Boy who fled Cambodia's 'Killing Fields' returns as US naval commander

US Navy Commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz who left Cambodia and his family 37 years ago to escape the Khmer Rouge

As a boy in Cambodia Michael Misiewicz fled the civil war with the Khmer Rouge. Now 37 years later he is about to return to the country of his birth as commander of US warship.

Ian MacKinnon in Hua Hin,
Thailand 28 Nov 2010

The guided missile destroyer USS Mustin, with a complement of 300 crew, is due to dock in the south-western port of Sihanoukville later this week.

As a boy in Cambodia Michael Misiewicz fled the civil war with the Khmer Rouge. Now 37 years later he is about to return to the country of his birth as commander of US warship.
US Navy Commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz who left Cambodia and his family 37 years ago to escape the Khmer Rouge.

It will be the first time Commander Misiewicz, 43, has set foot on home soil since he left in 1973.

"I have been fighting a lot of emotions about coming back to my native country," he said by ship-to-shore telephone. "To know that I have relatives there who have wanted to see me for decades . . . I don't know if I will be able to hold back the tears." Commander Misiewicz, who was born in Vannak Khem, left Cambodia as the fighting between the Khmer Rouge and the US backed regime of Lon Nol intensified.

His father had arranged for him to be adopted by a woman at the US embassy who was leaving for home as the situation in Cambodia grew more perilous.

While studying at naval college he began to learn more to of the atrocities committed by the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge when an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished in the "Killing Fields", of torture, starvation or disease.

He had heard nothing from his parents or four siblings since he had bid his mother a tearful goodbye and assumed the worst about their fate under the murderous Khmer Rouge.

What he did not realise was that his mother and four siblings had managed to escape Cambodia in 1983, four years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and had settled in Texas.

Years of searching by the rest of the family finally bore fruit when he received a telephone call from his brother out of the blue.

But the joyous reunion was tinged with sadness with the news that his father was executed by the Khmer Rouge in 1977 and an infant sister had died, probably from malnutrition.

The USS Mustin will dock in Sihanoukville on Friday for four days when he and the crew will connect with Cambodians during naval exercises and community outreach work.

"I've been so blessed to have these opportunities and I feel honoured and privileged to come back," he said.

Stampede death toll rises to 351

People line up to place flowers and incense sticks during an official mourning ceremony on Thursday at Phnom Penh's Diamond Gate bridge, site of a stampede late on Monday which left nearly 350 people dead.
(AFP/File/Hoang Dinh Nam)

Agence France-Presse
Phnom Penh,
November 28, 2010

The number of people killed in a bridge stampede during the Cambodian capital's annual water festival now stands at 351, the social affairs minister said on Sunday. The figure, which included 222 females, is four higher than previously announced, while the number of injured stood at 395, said a
statement signed by Ith Samheng, who sits on a committee investigating the disaster.

It said each of the wounded would receive free treatment and assistance from the Cambodian Red Cross as well as 1,000,000 riels (USD 244) from the government.

Cambodia's most popular festival ended in tragedy on Monday after crowds panicked on an overcrowded bridge leading to an island that was one of the main event sites.

Authorities have said a full report on the incident would be released in the coming week.

Initial findings from the investigating committee suggest the stampede occurred after rumours rippled through the crowd that the suspension bridge to Phnom Penh's Diamond Island was about to collapse.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has described the disaster as Cambodia's worst tragedy since the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 reign of terror, which killed up to a quarter of the population.

The city will continue to host the yearly festival despite the deaths, according to Chea Kean, deputy secretary general of a government festival committee, who said yesterday it was an "age-old tradition" in the country.

The three-day event, which marks the reversal of the flow between the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers, usually draws millions of visitors to the capital to enjoy dragon boat races, fireworks and concerts.

Fair Trade Artisan-Made Silk Scarves Support Education in Cambodia

by Emma Grady, New York, NY  on 11.28.10
FASHION & BEAUTY

A young Cambodian student wears Cambodian Threads' silk scarf. Photo: Cambodian Threads

For Cambodian Threads, a small, socially responsible company that sells fair tradesilk scarves, they’re set set on making a difference in the small Cambodian village that inspired the founding of their company: for every silk scarf they sell, they purchase basic school supplies for ten children in the island village of Prek Bongkong, Cambodia. A family of artisans supply Cambodian Threads with their luscious, hand-loomed silk scarves, produced in a sweat-free environment. View photos of the beautiful scarves below.

