THREE DAYS IN PHNOM PENH

"Grappling with the enormity of Cambodia's trauma, Nishikanta Verma embarks on a quest for a greater understanding of one of the worst crimes of the 20th century. This search has resulted in this deeply heartfelt and compassionate account of his journey to Cambodia and the heart of the Khmer Rouge killing machine. A passionate story of one man's quest for the truth."
Nic Dunlop
Author of 'The Lost Executioner' - A Story of the Khmer Rouge (Winner of the Johns Hopkins Award for Excellence in International Journalism)

***********************************************************
Cambodia, a small country nestled between Thailand to the West and Vietnam to the East, is a Kingdom best known for the Khmer Empire and the collection of magnificent temples they built, showcased by Angkor Wat, near the town of Siem Reap.
Colonized by the French in the mid 19th century for a few decades, Cambodia gained Independence in the 1950's and was relatively unaffected by the wars in Vietnam, first with the French, and then with the United States.
However, a series of events starting from the indiscriminate bombing of Cambodia by the United States, led to the rise of a small jungle based Communist group called the Khmer Rouge, who began to slowly take over the country in a war against US supported Cambodian troops that culminated in the capture of the capital, Phnom Penh, on April 17, 1975.

The end of wars usually brings peace, but in this case, it led to the greatest human tragedy a country has ever faced.

Between 17 April 1975 and 7 January 1979, the Khmer Rouge annihilated Cambodia.
A third of Cambodia's population died of hunger, torture or disease. Families were separated. Money was abolished. All traces of culture were eradicated. Included in the dead were all of Cambodia's educated people, all its keepers of tradition, all of its teachers, and, in a country that had been Theravada Buddhist for centuries, almost all of its monks, with its Buddhist temples turned into prisons, its schools into torture centres, and its countryside into killing fields, quite literally.

Cambodia, the civilization that buillt Angkor, had, for all practical purposes, ended in 3 years, 8 months and 20 days.

By 2013, when I first truly engaged with Cambodia's story through books and eventually a visit, the country had recovered enough to be a major tourist destination. It was helped in this recovery by the United Nations and by many individuals, local and expatriate. They ranged from people who searched for and found some of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia's jungles, Nic Dunlop being one of them, to doctors who established children's hospitals, literally saving Cambodia's children, to people who relocated to help demine the country to many more.

Three Days in Phnom Penh is an account of my first trip to Cambodia, taken a few months after the full weight of its history was thrust upon me, by a chance encounter with a book written by a survivor of the Khmer Rouge. It was a trip born out of deep anguish and had no aim other than see Phnom Penh, where Cambodia's destruction started and where its revival is most visible. The book itself is an account of this trip and an exploration of the reasons behind it. I have also added historical context to help the reader travel with me.

Please come along for the ride. It is short but I promise it will be worth your time.

There is more to Cambodia than its temples.

Dettagli