The Best of Cambodia & Laos

The Khmer Rouge on Trial
As this book is being researched and written the director of S21, Duch (pronounced
Doik), is on trial in a distant suburb of Phnom Penh under the auspices
of a UN tribunal. He was discovered purely by chance in 1999 by British
photojournalist Nic Dunlop in the wild and western province of Samlot. Duch
was working incognito for a Christian NGO and claimed to be “born again.” He
confessed to his role in the horrors of S21 and has been detained ever since.
Duch is the first and the most junior of the accused to go before the court. They
include Khieu Samphan, the public face of the Khmer Rouge; Nuon Chea, Pol
Pot’s brutal henchman and second in command; and Ieng Sary, the slippery
foreign minister of the regime, who are also lined up for the dock. So is Ieng
Sary’s wife, Ieng Thirith, who was minister of social affairs and a key figure in the
Khmer Rouge from the early days. This is nearly 4 decades after the perpetration
of their murderous activities, and they are very old at this point.
Why has it taken so long and why is it happening now, and why is it just
these few up for trial? The Khmer Rouge fought on until 1998. Through the ’80s
they were supported and funded by a coalition of Western powers, China, and
Thailand. If the international community and the UN recognize the horror of
what the KR did, legitimate questions of why they were endorsed by the very
same powers need to be asked and those questions are awkward. Second, the
present regime in Cambodia does not have clean hands. It is true that present
prime minister Hun Sen was a Khmer Rouge officer in the ’70s, but that is a red
herring. He was part of the dissident Eastern Zone and basically a simple soldier.
What is true however is that in the ’90s when the KR started to surrender,
faction by faction, many deals were made, including those concerning business
over lucrative natural resources. There are many secrets surrounding the
surviving members and few are innocent. To put them on trial could also put
their benefactors on trial by proxy. What of the Khmers? Feelings are mixed.
Some just see it as pointless and want to move on. Others see no justice since
former Khmer Rouge live in their towns and villages and in some cases still
terrify them. Others see a little justice as better than no justice at all. As ever in
Cambodia, the water remains very muddy indeed.
and mythology. On the southern end of the complex is a small hill covered in vegetation
and said to model the sacred Mount Meru; there’s a large Buddha footprint and a small
temple that provokes very devout practice in Khmer visitors.
Btw. sts. 240 and 184 on Sothearos. The entrance is on the east side facing the river. Admission $6.50.
Daily 7:30–11am and 2–5pm.
Tuol Sleng, Museum of Genocide It is important to visit this profoundly
disturbing place if you wish to understand modern Cambodia. It is an experience that
brings you close to the darkest depths of mankind’s capacity for brutality. The grounds
of this former high school are just as they were in 1979 at the end of Cambodia’s bloody
genocide. During the violent recent history in Cambodia, the two-story compound
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PHNOM PENH 5
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