Thailand’s military has upped its troop presence around Prasat Preah Vihear to more than 400. Cambodian’s military has responded by rushing troops to the border as well. It appears clear that the provocative move of the Thai military is intended to provoke a response among Cambodia’s less-professionally trained troops, inviting a military response and seizure of the contested land surrounding the temple. So far, the Cambodian troops (like the Cambodian people, and even the Cambodian government) are keeping their cool.
The best thing for all involved is for the Thai troops to turn around and return home before Thailand suffers another terrible humiliation. I have no doubt that they’d be capable of doing serious damage to the Khmer troops, but beyond that, what do they really expect? Nationalism on steroids. Ugly times.
Texturbation, a journalist currently traveling in Cambodia, has been publishing insightful moments from his journeys. Today he visited the twin genocide sites of S-21 (Tuol Sleng) and Choueng Ek. The entire post is definitely worth reading, but his finish is compelling, and reminds me of my own experiences, any time I criticized the US to my Cambodian friends:
One of the paintings depicts waterboarding. The original wooden waterboard itself, resembling a tilted medieval rack, is right there in the middle of the room.
I listened, bemused, while Peter explained in detail how it was used.
“You do realise,” I said, when he had finished, “that they’re doing this exact same thing right now to unconvicted terrorist suspects in America?”
He shook his head.
“No, no, no,” he said. “You don’t understand. This is from Pol Pot time. Not now. Not any more.”
“Peter, mate, trust me,” I said. “They really are still doing this shit in America.”
He looked at me like I was smoking crack.
A rather distressing article on the relevance (or relative lack thereof) of recent teacher raises in Cambodia. Despite really impressive-sounding increases in salaries (measured as a percentage of previous salaries), these are lagging behind rampant inflation. Given that teachers were already the most poorly-paid professionals in Cambodia (I have no citation for that – I just can’t think of another group, except perhaps some government office workers who refuse to take bribes), we’re talking about $40-$50 a month.
The police have unveiled their hard-won hypotheses regarding the murder of journalist Khim Sambo and his son. And what is the result of their hard work? It was probably the result of a ‘personal vendetta,’ or else a failed robbery attempt. (It’s like they have one script for these things):
“We believe that it is seventy percent likely to have been an act of revenge,” said the commissioner, basing this conclusion on the fact that the attackers apparently did not attempt to steal the motorcycle the victim was driving. “The journalist may have had personal conflicts,” said Touch Naroth.
Good looking out, Naroth.
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