From Cambodia to Kampuchea

No other man-made event of the past forty years conjures up images of horror, cruelty, and starvation in quite the same way as the mention of the Cambodian revolution under the rule of the Khmer Rouge (KR) and Pol Pot (Soloth Sar). Life photos of skulls formed into a pyramid, a map constructed of Cambodian skeletons, before-and-after pictures of Tuol Sleng inmates, the mass graves of the killing fields. Genocide. Autogenocide. The successive tragedies, even if never of the magnitude they were first thought to be, were of major proportions. The fighting and suffering continues, albeit substantially alleviated in comparison to its zenith. Within the country, the Khmer Rouge have achieved some success as Vietnamese combat units withdrew. At the Thai border, mud-washed refugee camps remain, official and unofficial, their inhabitants unable to leave, enduring maltreatment, conscription, inadequate medical and food supplies. While some are now being repatriated and there is hope for a more peaceful future under the new UN-supported coalition, the echoes of KR rule are still very much with us

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