Part of a gate, dark green and topped with tridents, stands on a base at the back of a grove on the vast grounds of the French Embassy in Phnom Penh. Three monks in orange robes chanted mantras, while a small crowd gathered, incense sticks in hand. A plaque states that this gate "opened and then closed on unspeakable pain and the deaths of millions of Cambodians."

50 years ago, on May 8, 1975, marked the end of the evacuation of the French Embassy in Phnom Penh, punctuated by the last convoy of refugees led by truck to Thailand, with Vice-Consul Jean Dyrac at the end of the procession. Three weeks earlier, on April 17, the Khmer Rouge had taken the capital without a fight and ordered the evacuation of the embassy. At least 1,500 people had sought refuge there – French nationals, but also Cambodians and other foreigners. In total, fewer than 700 people, both French and foreign, emerged free. Only a few dozen Cambodians were saved. No one knows, albeit with very few exceptions, what happened to the others.

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