Photo: Cambodian Threads

Photo: Cambodian Threads

Photo: Cambodian Threads

Cambodian Threads founders discovered the Heng family’s ancient craft of hand weaving silk while visiting the island village of Prek Bongkong in Cambodia, which is twenty miles from Phnom Penh and accessible by ferry across the Mekong River. They now buy the scarves directly from the family and sell them in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Cambodian Threads donates portion of proceeds to support education in Cambodia. Photo: Cambodian Threads

Co-founder Barrie Golden describes the project as “ extremely empowering and rewarding” and says the scarves have been well-received by Western markets. Due to the time it takes for the Heng family to produce each scarf, they are only available in limited-edition as the Heng’s can only produce 50 each month.

The scarves are available in a variety of colors, with prices starting at $15, atCambodian Threads.

Boy who fled K.Rouge returns to Cambodia a US navy commander

by Michelle Fitzpatrick – Sun Nov 28, 2010

AFP PHOTO / HO / US EMBASSY – Handout undated photo released on November 27, 2010 by the US embassy in Cambodia show US Navy Commander …

PHNOM PENH (AFP) –When the destroyer USS Mustin docks in Cambodia next week it will be more than just a routine mission for the ship’s commander. Michael Misiewicz is Cambodian by birth and was just a child when he was wrenched from his family and homeland 37 years ago, to be sent away from the country to escape the civil war with the Khmer Rouge.
He has not set foot on Cambodian soil since.
“ I have been fighting a lot of emotions about coming back to my native country,” said Misiewicz, who was born Vannak Khem, of his impending return.
“ To know that I’ve got relatives there that have wanted to see me for decades… I don’t know if I will be able to hold back the tears,” he told AFP by telephone aboard the US warship.
The 43-year-old was a small boy in the early 1970s when Cambodia was engulfed in a civil war between government troops and communist Khmer Rouge fighters.
In 1973, his father arranged for him to be adopted by an American woman who worked at the US embassy and was preparing to leave the increasingly dangerous country.
The move meant Misiewicz avoided one of the most brutal chapters of 20th century history — the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime that caused the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and execution.
“ At that age I was a happy-go-lucky kid. I really didn’t have any sense of the war or bad things going on in Cambodia,” said Misiewicz, recalling that he had no qualms about leaving.
“ I was excited about getting on a plane, going to a new world where I could eat popcorn and have all the watermelon I wanted,” he said.
But his mother’s tearful goodbye is engraved in his memory. “ My mom was so, so upset. I promised her I’d buy her a big house one day.”
The young Cambodian built a new life for himself in his adoptive country, enlisting in the navy after graduating from high school in Lanark, Illinois.
It was while he was attending the US naval academy that he began to learn about the atrocities that had taken place in his homeland.
Misiewicz had received no news from his family and assumed the worst.
“ I felt a lot of guilt. Why was I the lucky one?,” he said. “ I really doubted that my family had survived the whole Khmer Rouge era. I tried not to think about it.”
What he did not know was that his mother and three of his four siblings had survived and managed to flee the country in 1983, ending up in the United States themselves.
They were now living in Austin, Texas, desperately trying to find him.
It took six years of searching, but finally the family learnt that Misiewicz had lived in Alexandria, Virginia when he first arrived in the US.
Combing through old phonebooks, they eventually made contact with his ex-babysitter who happened to know his current whereabouts.
After 16 years of silence, one phone call reunited him with his family.
“ One day, in 1989, I got a call out of the blue. It was my older brother,” said Misiewicz.
The joy of reunion was tempered by the news that his father had been executed by the Khmer Rouge in 1977 and his infant sister had died, probably of malnutrition, during the “ Killing Fields” era.
Misiewicz, who has more than 300 sailors under his charge, says he often thinks about how hard it must have been to make the choice to separate him from his family.
“ I am so grateful my father had the wisdom to make that decision. It was a very tough decision, very heart-breaking,” he said.
Now Misiewicz is looking forward to reconnecting with relatives and exposing his sailors to the country through community outreach projects and training exercises with the Cambodian navy.
The USS Mustin, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, will be stationed in Sihanoukville, on Cambodia’s southwestern coastline, for four days from Friday.
“ I’ve been so blessed to have had these opportunities and I feel honoured and privileged to come back,” the ship’s commander said.
Misiewicz added that he feels “ very close” to his birth mother and siblings.
“ I did buy my mom that house — in Texas,” he said — making good on a promise made nearly four decades ago.

