Its leaders still remember being vilified over their intervention in Cambodia in the 1970s, even though it brought down the ghastly Pol Pot regime.

ECONOMIST: We want to be your friend

He was criticised for acting as the chief apologist for the murderous Khmer Rouge regime and its leader Pol Pot.

BBC: Obituary: Norodom Sihanouk, former king of Cambodia

He was an officer in the army of Pol Pot's ghastly Khmer Rouge regime, fleeing to Vietnam in 1977 to avoid being purged.

ECONOMIST: One of the last (we hope) Asian strongmen

From South Africa's apartheid regime to the war crimes of Bosnia to Pinochet's repression in Chile and the horrors of Pol Pot's Cambodia, the question of accountability looms large.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Lesser Majesty