Brig. Gen. Ke Pauk, 72; Led Khmer Rouge’s Mass Killings in Late ‘70s
Brig. Gen. Ke Pauk, 72, a former Khmer Rouge military officer who led bloody purges during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975-79 rule, died Friday of liver disease in Anlong Veng in northern Cambodia, officials said.
The deputy commander in chief of the army, Lt. Gen. Meas Sophea, said Ke Pauk, who joined the Cambodian army after leaving the Khmer Rouge in 1998, had “recently suffered a partial stroke.”
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Feb. 17, 2002 FOR THE RECORD
Los Angeles Times Sunday February 17, 2002 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 A2 Desk 1 inches; 16 words Type of Material: Correction
Ke Pauk--An obituary of Cambodian Brig. Gen. Ke Pauk in Saturday’s Times reported his age as 72. He was actually 68.
Ke Pauk was remembered for leading bloody purges in northern and eastern Cambodia. More than 1.7 million people died of starvation, diseases, execution and overwork under the Khmer Rouge.
“He was deeply and directly involved in every wave of mass killings,” said Steve Heder, a fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and longtime scholar of the Khmer Rouge.
After the radical Communists were toppled in 1979 by an invading Vietnamese army, Ke Pauk fought alongside Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot in the group’s guerrilla war against the Vietnamese-installed government.
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