It took a lot of time, but it is noteworthy that Cambodia faced up to the negative history of the massacres of its own people and handed down a judicial ruling.
It is hoped that the country will not let the painful memories fade away and will use them for nation-building. A special tribunal has concluded its trial of one of the former senior leaders in the Pol Pot regime that ruled Cambodia in the 1970s and massacred its people.
The sentence of life imprisonment for the former fifth-ranking official in the political hierarchy, the only one of the five defendants still alive, has been finalised.
