, thousands of Khmer Rouge officials and members of their families were arrested, interrogated, tortured or executed as alleged spies or traitors.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

In 1978, the CPK leadership purged the Eastern Zone, accused of disloyalty and Vietnamese influence. Officials were executed and a substantial part of the population was displaced to other regions, where many were subsequently persecuted.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Democratic Kampuchea carried out deadly attacks along the Vietnamese border as relations between the former allies deteriorated into open war and the Vietnamese invasion of December 1978.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Saloth Sar, known as Pol Pot, became secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea and progressively led the clandestine and subsequently insurgent movement that captured Phnom Penh in 1975.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

CPK leaders, including Pol Pot, finalised a policy of evacuating Phnom Penh before their victory. On 17 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge ordered the population to leave the capital.

State of the evidence

Documented