When Conscience is Silenced

Pol Pot’s death was lamented when he died—not because he was loved by fellow Cambodians. To the contrary, his death was a disappointment to many because like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, he died without being held accountable for the millions of men and women he slaughtered without cause. He died at the age of 73, forlorn, bedridden, lonely and defiant. Yes, proudly defiant. In November 1997, he broke an 18-year silence and did an interview that was carried by the Far Eastern Economic Review. In the interview, he turned to the reporter and said, “…look at me, am I a savage person?” The man who gave the world the killing fields and sent between 1.6 and 2 million people to their deaths still thought of himself as a good man.