BORDER CROSSINGS
JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS
by Michael James
… what the? Yeah, they were gunshots. Definitely. Six or seven in quick succession. Just outside by the sound of them. I rushed out onto the balcony to look. Probably not the most sensible thing to do when bullets are flying. The “barang” next door had the same idea. We peered out into the street. No sign. No screams. No police sirens. What the hell was going on? Earlier in the day there had been an altercation between a couple of Khmer guys in the street outside. That had led to fisticuffs with one guy getting the better of the other before he pedaled off on his bicycle. Maybe this was the follow up, four hours later? A “pedal by“? Maybe Phnom Penh wasn’t so safe after all? I had the same thought three days later as I waited outside the National Museum with a couple of other expats. BOOM! What the? “Sounds like a pipe bomb. Pretty close too,” opined one. “Nah, it was probably just a propane bottle exploding,” I ventured. We later found out that it was the controlled explosion of an explosive device that had been planted at the nearby monument celebrating friendship between the Cambodian and Vietnamese people. In some sections of society the Vietnamese are pariahs.
When I mentioned these incidents to another neighbour he snorted. It was much worse years ago. He’d been here in 1993 when the Khmer Rouge was still active in the jungles up by Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat is located. Those days there was still a battalion of Dutch UN “peacekeepers” stationed there. It was common to hear rockets and gunfire from the jungle outside of town. Even back in 2002 it was worse. He used to live next door to a karaoke parlour up by Tuol Sleng, the former high school turned Khmer Rouge torture and detention centre commonly known as S-21. At the end of the night when drunken Khmer guys wanted to impress each other, and their “dates”, it was common practice for them to pull out their Russian made 9mm pistols and pop a few caps in to the air, rounds ricocheting off my friend’s apartment building. Yeah, it was much worse then. As for 1997 and the alleged coup by FUNCINPEC? Don’t even think about it. They used tanks then.
There is a Cambodian proverb, “If heaven could weep, Cambodia would not know drought.” This country has seen it all and then some. Prior to the Khmer Rouge victory on 17th April 1975 the population stood at 7.7 million souls. By the time that the Vietnamese kicked them out in 1979 over a fifth of the population had perished under the genocidal policies of the regime. Despite this they were given the Cambodian seat at the United Nations in the 1980’s. Due in no small part to the fact that the Vietnamese, who supported the then Cambodian regime, were not flavour of the month with two of the permanent members of the UN security council. Namely China and the United States. Throughout the eighties the Khmer Rouge were actively supplied with western arms to continue to wage their guerrilla war throughout the country. At one stage members of the, officially denied, clandestine R Squadron of Britain’s Special Air Service trained Khmer Rouge members in tactics and use of weaponry. With the backing of the Thatcher government. At the same time the United Nations policy was that there should be no reference to “genocide” when discussing the Khmer Rouge. There was talk that any peace negotiated in the country should involve a “comprehensive settlement” to include the Khmer Rouge. As John Pilger referred in 1990 this was ludicrous and would be akin to inviting the deposed Nazi regime to become involved in a new government for post Second World War Germany.
Nowadays, Cambodia is relatively stable. Former members of the Khmer Rouge now hold seats in government. The prime minister for the past twenty years, Hun Sen, is a former cadre who joined the Vietnamese to overthrow the KR in the late 70’s. The Khmer Rouge had all but faded into oblivion by the late 1990’s with Brother Number 1, Pol Pot, dying in mysterious circumstances in one of the last outposts of the KR in northwestern Cambodia in 1998. As their leaders are now dying it has seemed that ordinary Cambodians would be denied justice as there have still been no trials, let alone convictions, of any involved in the regime. That is until recently. For the past few years a group of researchers, including the American expert from SOAS, University of London, Steve Heder, has been quietly compiling evidence to link the regime’s leaders to the atrocities carried out in the name of Angka. Unlike the Nazis and their “Final Solution” it is not known whether there is any documentary evidence to link the KR’s murderous policies to any centralised order or whether individual commanders were simply acting on their own initiative. Within the past few weeks the former head of S-21, Comrade Duch, has been arrested in preparation for the forthcoming KR trials. Duch, now a born again Christian, had been living unmolested in relative obscurity until a photojournalist researching the KR happened to come across him.
As the KR regime becomes just another chapter in the history books the country faces other challenges. With an average monthly income across the nation of just $30 poverty is, or should be, the priority in this country. Billions of dollars of aid money have poured into this country in the past decade. Where has it gone? Hospital facilities are still primitive or non-existent in many parts of the country. The capital, Phnom Penh, still does not have an international standard hospital. Advice to western newcomers from old hands is always that if they have any serious illness or accident they should get on a flight to Bangkok for treatment. Several of the better private hospitals in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City have opened up offices in town so that those with money can book themselves in for the best medical care. While those without, the majority, can just hope that nothing serious befalls them. Which is a very real risk. Apart from the chance of falling prey to one of the pantheon of tropical maladies there is always the threat of injury on the roads. Phnom Penh alone has over six hundred traffic fatalities every month on its chaotic, unregulated roads. In the provinces outside of town I have witnessed the outcome of at least one serious road accident virtually every time I have ventured further afield. Improving road infrastructure by converting the current two lane highways, which comprise the National Routes, into dual carriageways would make a dramatic impact here and cut road accidents from suicidal overtaking if nothing else. It does not seem to be a priority on anybody’s list and the deaths continue, meanwhile billions in aid money continue to pour into the country never to be seen again.
