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P6160083.JPG

"...democracy is the worst form of Government except
all those others that have been tried from time to time."

    -- Winston Churchill

During the Pol Pot regime the Khmer Rouge murdered about one fourth of Cambodia's population, some 1.4 to 2 million people. They meant to tear down the existing Cambodian society and build a utopia in its place, where doctor, plumber and peasant would be truly equal. They suceeded only in annihilating all college-educated Cambodians, reducing every member of society to the level of "peasant," and almost literally taking Cambodia back to the Stone Age.

After the fall of his regime, Pol Pot and the majority of his soldiers fled into the jungles near the Thai border, where they remained a menace for almost 20 years. (Recent amnesty programs and ongoing schisms have reduced the Khmer Rouge to almost nil.) Pol Pot died of a heart attack in April 1998, while under "house arrest" by his own soliders, who had rebelled against him. He was never brought to justice.