Original source of this statement for your reference: http://www.licadho-cambodia.Saturday, October 8, 2011
We Are All Human Rights Defenders
The next morning, Sovath woke at 4 a.m. He snuck quietly out of his pagoda, undetected by police, and slipped into the village. He went door-to-door, waking each family, until he had assembled a group of over 50 citizens - the elderly, the young, even pregnant women and children. They set out across the rice fields in the direction of the main road.
Sometimes the most effective defense of human rights begins with the simplest of questions.
"Why can't I be here?"
"What law did I break?"
And sometimes, just: "Why?"
The latter was a question that the Venerable Luon Sovath began asking early in life. The 32-year-old grew up in Cambodia's Siem Reap province and came of age in the midst of Cambodia's vicious civil war. He witnessed horrific violence as the Khmer Rouge attempted to regain control of the country.
Growing up, there was rarely a clear answer to the question "why?" The violence was usually senseless; the injustice seemed systematic. Only two things were certain: First, the war was tearing his family apart; each of his 11 siblings had become entangled in the conflict. And second, he did not want to join them.
The next morning, Sovath woke at 4 a.m. He snuck quietly out of his pagoda, undetected by police, and slipped into the village. He went door-to-door, waking each family, until he had assembled a group of over 50 citizens - the elderly, the young, even pregnant women and children. They set out across the rice fields in the direction of the main road.
Sometimes the most effective defense of human rights begins with the simplest of questions.
"Why can't I be here?"
"What law did I break?"
And sometimes, just: "Why?"
The latter was a question that the Venerable Luon Sovath began asking early in life. The 32-year-old grew up in Cambodia's Siem Reap province and came of age in the midst of Cambodia's vicious civil war. He witnessed horrific violence as the Khmer Rouge attempted to regain control of the country.
Growing up, there was rarely a clear answer to the question "why?" The violence was usually senseless; the injustice seemed systematic. Only two things were certain: First, the war was tearing his family apart; each of his 11 siblings had become entangled in the conflict. And second, he did not want to join them.
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