BIT OF A HISTORY LESSON

Whilst I am undergoing emergency dental treatment to have a crown fitted I thought I would write a historical perspective on Cambodia to give you a better understanding of how this country has developed in a relatively short time.


Why is Cambodia the way it is today? There is a large lake in the middle of Cambodia that is actually a backwater tributary of the Mekong River. This lake is called the Tonle Sap. During the rainy season the river fills its banks and reverses flow, flooding the lake, which spills out over the land. When the rain stops and the dry season sun beats down, the lake contracts and the river flows back to the sea. This ebb and flow of water is the heartbeat of Cambodia, slow and steady, nourishing the land and providing rice and fish for its people, the Khmers.


For centuries the Khmers lived within the rhythms of sun, rain and harvest, worshipful of their God-Kings, who feuded amongst themselves and lost land to the expansionist Vietnamese and Thais. When the first Europeans arrived, Cambodia was already a shadow of its former self, the massive temples of the Angkor empire forgotten in the jungle. For a while the French half-heartedly governed Cambodia, but they were more interested in the colonial potential of Vietnam. Life among the rice fields didn't change.


Cambodia became an independent state in the 1950's, ruled by a flighty young king who spent most of his time directing films. Roads and factories were built, a small cosmopolitan elite developed and for a brief time Cambodia was an oasis of stability in a turbulent part of the world. A delegation from newly independent Singapore arrived to learn how to run a successful country. The great lake flooded, the farmers planted rice and caught fish, the sun came back out and the water flowed into the sea...and then the earth itself began to explode.


B-52 bombs fall faster than the speed of sound and give no warning to those they are about to destroy. Countless tons of American bombs were dropped indiscriminately on Cambodia, which was viewed by the White House officials as a sideshow to the Vietnam war. The attempt to keep the bombing of Cambodia secret is what led to the Watergate scandal and President Nixon's resignation.


As war spread into Cambodia the fabric of society collapsed. The King was overthrown and Vietnamese soldiers swarmed across the border. Officials in the capital lived lavishly off American aid whilst the rest of the country burned. Cambodian farmers began to support an indigenous communist movement called the Khmer Rouge, which pledged to expel foreigners, desroy the corrupt urban elite and reinstate the King. A truly vicious cycle of war developed. As the Khmer Rouge gathered strength, the bombing intensified, and each bomb created new recruits for the communist guerillas. When the Khmer Rouge took the capital in 1975, most of their soldiers were teenagers who knew nothing of life without war. Cambodia was already a bloody wasteland, but the brutality was only just beginning.


The Khmer Rouge systematically destroyed Cambodia. The country became a vast gulag work camp. Monks, teachers, doctors, intellectuals and artists were rounded up and killed. Families were seperated. Crying at night was grounds for execution. No one knows how many people died. Estimates are in the millions. Cambodias under the Khmer Rouge was simply hell on earth.


In 1979 the Vietnamese couldn't take the madness any longer and invaded Cambodia, pushing the Khmer Rouge into the mountains and up to the Thai border, where they were kept alive by well intentioned humanitarian aid. The fighting continued. Cambodians killed Vietnamese who killed Cambodians who killed Cambodians. Countless landmines were scattered throughout the forests and rice-fields. This ugly civil war lasted for a long time, until there was hardly anything left to fight over. The Khmer Rouge maintained strongholds along the Thai border until the late '90s.


Today Cambodia is ruled by a strongman named Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who defected to the Vietnamese side during the civil war. Hun Sen lost a democratic election sponsored by the United Nations during the '90s, but when the UN troops pulled out he and his soldierse simply ignored the results. Hun Sen continues to rule today. He and his cronies are fabulously wealthy.