Pol Pot 'on the run'

Pol Pot , the murderous Khmer Rouge leader whose movement is estimated to have killed more than a million of its fellow Cambodians, was fighting for his own life last night, surrounded by more than 1,000 renegade fighters of his own faction.

News of what appears to be the final collapse of the Khmer Rouge is coming from its enemies in the Cambodian government, who yesterday showed photographs of the dead bodies of Son Sen, the long-serving defence chief of the movement, and his wife. They were said to have been executed on the orders of Pol Pot, who accused them of treachery.

Nhiek Bun Chhay, Cambodia's deputy army chief, said Pol Pot had abandoned his military stronghold at Anlong Veng with at least 250 loyal fighters and their families, pursued by over 1,000 guerrillas led by Ta Mok, a senior Khmer Rouge commander. Among Pol Pot's hostages, said the government officer, may be the British mine clearance worker, Christopher Howes, abducted in March 1996.

William Shawcross, page 16