Yet more people died in Assad's political prisons than died in S-21, and in hardly less horrific conditions. What makes S-21 different is that a large part of the archives were preserved and are now available to scholars. That has not happened since the liberation of the German death camps in 1945. The result has been to focus disproportionate attention on an institution which, hideous though it was, had its counterparts at one time or another under most dictatorial regimes. Of course two wrongs do not make a right.
Double standards are the currency of politics everywhere.
But if the only sustainable charges that can be brought against the Khmer Rouge leaders are in connection with S-21, the double standard is being pushed too far. If the matter of charges is problematic, the idea that either Cambodia, or for that matter, the international community, is in a position to conduct a fair trial of the Khmer Rouge leaders is even more so. The main front-page story in that issue was an account of death threats, allegedly made by a senior government official, Svay Sitha, in a truly horrific case which the police have found themselves powerless to investigate because of the political protection enjoyed by those involved. Inside, another story detailed judicial corruption in the treatment of a foreign sex-offender. Morally, moreover, the international community is in a weak position too.