Privatization Furore Misses Mark

Controversy continues to grow about the deal to privatise the killing fields genocide memorial.

Correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, Simon Montlake, can see the value of having a private company come in and upgrade the road (see story). "But the idea of profiting from genocide, that's hard to get my head around. It's hard to see the Germans, for example, deciding to privatize Auschwitz," he says.

In a move that has stirred public anger, this memorial to the genocide that haunts Cambodia has been given to a private company. Under a 30-year concession that started Sunday, JC Royal will "develop and renovate the beauty of Choueng Ek" to attract more paying tourists.

Critics said such profiting is unconscionable. "This is the memory of the nation. It doesn't belong to city hall. It belongs to the survivors," said Youk Chang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. The site's manager, who first revealed the privatization, has accused the government of "using the bones of the dead to make business."

The municipality of Phnom Penh, which owns the site, said the new owner is forbidden to move the skulls and other remains. The national government has sought to dampen criticism by saying profits would go to a local charity run by a senior Cabinet minister, Chea Vandeth. Local media have speculated about the ownership of JC Royal, a Japanese company run by Vandeth.

Some activists welcome the new ownership of the killing fields. They point to a contract that requires upgrading the unpaved road to the site and building a museum and documentary-film studio. "If a private company can do it better, why not? If they can bring in international visitors and tell them something about our tragedy, all well and good, so we don't repeat it," said Lao Mong Hay, head of legal reform at the nonprofit Center for Social Development in Phnom Penh.

Even at the old price before privatization, the entry fee was simply too steep for the majority of Cambodians. Even if given free access, the cost of transport to Choueng Ek would simply bar locals from considering a journey to the memorial.

So in a sense, this memorial has always been more a focal point for pricking the conscious of international tourists rather than the collective Cambodian psyche.

So rather than semantics about the privatization, I believe debate should focus on the paltry sum that actually remains in Cambodia. Tourism should be a major asset for the country, and it is a shame to see the lion's share of profits head off-shore.

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