Clearing the Fog from Khmer Rouge History
03/04/2010 @ 4:04 pm
By Soeung Sophat, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
03 March 2010
While many Americans are familiar with the idea of genocide through education in schools, they may be less familiar with the Cambodian tragedy. Even so, they likely know more about it than everyday Cambodian students. A young Cambodian-American would like to change all that.
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Tribunal Opens Virtual Court for US Studies
03/02/2010 @ 9:50 am
By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
18 February 2010
The Khmer Rouge Tribunal on Wednesday opened a virtual digital court that will bring information on its proceedings via the Internet to two well-known universities in America.
The system will be handled by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the War Crimes Studies Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and accessible by Cambodian educational institutions.
The Virtual Tribunal will be a groundbreaking way for the [tribunal] to digitally make available to the public all trial related materials such as decisions, fillings, trial transcripts and video of the court proceeding,” the court said in statement.
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There's No Point in Doing Good Badly
02/26/2010 @ 11:52 am
Time Magazine. By NANCY GIBBS Monday, Feb. 22, 2010
Cynicism is among our most punctual instincts. Within days of the earthquake in Haiti, there came warnings of impending compassion fatigue, wagers of how long it would be before we turned away to the Super Bowl, the Olympics and the Oscars, leaving Haiti to misery.
But I don't believe people get tired of helping--only that they get tired of feeling helpless. The challenge arises when we witness what health crusader Paul Farmer calls "stupid deaths": death in childbirth, death by mosquito, death, in the case of Haiti, from infections that spread when crushed limbs aren't amputated fast enough. Help never arrives fast enough because no two disasters are alike and chaos is an agile enemy. So I wondered how we would feel, after texting our $10 donations to the Red Cross and writing checks to Save the Children, still coming home night after night to the growing mass grave on our flat-screens.
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Cambodia's Fortunes Ebb And Flow Along The Mekong
02/19/2010 @ 10:03 am
Feb. 18, 2010 | Michael Sullivan | National Public Radio
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia. But it hasn't always been that way, and the Mekong River has been key to its periods of prosperity. Recovering from 20th century atrocities, the country now faces a new danger: Development is putting the river and its fish at risk.
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia. But it hasn't always been that way. The Khmer once ruled a vast kingdom that covered not just Cambodia but parts of Vietnam, Thailand and Laos, too.
The empire had its capital at Angkor, near the present-day city of Siem Reap in northwest Cambodia. At its peak, nearly 1 million people lived in the city of Angkor — at a time when London was still a town of 20,000 or so.
The empire's crowning architectural achievement was the magnificent temple of Angkor Wat, one of several dozen temples built by the Angkorian kings, the ruins of which now draw tourists from all over the globe.
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Millions of landmines still scattered across Cambodia
02/17/2010 @ 9:44 am
Agence France-Presse | 02/17/2010
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen warned on Wednesday that thousands of families are living at risk from millions of landmines still scattered across the kingdom.
Around 670 square kilometres (258 square miles) still needs to be cleared of explosives left over from a long-running civil war, Hun Sen said during a ceremony to hand over demining equipment from the Japanese government.
"This is the legacy of civil war," Hun Sen said. "Thousands of families are directly and indirectly exposed to the constant threat posed by these hazardous war remnants."
The murderous Khmer Rouge regime was toppled in 1979 but civil unrest continued until 1998, and left impoverished Cambodia one of the world's most heavily mined countries along with Afghanistan and Angola.
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