This morning I woke up officially one year older. Essentially it’s just another day, but I’m excited for this year. I’ll be starting a new job, which is like a new beginning. A chance to meet new people, learn about new parts of the city and for me and Wonder Boy to learn what it’s like to not work in the same building. I was pretty happy with that.

After pouring coffee and making lunch for Wonder Boy (because I do that on occasion, despite rumors that he is always the one making our lunches), I came upstairs and he said, “Want a good gift for your birthday?” Of course I did. “Remember Duch?” he asked. And of course I did. He was one of the horrible Khmer Rouge leaders and he ran a horrible prison in Cambodia. Wonder Boy and I visited it about 18 months ago and what we saw was horrifying. And occurred not that long ago, although long enough ago that punishment should have already been served out.

As of this morning, he has been sentenced to 35 years in prison. People in Cambodia are furious with the length of the sentence. They should be. He ran a prison that killed more than 14,000 people. But at least finally justice, of some sort, is being served. And for Duch, quite an old man at 67, 35 will be a life sentence.

Barbed Wire at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Memorial Stupa at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Some 8000 skulls are on display in the Stupa.
This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.