In about 1990, I met some Cambodians who were in Villawood detention centre. They had arrived by boat and their cases were moving slowly through the Australian legal system. In May 1992, it was because of the Cambodians in court that Australia introduced mandatory immigration detention. The Cambodians were caught up in the politics of 'boat people' under a Keating Labor government.
Then, Australia was part of the international negotiations to achieve a peaceful resolution of the war in Cambodia. Australia was not sympathetic to the plight of a small group of about 350 Cambodian asylum seekers when a UN lead force was to enter Cambodia to achieve peace.
My first visit to Cambodia was soon after the UN had taken over and the mostly unpaved streets of Phnom Penh were busy with new white UN marked vehicles, and motorbikes. I visited the Tuol Sleng museum, which was a former school but used as a torture centre by the Khmer Rouge. I saw a map of Cambodia made of human skulls, and thousands of photos of the men, women and children who were later executed by the Khmer Rouge.
I was able to visit the ancient monuments of Angkor Wat near Siem Reap. During that visit I was taken around on a motorbike by a Cambodian who advised me to be careful of landmines. We saw a de-mining team in operation in the area, and during the evening I remember hearing the sound of artillery fire in the distance, probably between the Cambodian government and Khmer Rouge forces.
I have visited Cambodia again about five times since then, and each time noted the economic improvements and developments in Phnom Penh, but still there was great poverty, especially in the countryside.
While there has been relative stability since the end of conflict, there really has been only one ruler — Hun Sen. Hun Sen joined the Khmer Rouge in the early 1970s and was wounded in the fighting to capture Phnom Penh in 1975. However he fled to Vietnam in 1977 when Pol Pot's forces turned against him, and then he was embedded in the Vietnamese forces that invaded Cambodia and took Phnom Penh in January 1979. The 'liberation' of Phnom Penh by the Vietnamese is still celebrated as a national holiday.
Some Khmer have done very well since 1993, and now in Phnom Penh the new cars are owned by rich locals, or their children. These