Beyond the Killing Fields

Rating:
Summary: Photographic record of life in Site 2.
Review: A collection of black-and-white photographs depicting life in miserable camps of Cambodian displaced persons strung along the Thai border. The photographs are interwoven with touching personal stories. These are not beautiful images, but then nothing in the camps was ever beautiful to my eyes. Those Cambodian-Americans who were interned in the camps and those who worked with humanitarian agencies involved in programs along the Thai-Cambodian border will want to own this book. Forwards are by the Dalai Lama and Dith Pran. The reader cannot help but wonder what "repatriated" Cambodians who once resided in the camps would have to say today. Was that chaotic mass repatriation back to troubled Cambodia truly a United Nations success story, or was one misery simply exchanged for another, with the victims conveniently moved out of sight, or is the truth somewhere in between? Kari Rene Hall's fine work cries out for a sequel and follow-up research work inside Cambodia, where things have never been easily understood even by those most intimately involved.

Rating:
Summary: Photographic record of life in Site 2.
Review: A collection of black-and-white photographs depicting life in miserable camps of Cambodian displaced persons strung along the Thai border. The photographs are interwoven with touching personal stories. These are not beautiful images, but then nothing in the camps was ever beautiful to my eyes. Those Cambodian-Americans who were interned in the camps and those who worked with humanitarian agencies involved in programs along the Thai-Cambodian border will want to own this book. Forwards are by the Dalai Lama and Dith Pran. The reader cannot help but wonder what "repatriated" Cambodians who once resided in the camps would have to say today. Was that chaotic mass repatriation back to troubled Cambodia truly a United Nations success story, or was one misery simply exchanged for another, with the victims conveniently moved out of sight, or is the truth somewhere in between? Kari Rene Hall's fine work cries out for a sequel and follow-up research work inside Cambodia, where things have never been easily understood even by those most intimately involved.