Ta Mok is Dead

I just got a text from a friend. It read simply 'Ta Mok is dead'.

Former Khmer Rouge Military Commander Ta Mok has just died. He was among the most hated of the hardline Khmer Rouge leaders. He would have faced the long-awaited Khmer Rouge Tribunal later this year. He was among a handful of high ranking leaders expected to face charges for crimes of genocide that occurred during the KR's 1975-79 regime.

After Vietnam overran the brutal regime in '79, Ta Mok hung on in jungle camps along the Thai border until the late 90s. Little by little, his supporters fell by the wayside, either on the battlefield, or defecting to the Government. Ta Mok refused to surrender. He was captured in '99 and helicoptered to a Phnom Penh military prison. This morning, he died in a Phnom Penh military hospital, aged 82. His career achievements had earned him the nickname 'Butcher'.

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/Ledgerwood/biographies.htm

The news has created a heated discussion in my office. My Cambodian colleagues seem divided on the subject of the KR trial. Some are saying that it's too late; Pol Pot died a while back, and now Ta Mok is dead. The trial will cost $65 million , yet only a handful of ageing leaders are likely to face prosecution. Given Cambodia's poverty, the argument for using the money for humanitarian relief is not without merit.

Others seem to grasp the wider importance of the trial, in the sense that the world must understand what happened. One colleague said that the skulls from killing fields should be kept not only as a reminder of the atrocities, but also as evidence of what happened. He says that it is too late for those people to get a proper ceremony anyway. He doesn't buy the common Cambodian mantra of 'bury the past'.

Both arguments seem strong to me. However, I want to hear my Cambodian colleagues point the finger of blame beyond Cambodia, and understand that others are responsible for what happened to them. I want to hear them blame the Cold War, the USA, China, Russia,Vietnam. I want them to say that they were sold out by a world that didn't give a fuck. They don't though. Having been denied an education, there is a whole generation of Cambodians who are forced to blame each other, and accept this as their own private tragedy.

Perhaps this explains why so many older Cambodians have chosen to bury the past - for the sake of the future. Yet, I'm stunned at how little the post-KR generation know about what went on in their country. There is no mention of the conflict in school curriculum. When I ask a younger colleague what he thinks, he simply shakes his head and says "No idea. It's all up to the government. If they want, they will do."