UNObserver.com
4th August, 2009
Cambodia is a fascinating country to visit, with a long and turbulent history, friendly people, and delicious food. It has a striking natural beauty, with the mighty Mekong River, the unique Tonle Sap Lake, and a landscape of sugar palms, white cattle and green rice fields among rural villages where time seems to have stood still. Against this stunning backdrop are the encouraging signs of progress and development out of poverty that is most evident in the major cities.
I have just returned to Viet Nam, after leading another tour group to Cambodia. This was my first tour to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in five years, so it was most satisfying to see the positive changes taking place in the country, as well as to catch up again with some familiar faces and places.
The world may know something about the amazing grandeur of the Khmer Empire from the 9th-13th centuries, when a number of kings and numberless labourers built the legendary Angkor Wat and dozens of other mind-blowing temples and public works. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the impressive temple ruins near Siem Reap attract tourists from near and far.
The world may also know something of the darker side of more recent Cambodian history, especially the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot from 1975-1979, when around 2 million people, some 1/5 of the country’s entire population, met an untimely and tragic death. The UN Human Rights Commission in 1979 described the genocidal crimes of the Khmer Rouge as “the worst to have occurred anywhere in the world since Nazism.” But then did nothing.
Most people may know the film “The Killing Fields”.
But few seem to know, or remember, that most of the world has Cambodian blood on its hands - for most of the world, at one time or another, supported the Khmer Rouge. Of course, they would prefer you not to know, or remember, that shameful and incriminating truth.
We should know of these things, and never forget the past, as this is the key to understanding the present and the future.
MORE
http://lemonjuicebruce.blogspot.com/2009/08/truth-bruce-mcphie-august-1-2009.html
Please also see:
Special Tribunal for Cambodia http://www.eccc.gov.kh
4th August, 2009
Cambodia is a fascinating country to visit, with a long and turbulent history, friendly people, and delicious food. It has a striking natural beauty, with the mighty Mekong River, the unique Tonle Sap Lake, and a landscape of sugar palms, white cattle and green rice fields among rural villages where time seems to have stood still. Against this stunning backdrop are the encouraging signs of progress and development out of poverty that is most evident in the major cities.
I have just returned to Viet Nam, after leading another tour group to Cambodia. This was my first tour to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in five years, so it was most satisfying to see the positive changes taking place in the country, as well as to catch up again with some familiar faces and places.
The world may know something about the amazing grandeur of the Khmer Empire from the 9th-13th centuries, when a number of kings and numberless labourers built the legendary Angkor Wat and dozens of other mind-blowing temples and public works. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the impressive temple ruins near Siem Reap attract tourists from near and far.
The world may also know something of the darker side of more recent Cambodian history, especially the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot from 1975-1979, when around 2 million people, some 1/5 of the country’s entire population, met an untimely and tragic death. The UN Human Rights Commission in 1979 described the genocidal crimes of the Khmer Rouge as “the worst to have occurred anywhere in the world since Nazism.” But then did nothing.
Most people may know the film “The Killing Fields”.
But few seem to know, or remember, that most of the world has Cambodian blood on its hands - for most of the world, at one time or another, supported the Khmer Rouge. Of course, they would prefer you not to know, or remember, that shameful and incriminating truth.
We should know of these things, and never forget the past, as this is the key to understanding the present and the future.
MORE
http://lemonjuicebruce.blogspot.com/2009/08/truth-bruce-mcphie-august-1-2009.html
Please also see:
Special Tribunal for Cambodia http://www.eccc.gov.kh
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