Jai Yen Means Keep a Cool Heart: Life among the Mountain Tribes of Thailand Book

I found this book a fascinating and, at times, depressing read. I liked that the book didn't cover the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge but picked up the story of Cambodia and the quest for justice from 1979 onwards. The coverage of the international reaction post-1979 and the geopolitical wrangling in 1980s Cold War politics was very detailed and, sadly, embarrassing reading for citizens of Britain, USA, EU member states, China, Australia and New Zealand (to name only a few). My current country of residence, Thailand, also comes out very poorly as the outlines of collusion and support of the Khmer Rouge are outlined. What strikes is the absurdity - but truth - of the Khmer Rouge *keeping* Cambodia's seat at the United Nations throughout the 1980s (and early-1990s) whilst the new government rebuild and sought international aid. The way in which powerful nations politicked to ensure the status quo was maintained, ignoring please from inside the country, and that ordinary Cambodians were denied all of the benefits of full membership of the UN was anger-indicing. Hun Sen's government has gone on to be far from virtuous in its management and governance of Cambodia - and a criticism of this book (published in 2004) is that it is quite sympathetic to him and his government - but the 'what if' question still remains. The UN does not come out of this book well with detailed and fully referenced contradictions of their position well made here by Fawthorp.
Finally, the 'legalese' which is included here is slightly heavy going at times but it is necessary for the level of detail and for the full explanation. I sincerely hope there is a fully updated version of this book with information on the conclusion of the trials (and mainly deaths) of the protagonists. It certainly made me research more on 'what happened next' and it gave a superb insight into Cold War behind the scenes diplomacy - it has been articulated many times before but to see it here in all its distasteful intricacy was a real eye-openner.