Interview: David Chandler on Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and Whether Cambodia Was a Genocide

If you have read one book about Cambodia, there is a good chance David Chandler wrote it. A History of Cambodia has been the standard introduction for four decades, Brother Number One remains the essential biography of Pol Pot, and Voices from S-21 is the definitive study of the Khmer Rouge's central prison. He has testified twice as an expert witness at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, against Duch in Case 001, and against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan in Case 002/01.

I had the privilege of sitting down with Professor Chandler at his home in Melbourne to discuss the current state of Khmer Rouge historiography, his thoughts on the tribunal, whether the crimes of the Communist Party of Kampuchea can properly be called genocide, and his experience of visiting the country in 1981, so soon after it reopened to the outside world.

David was Professor Emeritus at Monash University, where I first met him in 2011.