Khmer Rouge Chief Reportedly Orders Aide, Family Slain

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Ailing Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, running for his life from defectors and government forces, was reported Friday to have ordered the killing of one of his top commanders, Son Sen, for allegedly holding peace talks with the Cambodian co-premier.

Son Sen’s wife and eight other family members were also killed, including several grandchildren who reportedly had their skulls run over by a truck, said government officials who had been holding peace talks with some of the Khmer Rouge rebels.

A report from one of Cambodia’s co-premiers said Pol Pot fled his northern stronghold with a fellow leader of the Maoist movement as a hostage after the slaughter.

First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh told reporters Friday that Pol Pot fled Anlong Veng with 200 loyalist guerrillas and some hostages. The hostages reportedly included Khieu Samphan, president of the Khmer Rouge, who is believed to be among the leaders who had been negotiating with the government.

But analysts were extremely skeptical.

They cautioned against believing any unconfirmed accounts about the shadowy Pol Pot, who has been reported dead at least twice in the past week alone. Other accounts have placed him in Thailand or China.

Pol Pot was held responsible for the “killing fields” deaths of as many as 2 million people in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975-79 reign.

Son Sen oversaw the gruesome purges of the movement that he and Pol Pot helped found in their student days in France in the 1950s.

As one of Pol Pot’s top lieutenants, he ran a onetime school converted into a prison, where an estimated 20,000 “enemies of the state” were tortured before being killed in a nearby field in the 1970s.

After Tuesday’s slaying of Son Sen, Pol Pot’s other top commander, Ta Mok, was reported to have turned against him, fearing a similar fate.

Khmer Rouge guerrillas who have been negotiating with the government were reportedly trying to block his escape and had set up checkpoints in the jungle.

The rebel group’s latest fracturing was apparently triggered by progress in peace talks with members of the rebel group; Pol Pot had not taken part in the negotiations. The government last week announced headway in efforts to end 20 years of civil war.

Cambodia’s co-premiers--rivals in the coalition government--have been vying for the loyalties of defecting guerrillas before national elections next year.