Apart from English teaching the other main employment opportunities for westerners in this country are with Non Government Organisations. Well-meaning people in the west contribute to these charitable organisations but do not see where the money they are donating goes. Perhaps they would be shocked if they saw the opulent villas that house the numerous NGOs located just past the Independence Monument? Or maybe they would wonder why it is necessary for them to have expensive four wheel drive SUVs when most of them rarely venture out of town and almost certainly never off road? Some of the NGOs do good work. The ones that deal with mine and UXO removal for instance. Or ones that help in the eradication of malaria. Apart from these there are many NGOs here that allegedly combat human trafficking and child prostitution. Not surprising when a former police chief in Phnom Penh ten years ago was a known trafficker. Corruption is still extant as evidenced by the recent conviction and fourteen year gaol sentence of a more recent incumbent, for possession of counterfeit money. In the late 90’s Cambodia had developed something of a reputation as a haven for western paedophiles. That threat seems to have diminished now. As Jon Swain commented in a recent Sunday Times article, western paedophiles were only ever the tip of the iceberg. The threat to children still exists but it is, as it has always been, from Asian predators. None of the NGOs seem concerned enough to stop Korean, Japanese or home grown paedophiles. For some NGOs there is more pressing business at hand. They are here simply to save souls. In recent times a number of Christian Evangelist groups have sent their members to work in the country with the sole aim of proselytising. What with Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses here it is surely only a matter of time before the Scientologists set up shop. Then again, maybe Cambodia will be spared Scientology as converts are supposed to tithe or donate a portion of their income to the church? Not a philosophy that would go down too well here.
For all of the money and good wishes pouring into the country one would have hoped that at least one of the NGOs would have thought to set up a soup kitchen. Or a programme to house the homeless. Unlike in the west, where it seems to be the result of drugs, alcohol or mental health problems, here homelessness is the product of poverty. On any given evening one only has to walk along Sisowath Quay by the river, from near to the Foreign Correspondents Club, along towards the Port of Phnom Penh and one will come across people sleeping on the street. Often with small, unclothed babies beside them. I only have to look out of my apartment window to see a homeless mother and her toddlers bed down on a mat laid on top of a drain cover every evening. This within spitting distance of Wat Phnom and the huge edifice that is the new US Embassy, one of the largest US Embassies in SE Asia. Perhaps the sight of homeless on the streets is partially the result of an influx of dispossessed from the provinces? Recently the Cambodia Daily newspaper has covered a story of how the wife of the minister for land has been embroiled in land grabbing/purchasing plots of land at an undervalue from minority villagers in remote northeastern Rattanakiri province. Her goal? To develop commercial rubber plantations. She recently complained to the Cambodia Bar Association that the dozen or so legal aid organisations involved in acting for the dispossessed were acting outside of their remit in that they were actively encouraging claimants to bring cases. The Secretary of the Bar Association has surprisingly recently upheld her complaint and the outcome of this dispute still remains to be seen. Whether the lawyers will be prevented from acting or whether they will be allowed to pursue the claims is a moot point. The clever money’s on them being prevented to pursue the matter further. As Dorothy Parker said, it’s not who you know it’s whom!
Further south, on the coast, Sihanoukville is touted as being the next big SE Asian holiday spot. Some have been saying this for the past five years. Now it looks like the dream of property developers is drawing closer. Recently a group of Russian “businessmen”, owners of the Snake House Restaurant and Hotel have been active in developing the area around the traditional backpackers haunt of Weather Station/Victory Hill. They bought a stretch of Victory Beach for a reputed $1million cash. Dispossessing a number of families who had squatted on the beach for years and used the hinterland to graze their buffalos. Where once buffaloes wallowed Hummers now park. They have also “bought” the nearest island offshore, Snake Island, for $300 million dollars under a 100 year lease agreement. Currently constructing a casino on the island, their recent application to build a private bridge to the island was rejected on the basis that it would interfere with shipping. So now casino goers will have to zoom to the casino in speedboats instead. Just like in the James Bond movies.
A visit to their lair is a surreal experience. Their idea of a salubrious evening is to dine surrounded by deadly snakes. The bar area of the Snake House is filled with glass compartments containing sundry cobras, vipers and kraits. Oh, and a single morose looking king cobra. Should one choose to sit at one of the glass-topped tables one can be entertained by the antics of the squirming pythons within. Or should one choose to admire the water feature near to the bar one can ogle the juvenile saltwater crocodile on display. Chained, presumably for the safety of customers. At least the crocodile can’t throw anything at customers unlike the glue-sniffing monkeys back at Wat Phnom whose favourite past-times include throwing faeces at ogling tourists. As a comment maybe they’ve got it right? Direct actions speak louder than benevolent platitudes.