Pol Pot

Pol Pot (1925-1998), born Saloth Sarhe, was a Cambodian political leader. He was educated in Paris, France in the 1950s and returned to Cambodia in the 1960s to become a leader of the communist Khmer Rouge. In 1975, after victory against the government of [Lon Nol]?, he proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea and became its Prime Minister from 1976 to 1979.

Under his rule, there was an attempt to transform Cambodia into a classless agrarian? society, about a million Cambodians found death by execution and forced labour in the "Killing Fields". Vietnam invaded the country in 1978 and forced the Khmer Rouge to retreat into the Cambodian jungle. In 1985 Pol Pot officially resigned but continued to lead the Khmer Rouge.

External links:

• Pol Pot's death confirmed: http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/asiapcf/9804/16/pol.pot.on.update/

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