Inside the massive Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia's spiritual center, hundreds of peasants talk quietly among themselves as a battle rages outside. In mind-numbing heat, with flies swarming everywhere, Phnom Penh troops and Khmer Rouge guerrillas have been fighting for more than an hour. The peasants are more annoyed by the flies than by the exploding rockets and machine-gun fire. War and killing seem natural, everyday occurrences. Over the past 30 years, no people in the world have seen more terror and death than the Cambodians. More bombs were dropped on their country during the Vietnam War than by the Allies on all countries during the entire Second World War. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge then came to power, killing more than a million people in one of the bloodiest and most brutal revolutions in history. Since 1979, when Vietnam invaded to oust the Khmer Rouge, civil war between various factions has almost completely devastated the rest of their small country.
All of this made Cambodia one of the 10 poorest countries in the world. However, unlike people in other poor nations, such as in eastern Africa, few Cambodians starve. This is largely because the country is fertile and tropical fruits grow wild. And while over the past two years Phnom Penh has turned into a bustling boomtown, resembling somewhat the Bangkok of the early 1960s, life in the rest of the country remains poor and dangerous.
Millions of mines remain scattered throughout the countryside, causing thousands of deaths and injuries. Unsanitary food and water often result in widespread intestinal disorders. Malaria is a constant threat, as is dengue fever and numerous other diseases. Buildings, even in Phnom Penh, are decrepit and ratty. Most of the country's once-unequaled temples are damaged or lie in ruins--a legacy of the Khmer Rouge.
Furthermore, many Cambodians are suffering psychologically. "The majority of adults in this country have some kind of mental damage," said a Belgian doctor working near Battambang recently. "Most common is post-traumatic stress disorder from the Khmer Rouge years."
He said that giving older Cambodians responsibility had sometimes proved to be a risky matter. He gave an example of an older man who was given a problem that involved making a decision. "After looking at the problem for a while, [the man] literally ran away," said the doctor. He added that many people, as young as 25, have problems remembering anything.
A HISTORIC VOTE
Prospects for ending Cambodia's long nightmare first looked promising in 1991, when representatives from the country's four major warring factions--the
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