Loung Ung's Blog, page 15

Loung Ung interview on NPR All Things Considered about Khmer Rouge Tribunal verdicts

August 7, 2014 NPR All Things Considered: Khmer Rouge Convictions Offer Small Solace For Cambodian Victims. ( I went in the studio determined to be strong, and a minute into the interview, I found myself choking with emotions again. This time, it wasn’t… anger; it was relief, gratitude, and missing my family. There will never be justice for the 2 million lives lost, but through education their stories will live on as our healing continues. The heart is the strongest muscle in the human body. Loung Ung)

 

Decades After Khmer Rouge’s Rule, 2 Senior Leaders Are Convicted in Cambodia

The verdict is not surprising. I’ve been following this for so long, even testifying before US Congress in support of a trial in 1998. I have long thought this trial was more about education than justice. Now that it’s here, I am surprisingly emotional about it. A rush of sadness for our losses, pride that we survived it, and gratitude to the people who’ve worked so hard to bring the trial into being. And yes, it does feel like closure. I didn’t think I would feel this, but I do. Peace to all, Loung

New York Times, August 7, 2014 PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A court on Thursday found the two most senior surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, which brutalized Cambodia during the 1970s, guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced them to life in prison.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/asia/decades-after-khmer-rouges-rule-2-senior-leaders-are-convicted-in-cambodia.html?_r=0

Justice delayed is pondered in Cambodia

By Associated Press August 2

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia.

Sok Sambour, 25, works as a receptionist at a hotel after graduating from accounting school. Her parents told her about that era, including exactly how long the Khmer Rouge rule lasted: three years, eight months and 20 days. An elderly neighbor told her that just catching a fish to eat was enough to be accused of betrayal and face almost certain execution. A U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal will deliver a verdict this coming Thursday in the trial of the two top leaders of the communist Khmer Rouge, whose extremist policies in the late 1970s are blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians though starvation, medical neglect, overwork and execution.

Cambodia’s former Khmer Rouge leaders start genocide trial

AP, July 29, 2014 Two former Khmer Rouge leaders began their second trial at a UN-backed court in Cambodia Wednesday on charges including genocide of Vietnamese people and ethnic Muslims, forced marriages and rape

Of Fish, Monsoons and the Future

The New York Times… Every year, the lake yields about 300,000 tons of fish, making it one of the world’s most productive freshwater ecosystems. That and the floods that pulse through it in monsoon season, swelling it to as much as five times its dry-season size, have earned the lake the nickname “Cambodia’s beating heart.” But the Tonle Sap is in trouble…

Cambodia suffers from an appalling mental health crisis

Los Angeles Daily News: “….Nearly four decades after the rise of the brutal regime, Cambodia still suffers from an acute mental health crisis, and has very few doctors qualified to address it…”

Cambodian Women Agents of Change: Putsata Reang

Cambodian Women Agents of Change: Putsata Reang

Putsata is a writer, author, and journalist. A Reporter Returns Home: Teaching in Cambodia, and learning some tough lessons

By Putsata Reang is an excellent article of how difficult it was/is to do this work in Cambodia.  Since then, she has gone on to train journalists in Afghanistan, Thailand, Laos and other countries. She also returned to Cambodia to live and work there for many years….

http://ajrarchive.org/article.asp?id=4409

Cambodian Women Agents of Change: Theary C. Seng

Cambodian Women Agents of Change: Theary C. Seng serves an attorney, activist, writer, and founding president of CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education.. http://www.thearyseng.com/

Cambodian Women Agents of Change: Yorm Bopha

Yorm Bopha (born c. 1983)[1] is a Cambodian land rights a mother, wife, and land rights activist. She was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for “intentional violence with aggravating circumstances” on 27 December 2012….

http://freethe15.wordpress.com/meet-bopha/

Somaly Mam: Activist resigns

Somaly Mam: The Holy Saint (and Sinner) of Sex Trafficking
www.newsweek.com

Somaly Mam saved countless girls in Cambodia. Does it matter if key parts of her story aren’t true?