China finances restoration of historic Shiva temple in Cambodia

* Issued By: Correspondent
* City / State: Nevada, US
* Submitted: November 28, 2010

Hindus have applauded China for reportedly financing the restoration of deteriorating Ta Keo Hindu temple in Cambodia’s UNESCO World Heritage Site Angkor temple complex, which began on November 27.
Restoration will take about six million dollars and eight years to complete. People’s Republic of China also assisted in the restoration (2000-2008) of 12th century Hindu temple in Angkor named Chausay Tevada, costing about two million dollars, reports suggest.
Said to be built entirely of sandstones by kings Jayavarman V and Suryavarman I in late 10-early 11th century, Ta Keo (Preah Keo) is a pyramid of five levels. Fragments of pedestals and lingas are found in/around its towers. Its primary deity is said to be Shiva. At the foot of the eastern stairways, there is a statue of kneeling Nandi, which indicates that Ta Keo was a Shaivite temple.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that more needed to be done to safeguard the Angkor temple complex and its surroundings and deteriorating bas-reliefs; save it from vandalism and looting; put some controls on unchecked tourism; check the demand for water table which could undermine the stability of sandy soils under the temples.
Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also urged UNESCO World Heritage Convention and Cambodia government to provide more funding for the upkeep of the temple complex and spend more than half the ticket revenue on the temples. He commended China for bankrolling the restoration of historic Hindu temples.
Angkor Archaeological Park contains magnificent remains of over 1000 temples going back to ninth century, spread over about 400 square kilometers, and receives about three million visitors annually.

Cambodia’s stampede death toll reaches 351

Source: Xinhua, November 28 2010



Four more Cambodians reported on Sunday dead in the stampede tragedy happened on Monday night on Diamond Island bridge during the final day of the Water Festival, bringing the total number of the dead to 351.
The four new dead, two died from serious injury and the other two were reported from the families of the dead to the local authorities, said a letter signed Sunday by Minister of Social Affairs Ith Samheng, who is also the chairman of the sub-committee on urgent settlement on Diamond Island Casualties.
The letter recorded 351 dead people including 129 men and 222 women and 394 injured. The injured people are in hospitals and get free-of-charge treatment and get 1 million riel (250 U.S. dollars) donation from the government and charitable groups.
Cambodia’s Water Festival from Nov. 20 to 22 is the largest annual festival in the Southeast Asian nation, around three million Cambodians, especially those from rural areas converged to the city to enjoy the regatta.
Officials said the swinging of the bridge is the cause of the accident. The bridge is a kind of suspension one, but people were not aware of it and when it (the bridge) swung, some people thought it was collapsing and burst out shouting and the crowded people on it began to push each other back and forth and causing fatalities.
The dead were from suffocation and stampede and no any evidence found about terrorism or electrocution, according to the officials.

Water festival to return despite stampede deaths

Updated Fri Nov 26, 2010, T Source: AFP

Cambodian Buddhist monks look at bodies lined up on the ground at a hospital in Phnom Penh (AFP: Tang Chhin Sothy)

The Cambodian capital will continue to host an annual water festival despite the deaths of nearly 350 people at this year’s event in a stampede on a bridge.
Government festival official Chea Kean says the ceremony will be “ held as usual” because it is an “ age-old tradition” in the country.
He says it is too soon to say whether Cambodia’s most popular festival would attract as many visitors next year in the wake of this week’s disaster, in which 347 people lost their lives, 221 of them women.
“ Let’s wait and see when we get nearer to the event,” he said.
The three-day event, which marks the reversal of the flow between the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers, usually draws millions of visitors to the capital to enjoy dragon boat races, fireworks and concerts.
The festival ended in tragedy after crowds panicked on an overcrowded bridge leading to an island that was one of the main event sites.
Authorities say a full report on the incident will be released next week.
Initial findings from an investigating committee suggest the stampede occurred after rumours rippled through the crowd that the suspension bridge to Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island was about to collapse.

