'Killing Fields' Privatized

Cambodia has privatized a mass grave where thousands of Pol Pot's political enemies were clubbed to death, sparking anger among relatives who say the Khmer Rouge's 1.7 million victims are being traded for profit.

Phnom Penh mayor Kep Chuktema said Monday a Japanese company called JC Royal had signed a 30-year deal to manage the Cheoung Ek "Killing Fields" genocide memorial on the outskirts of the capital for an initial annual payment of $15,000.

The firm will have to plant trees and flowers at the site, which is home to a memorial tower of 8,000 human skulls, as well as build other visitor facilities, he said.

In return, it will be able to charge foreign tourists an admission charge of $3 -- up from $0.5 -- while Khmers, who have always been allowed in for free, will have to pay a small amount.

"We need to beautify the site to attract tourists," Kep Chuktema told Reuters.

"This project will benefit our country's tourism as some tourists do not just want to visit our historic temples. They also want to see with their own eyes the past violence of the 'Killing Fields,'" he said.

Other survivors of the ultra-Maoist regime's four-year reign of terror see it differently.

"Morally speaking this upsets me so much," said Neang Say, manager of the Cheoung Ek site since the 1980s, who lost nearly 40 relatives under Pol Pot.

The Khmer Rouge swept to power in the jungle-clad southeast nation in April 1975, and immediately enacted a "Year Zero" agrarian revolution, emptying the cities, blowing up the central bank and destroying all money.

An estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died of torture, disease, overwork or starvation before invading Vietnamese troops toppled Pol Pot in 1979.

The regime's reclusive leader died in 1998, and the top surviving henchmen have ever faced justice.

However, the United Nations and Cambodia said last week they had managed to raise $38 million for a planned trial, which officials hope will get under way this year.

Cheoung Ek was the main execution site for Phnom Penh's notorious S-21 torture and interrogation center, which is likely to feature prominently in any trial.

Maybe this will give Howard the idea to privatise... oh wait I think its all pretty much privatised alread. However they haven privatised the military yet. But there was a call by "the private sector" ie ppl that got sacked from the military for being stupid. To contract out more killing.