April 17, 1998

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Despite Pol Pot's death, President Clinton is pledging to pursue justice against other Khmer Rouge leaders who share guilt in their ``murderous reign of terror'' in Cambodia. ``We must not permit the death of the most notorious of the Khmer Rouge leaders to deter us from the equally important task of bringing these others to justice,'' Clinton said late Thursday in a written statement. ``Between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge followers transformed Cambodia into the killing fields, causing the death of an estimated two million of their countrymen in a brutal attempt to transform Cambodiansociety,'' Clinton said. Pol Pot's death ``has again brought to international attention one of the most tragic chapters of inhumanity in the 20th century,'' Clinton said. Senior Khmer Rouge leaders ``are still at large and share responsibility for the monstrous human rights abuses committed during this period,'' Clinton said. Clinton, in Chile for a hemispheric summit, said, ``Now is a time to remember the victims of Pol Pot's murderous reign of terror and to underscore our determination to help the Cambodian people achieve a lasting peace based onrespect for basic human rights and democratic principles.'' Hours after the first reports that 73-year-old Pol Pot had died of apparent heart failure late Wednesday, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin noted that no American officials were in the jungle, 275 yards from the Thai border, where Pol Pot was said to have died. ``We have little hard information on this subject,'' Rubin said, adding thatan autopsy would be helpful. Up to 2 million Cambodians, or about 25 percent of the Asian nation'spopulation, were believed to have been killed during Pol Pot's reign. He had received some Western support, funneled through Thailand, before he was toppled by Vietnam.