Cambodia's Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land

kleptocratic

Richner was also a cellist, and every Saturday night he gave a concert for tourists who were in town to see Angkor Wat.

Cambodians are a conflicted people, generally passive, quiet, nonthreatening—but also capable of extraordinary violence and brutality. Their history and religion have taught them “not to exhibit extremes of behavior,” observed Youk Chhang, who runs the Documentation Center of Cambodia. It collects records of the Khmer Rouge era. “So when they hold