There are more than 170 Books Written about the Khmer Rouge

Posted date 20-02-2007Source Rasmei Kampuchea

By Soy Sophea
Phnom Penh: Although the Khmer Rouge killing field regime collapsed 28 years ago, many Cambodian and non-Cambodian authors have documented and written about the Democratic Kampuchea.

A report on the number of books concerning the Khmer Rouge appearing in Cambodia said that up to now, there have been about 170 books written and published in both Khmer and foreign languages most in in English and French.

Those books reflect authors’ opinions in term of politics, history, personal experiences, conflict resolution, reconciliation and documents from the regime. There is also a book written by Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen, entitle “Years of Cambodia’s Progress Between 1979-1989.”

Meanwhile, Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, the former heroic King of the Kingdom of Cambodia, also wrote many books concerning Khmer Rouge regime such as a book with the title “Communist in Cambodia,” which is a history book. Moreover, he wrote several books describing his own experiences, such as “Sweet and bitter anniversary,” “A Khmer Rouge prisoner,” “My war with US secret agents,” “Sihanouk’s memory.” One of his books entitled “War and hope” attempts to describe the Cambodian politics under the different regimes.

Of 170 books, 50.97% are published in English, 31.07% are published in Khmer and 17.96% are published in French.

Mr. Chang Youk, Director of the Document Center of Cambodia, recently received more than 500 books about the Khmer Rouge from Sweden. He said that even though all these documents were compiled in different languages, they are still valuable for readers who are from different nationalities. He hoped that there will be other authors appearing to share their ideas and knowledge of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Extracted from: Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.15, #4216, Tuesday 20 February 2007.