They Hear Dead People

Ghost stories in the International Herald Tribune provide an insight about the Cambodian psyche and that nation's people deal with its tragic past.

"They tease us," said Pen Mon, 42. "They startle us in our sleep so they can see us jump ... They call out: 'Bring us water. It's so hot and crowded in here.' And then next morning we bring them water."

It helps explain why skulls crammed into shrines are given offerings of food and water, why a royal call for cremation has gone unanswered, why the forensic evidence of foreign specialists may never be presented to court, and how the national memory of recent events is slipping away from today's youth.

This is a country that is still haunted by its past, its psychic wounds still raw, its tormentors unpunished, its traumatic history a tangle of ignorance, confusion and nightmares.
It is not easy living side by side with piles of the skulls of the victims of the killing fields. But that, in effect, is what Cambodians do today, 26 years after the murderous Khmer Rouge were driven from power.

It is a confronting read. It even explains why cow herds find old bones a treat to eat.