Pol Pot's relatives recall dictator's childhood

A visit to his Cambodian village

August 18, 1997
Web posted at: 2:15 p.m. EDT (1815 GMT)

PREK SBOV, Cambodia (CNN) -- It's hard to believe that this sleepy settlement on the Stung Sen River produced Pol Pot, the brutal dictator -- now reportedly held by the Khmer Rouge rebels he once led -- responsible for up to 2 million deaths during Cambodia's brutal "killing fields" rule in the late 1970s.

Prek Sbov is where Saloth Sar, the boy who later became known as Pol Pot, was born in 1925, according to relatives still alive.

The peaceful village 90 miles north of the capital Phnom Penh is also where his younger brother, Saloth Nhep, 71, still lives and remembers his infamous sibling with affection. "When he was young, he was really gentle, as I knew him. His character was kind and he studied hard."

Asked to sum up his relationship with his brother -- a man most of the world knows as a monster -- Saloth Nhep says, "We simply loved each other."

As a boy, Saloth Sar left the village for schooling and Saloth Nhep saw him only occasionally after that. "I last saw him in the 1960s. He visited the village, then he went away forever."

Didn't know Pol Pot was his brother

Astonishingly, it was not until near the end of the Khmer Rouge 1975-1979 regime that Saloth Nhep who, like millions of other Cambodians was a victim of Pol Pot's forced labor camps, realized that the secretive dictator was his brother. "Just before liberation in 1979 I found out when I saw a picture of him," he said.

"He made much difficulty for people," Saloth Nhep remembers. "I am very angry. What he did was wrong."

But, the brother adds, "I don't want to keep on hating."

A few houses away, lives another brother, Saloth Seng. Pol Pot "broke my heart. He made me stop loving him," Saloth Seng, 85, told the New York Times.

The only other sibling still alive is a sister, Saloth Roeung, 81.

The people of Prek Sbov do not hold the family responsible for Pol Pot's evil doings, according to Saloth Nhep.

But, he says, he is pleased his mother and father did not live to see all that Pol Pot did. Describing them as devout Buddhists, Saloth Nhep says they instilled in their children respect for human life.

Why the boy born as Saloth Sar chose to ignore that upbringing is a mystery.

Correspondent John Raedler contributed to this report.

 

• Message Board: Cambodian Conflict
• Newsmaker Profile: Pol Pot - Cambodian Communist Leader
• Newsmaker Profile: Norodom Sihanouk - Cambodian King

Related stories:

• Cambodian strongman seeks arrest of Pol Pot July 31, 1997
• Pol Pot looks frail in TV footage - July 29, 1997
• Report: Pol Pot near tears during Khmer Rouge trial - July 28, 1997
• Pol Pot captured, but where is he? - June 20, 1997

Related sites:

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• ASEAN - the official website of Association of the Association of South East Asian Nations
• Cambodian Information Center - includies Cambodian news and photos, academic papers on Cambodia, and homepage links
• Embassy of Cambodia - site of the Chancery of the Royal Embassy of Cambodia to the United States located in Washington, D.C.
• Beauty and Darkness: Cambodia in Modern History - documents, essays, oral histories, and photos relating to the recent history of Cambodia, with an emphasis on the Khmer Rouge period

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

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