Trip Report - Phnom Penh 2016

[fountainhall]

Some reports like this one have mentioned the Tuol Sleng Museum in Phnom Penh. I do hope all those who visit the city will visit the Museum and the Killing Fields outside the city. They are far from pleasant sights and many cry. But I do think it's so important to remember everything this peaceful country went through in its relatively recent history.

Tuol Sleng Regulations
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Tuol Sleng "Hanging" Bar
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Killing Fields Monument
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The French and King Sihanouk are far from blame. But it was a CIA coup and then the undeclared war by the USA that was to result in the rise of the Khmer Rouge and the unspeakable genocide which then took place.

I recommend that anyone visiting should read two books - "Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia" by William Shawcross, one of the first journalists to enter the country after its liberation. In a later edition, Shawcross mutes his criticism of US actions, but not by much.

The second is the harrowing "The Gate" by Francois Bizot who was actually captured by the Khmer Rouge before being set free. He returned to the country afterwards. As a Buddhist who lived in Cambodia and had a knowledge of its society and values, Bizot has a vastly better understanding of the dark times he was witnessing than the American policy wonks in Washington and the generals who clashed fruitlessly with a culture totally foreign to them. Perhaps surprisingly, he developed a sort of friendship with the infamous Comrade Douch, a man who seemingly thought nothing of torturing his fellow countrymen with tremendous barbarity and yet conversely whose innocent desire was to see democracy established in Cambodia. Perhaps interesting that a desire by people who live in a different reality to impose their desires on peasants of several countries has over time led to some of the world's worst atrocities

The superb English translation was done by none other than John Le Carre. Not surpringly it reads like one of his best novels.