Cybercambodia.com Website Review

a secret prison in Phnom Penh, between the middle of 1975 and the first few days of 1979. Several of the prisoners have just hod their blindfolds removed. As they stare at their captors, they have no idea where they are, who is taking the pictures or what will happen to None of them was ever released. After to*ture and interrogation, sometimes stretching over several months, all of these men, women and itself Democratic Kampuchea (DK) and was probably the most revolutionary government in the world. The country was led by a smooth general of Cambodia's Communist party, known since pre-revolutionary times to outsiders as the Red Khmer or Khmer Rouge revolutionary organization (Angkar padevat) which had as many eyes as a pineapple. Angkar, they were told, had taken the place of their The human costs of the revolution were horrific. In less than four years, a million people, or one Cambodian in seven, died from starvation, malnutrition and misdiagnosed or mistreated illnesses. Another 200,000, including everyone pictured here, were exe cuted as enemies of the state. These are conservative estimates. The exact number, which could easily be higher will never be known. It is impossible to come to grips with figures of this kind. In terms of Cambodia's total population they resemble those in the Holocaust in World War II. Stalin's collectivization of the Ukraine in the 1930's or the mas*acres in Rwanda in 1994. It may be easier to bear witness to so many victims and to understand the killers as we must if we concentrate on fewer palpable examples. From this perspective the people pictured here are poignant important and unique. Frozen by the lens they stare out at their captors. Nearly twenty years later they are also regarding us. Their expressions ask their captors: Who are you? Why am I here? and ask us: Why did this happen? Why have we been killed? Mute imploring irrefutable their faces indict Pol Pot, his paranoia and the demented Utopian policies When the Communists seized power in April 1975 they swiftly evacuated all cities and towns forcing over two million people into the