ABSTRACT
On December 14, 2001, Prime Minister Hun Sen disseminated a circular that called for the preservation of memorials to victims of the Democratic Kampuchea regime as well as the preparation of the Anlong Veng District to become a historical-tourist site (Royal Government of Cambodia 2001). The decree asserts the necessity to properly maintain stupas and other memorials that remain as “physical testimony of the crimes committed against the innocent Cambodian people by the genocidal Pol Pot regime.” Further, these locales of memorialization are said to function as evidence of historic crimes as well as bases for remembrance and education for generations to come. In the circular, the Anlong Veng region is appended to the list of killingfields sites and is set out “to become a historical museum for national and international tourists in the future.” The directives issuing from Hun Sen’s decree call for local and provincial government, inter-ministerial, and expert institution co-operation in carrying out the preservation and preparation work required for these sites. The document appoints the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) to continue spearheading the initiative to establish a historical-tourist area in Anlong Veng, “which was of historic importance in the final stage of the political life of the leaders and military organization of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge.” Finally, the circular sets the deadline for these provisions to be implemented before January 7, 2003, in time for the twenty-fourth anniversary of the victory over the Pol Pot regime and to kick off “Visit Cambodia Year” (Royal Government of Cambodia 2001). Among the sites that are demarcated for commemoration and tourist development are Pol Pot’s crematory remains and house.
