Justice denied

A couple of days ago I posted a photo of Pol Pot's birthplace. It seems only right that I should now post a photo of his cremation site, where in April 1998 millions of Cambodian's were denied any real opportunity to seek justice for the crimes committed in his name by his regime, when he died following heart failure. Just under a year earlier, he'd been arrested and underwent a show trial by his own followers and was placed under house arrest. Three days after he died, and following visits by journalists to verify his death, his body was cremated on a pile of rubbish and car tyres.

I visited the site, on top of the mountain near Anlong Veng and close to the border with Thailand, in December 2003. After his death, on 15 April 1998, the small shack he was living in was dismantled and all that is visible today is a broken toilet bowl amongst the weeds, and his grave, covered with a rusty corrugated tin roof. The site is on a tourist trail around the former headquarters of the Khmer Rouge hierachy, which also includes Pol Pot's bunker and Ta Mok's home. This photo of Pol Pot was taken at his show trial in July 1997.