Reply To: Cambodia / Vietnam trip report with a gammy knee

[Cat]

“Bunthin also spoke of his experiences during the Khmer Rouge which I won’t go into detail about, but it was clear that things were still raw, surprisingly I discovered that period isn’t taught in schools.”

It’s not really surprising, given that Hun Sen (a Khmer Rouge commander), only stepped down as prime minister last year, handing over power to his son.

It’s a bit of a Catch-22 really – the very young Cambodian population, most of which weren’t alive during the terrors of the Khmer Rouge, won’t find the political will to scream for Hun Sen and his descendants to relinquish power until his crimes are more widely known and discussed, and his crimes won’t be more widely known and discussed openly in schools and other forums until his family no longer runs the country.

Cambodia is an incredible country to visit, with wonderful, beautiful people, but a hideous past that it still hasn’t been able to move beyond, because some of the perpetrators are still knocking around, riding the gravy train of government corruption, putting to use political violence to silence opposition.

I hope the MRI tomorrow provides answers and a route to recovery for the gammy knee, @strickers. I highly recommend exploring the islands too, @TJ – they’re just stunning.