For Young Cambodians, a Mobile History Lesson From a Dark Time

Most people in Cambodia are under 30, born long after the horrific rule of the Khmer Rouge. A bus is touring the country to make sure it’s not forgotten.

The brand-new bus gleamed as it weaved through rush-hour traffic in Cambodia’s capital. It was headed to a school, bearing a lesson about the country’s darkest period.

About two-thirds of Cambodia’s population is under 30, born a generation or more after the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s. Many of those young people have only a general awareness of its atrocities, which left at least 1.7 million Cambodians dead.

That horrific history has been thoroughly documented, in court documents and at places like the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the killing field in Choeung Ek. But both of these are in the capital, Phnom Penh, and most Cambodians live in the countryside.

In full: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/24/world/asia/cambodia-khmer-rouge-museum-bus.html

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