Reporters on the Job

PRESIDENTIAL GRIDLOCK: North Korean President Kim Jong Il's visit to Russia was a major source of disruption for Muscovite commuters (this page). The rail system was shut down for security reasons as the 21-car train crept into the city last week, and out again, last night. Reporter Fred Weir says Kim's visit didn't disrupt his commute. But he does empathize with others' plight. Fred finds that he regularly has to wait for another bigwig to pass. In his case, it's Russian President Vladimir Putin. "His dacha is just a few kilometers up the road from mine. When Putin and his entourage sweep through at 150 kilometers per hour on the weekends, the entire Uspenskoye Highway is shut down for half an hour at a time," says Fred.

POLITICAL TOURIST: For today's story about the Cambodia genocide trials (page 1), the Monitor's Ilene Prusher decided to get a first-hand look at the "killing fields in Choeung Ek, where about 17,000 people were killed. "Inside the Buddhist stupa there are skulls marked with disturbing labels like 'female girls aged 10-15.' It's pretty overpowering," says Ilene. The next day, she went to the Tuol Sleng genocide museum, which was a Khmer Rouge prison where they tortured inmates before executing them.

But after a weekend trip to the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, "I was feeling very charmed by the Cambodia's beautiful Buddhist monuments and the peace they seem to embody. Places like Tuol Sleng and the killing fields suddenly felt very far away from my image of Cambodia. But as soon as I got back to Phnom Penh, I could feel it again ... not least of which because every time I got on a moto, or a moped taxi - the main form of transport in the capital - the driver would inevitably say: 'Killing fields? I take you to Choeung Ek? Tuel Sleng? You want genocide museum?' I found it rather sad."

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