Angelina Jolie buys Cambodian jungle plots from former Khmer Rouge
Actor-director, whose upcoming film is based on the horrors of the regime’s 1970s rule, adds to the 7.5 hectares of riverside land she bought from former commander accused of genocide
The old man’s voice is weak and gravelly as he speaks by phone from Phnom Penh about his property deal with Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie. From the background comes the hubbub of children playing at a family party.
“I didn’t want to sell, but the government told me they would take control of the land if I did not,” he says. “In the end, I decided to accept the offer for little money and leave rather than be forced to leave with no money at all.”
Yim Tith speaks with an air of resigned regret as he describes how, in 2002, he was forced to vacate a plot of riverside land in Samlot village, near Cambodia’s border with Thailand, for what he suggests was a derisory price of “around US$7,000 to US$8,000”.
“I had no choice,” he complains.
Earlier reports based on documents related to the deal suggest Jolie paid just over US$25,000.
Now in his 80s, Yim Tith comes across as a hard-done-by kindly grandfather forced to sell up on unfavourable terms to the actor-director and humanitarian icon whose charity projects in Cambodia have been feted by the country’s prime minister, Hun Sen, and the royal family. But Yim Tith is no ordinary octogenarian. He was northwest commander for the Khmer Rouge during its brutal 1970s rule and is accused of causing the deaths of more than half a million people – who were executed, starved or worked to death – living in his area of control.