|
|
Article: Tourist in a TORN LAND; The past throws long shadows over the present in Cambodia, a country ravaged by a senseless war, then systematically broken by one of the cruelest regimes in human history. How does a country whose name is synonymous with the Killing Fields resurrect its economy? Tourism, of course.(TRAVEL)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- June 18, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
"You want to shoot machine gun?" the motorcycle driver shouted over the sound of the traffic.
"I don't know. Maybe."
"It's OK! Every day, I take tourist, shoot machine gun. No problem. Twenty dollars for clip in AK-47."
I thought about it.
"All right," I said. "Let's go."
The driver turned the bike down a side street, and we headed out of Phnom Penh. In the Khmer language, Penh is a woman's name. Phnom means hill. Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia.
Cambodia is a place where people with machine guns and iron rods and scythes and clubs committed murder on a genocidal scale in the late 1970s. Out of a population of ...