THE first account to be written in Spanish of the Khmer Rouge era and atrocities has just been published in Chile by Pequeno Dios Editores and is now on sale in Phnom Penh.

Norodom Sihanouk y el Hermano Numero Zero (Norodom Sihanouk and Brother Number One) by Guillermo Garcia tells the story of the tragedy through careful historical research with original documents.

Illustrated innovatively, with pull-out pages of photographs of 1,280 of the prisoners executed at S-21, known as Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, the book aims to introduce the topic to Spanish readers throughout the Americas and Europe.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, has written the book’s foreward, recalling his own first encounter with the Khmer Rouge as they rolled into Phnom Penh when he was 14 years old.

“I would witness a family murdered by young Khmer Rouge comrades at a public commune meeting... I would watch hundreds of people die of starvation, including my own sister,” Youk Chhang writes.

“For peace, for real national reconciliation, for real development and for real stability, Cambodia must confront the truth and find justice.”

The book retails for US$15 and is available at Monument Books.