Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with aspects of genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia that have been largely unexplored to date, including the impact of regional politics, and the role played by social institutions in perpetrating genocide. It offers a fascinating glimpse at the political maneuverings between Vietnamese and Cambodian communists leading up to, and during the Cambodian genocide, as told by the recently declassified Soviet communist party archives. The book considers the Cambodian genocide through the shifts and changes in the Thai political landscape at the time. It explores a Rwandan social institution that played an important role in the genocide. The book also deals with private and public efforts to memorialize genocide in the months and years following the killing.