Maier pressed ten dollars into the hand of the man on duty. The lucky recipient pulled a stretcher from the ice box and disappeared. The mortuary in Calmette, Phnom Penh’s barely functioning government hospital, was silent, dirty and cold. The hospital was a place to die in. A last way-station. The doctors bargained hard for every dollar. The medical equipment, such as it was, did not work and cockroaches ruled the grey building with impunity, day and night. During the UNTAC days, the hospital had gained the moniker “Calamity”. Patients and their families lay on mats in the corridors. In the yard, the sick slept under mosquito nets on the bare ground. Nurses demanded hard cash for every shot of morphine. No one who was admitted was expected to recover, but Calmette was the best hospital in
