War Remnants of the Khmer Rouge

After the almost four-year genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (April 1975-January 1979), photojournalist Lambray spent six years documenting its devastation—and specifically the individuals maimed by land mines during the Cambodian-Vietnamese war. The portraits and back-stories are heartbreaking. For example, a man named Muy Bel, scouting a grassy area where his cows were to pasture, hit a mine. He writes, “I was brought to a small village clinic but they told me I was going to die so refused me.” A girl, her face disfigured by a mine, notes, “Other children look at me funny because I am ugly now.” Unfortunately, the photos, however distressing, become numbing after awhile, especially because of the paucity of information on the conflict and genocide (for example, several photos refer to the S-21 prison, but almost no details are provided on the terrors that took place there). A short introductory essay on the Pol Pot years by Chandler (A History of Cambodia) and an afterword on the post-Khmer Rouge period by Picken, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia, provide welcome if limited context. This weakness notwithstanding, the book testifies to how the horrors of mine warfare continue for decades after the fighting stops. (Oct.)