Cambodia today
Cambodia has gradually recovered from the Khmer Rouge regime, although the psychological scars remain for survivors and their families. Both civil war and the threat of the Khmer Rouge remained real until the late 1990s.
Since the 1990s, Cambodia has opened up to the outside world and the economy has grown rapidly. Cambodia now has a very young population and by 2005 75% of Cambodians were too young to have experienced the genocide. 50% of Cambodians are under 24 years old. Buddhism has recovered since the Khmer Rouge attempt to wipe it out – almost all Cambodians define themselves as Buddhists.
After discovery by the invading Vietnamese troops in 1979, the prison of S-21 was left as it was when the Khmer Rouge fled. Today it is a museum, bearing the mainly anonymous photographs taken of the prisoners during interrogation. Instruments of torture remain. Trials against some of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge continue.
Useful links:
- Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia – the joint Cambodian-international tribunal hearing cases against senior Khmer Rouge figures.
- Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – the museum is the location of the notorious S-21 prison.
- Photographs from Tuol Sleng