Post-Khmer Rouge

Monday, August 25, 2008
6:27 PM ICT
Room 29, Golden Sun Guest House
Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh Province, Cambodia

Early on in thinking about this blog, I decided I wouldn’t talk about one subject: the Khmer Rouge. The years of 1975 to 1979 were simply too destructive, too horrific, and far too present in the minds of Cambodians, and I simply think the blog format is not one respectful enough to confront the topic.

But I did give mention to it in the last post, and it’s simply too important a topic in this city not to discuss, if only briefly.

If Siem Reap is a city obsessed with the Khmer dynasty and the Angkorian temples they built, Phnom Penh is a city obsessed with the Khmer Rouge. The genocide museum and the killing fields are two of the top ‘tourist attractions’ in the city. Probably every social, political, or economic problem in the country today has some kind of roots in those terrible four years. Every single Cambodian you meet who’s over 35 has permanent scarring (mental and often physical) from those terrible years. And that’s all I’m going to say on the topic.