Cambodia: Still Very Confusing

Killing Fields

Originally uploaded by pirateofcake

There’s something very present, complicated and apparently taboo about Cambodia’s recent history that seems key to understanding this place and it’s something I’m just not getting. We spent the day at the Killing Fields and then at Tuol Seng Prison looking for some clarity and walked away more confused than before.
Here’s what I think I understand: The Khmer Rouge wins power. Pol Pot (an academic flunky and general villain) and his Khmer Rouge deems anyone with an intellect, pair of glasses or potential thought in their head to be an enemy of their communist ideology. They order their army of fairly unenthusiastic recruits to start rounding them up, interrogating, and ultimately exterminating them. The US supports the Khmer Rouge when the Vietnamese invade as an attempt to win the war they pulled out of by proxy.  The Vietnamese defeat the Khmer Rouge who then appeal to the UN for help. In true form, the UN responds by overtlooking the genocide and offering the Khmer Rouge a seat at the UN as Cambodia’s official government, thus delegitimizing the new one post Vietnamese takeover (Well done).  Khmer Rouge rule continues into the 1990s (!!??). They execute lots of their own combatants (???). Pol Pot dies in exile (in Thailand!?). The ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers of Cambodian Courts) is set up to try the criminals that carried out the atrocities. Lots of tours are given of the courtrooms, children get to ask the judges questions on camera, nuns pose for photos, nobody is tried. Lots of talk on the radio suggests that justice is coming.
A woman in a film we watched said ‘”I can’t talk about it because I can’t make sense of it.” Sounds about right. Sounds like a country desperately in need of closure, but a lot of it still doesn’t make sense. Anyway, that was our day. I’m still scratching my head.