Cambodia stampede: swaying bridge blamed for panic

Government investigation finds that many on the bridge wrongly feared it was about to collapse

• Associated Press
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 November 2010
  

A police officer lays flowers at the site of the stampede in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Photograph: Chor Sokunthea/REUTERS

A stampede that killed more than 350 people in Cambodiawas triggered by the swaying of a bridge crowded with thousands of people, according to a government investigation.

Crowds celebrating a water festival had flocked to an island for a free concert on Monday and spilled on to a bridge to the mainland before the panic took hold. Bayon TV, which serves as a mouthpiece for the government, reported today that a committee found many people on the bridge were from the countryside and unaware it was normal for a suspension bridge to sway. In their fear it was collapsing, they tried to run off.
The information minister, Khieu Kanharith, said today that the official death toll was 351, with 395 injured.
The prime minister, Hun Sen, described the stampede as the biggest tragedy since the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror, which killed an estimated 1.7 million people in the late 1970s. He declared tomorrow a day of national mourning.
As many as two million people are believed to have come to Phnom Penh for celebrations of a three-day holiday marking the end of the monsoon season. Tens of thousands were on an island in the capital’s Bassac river.
Thousands of Cambodians today lit candles and made offerings to appease the souls of those who perished.
“ I asked their souls to rest in peace and not to be angry with those still alive in the capital, especially my family members and relatives,” said Meng Houth, a 52-year-old woman who laid out food and burned incense and a candle in front of her home.
Witnesses had criticised authorities for causing congestion by blocking a second bridge across the river despite the huge crowds that had gathered for the last night of the festival, and for a slow and confused emergency response.
The investigating committee, which included cabinet ministers and city officials, said the panic was exacerbated by the fact that people had trouble breathing because they were so closely packed together. It estimated that 7,000-8,000 people were on the bridge, adding up to a load of about 350 tonnes.
The report said the committee based its conclusions on investigations and the testimony of witnesses.
Before the stampede erupted, those present heard shouts that the bridge was going to collapse, igniting the panic that also saw people jump off the sides into the water.

SRP organized 7th day memorial ceremony for the victims in Koh Pich

November 28, 2010: Sam Rainsy Party organized 7th day memorial ceremony for the victims of Koh Pich bridge's tragedy on 22 November. The Party invited 100 monks and hundreds of people to participate in the ceremony.

SRP Cabinet

[Cambodian-] South Korean trade surges

Sunday, 28 November 2010
By May Kunmakara

Photo by: Pha Lina

South Korean car manufacturer SsangYong's showroom on Kampuchea Krom Boulevard in Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh Post

Growing trade in textiles and cars has contributed to a 45 percent surge in bilateral trade between Cambodia and South Korea in the first 10 months of this year, over the same period of last year.

Data from the Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, received by The Post late last week, showed trade had increased to about US$38.311 million from January to October this year, from $26.431 million in 2009.

Korean exports to Cambodia rose 41.2 percent to $34.776 million, from about $24.467 million.

Meanwhile, Korean imports from the Kingdom increased by 80 percent to $3.335 million from $1.964 million, according to the statistics.

“Textile, rubber and cars are the main products [accounting for the growth],” said Nam-Shik Kang, president of Korean Chamber of Commerce, late last week.

He also pointed to a close relationship between the two nations, which he said had contributed to a positive business environment.

“We are seeing good cooperation between two countries, both politically and in business terms, and hope to keep [it] going for 10 more years,” he said.

Korea’s main exports to the Kingdom were yarn and fabrics, which were up 36.4 percent, road vehicles, which increased by 289 percent, and machinery, which rose about 93 percent.

Cambodia’s main products were garments, up 82 percent, metal products, which increased 96 percent, and crude rubber, which was up a huge 3,022 percent.

Restoration of Ta Keo temple begins in Angkor Archaeological Park

Takeo temple is located on the east of Angkor Thom. It is one of the first temples, which were built out of sandstone. It is atop a laterite base with 122 meters and 106 meters. It rises into the sky about 22 meters.The temple was built from the late 10th to early 12th centuries by King Jayavarman V (968-1001) and Suryavarman I (1002-1050).The construction was firstly begun around the year 975.The construction of this temple was never completed. After the death of Jayavaraman V in AD 1001, a violent usurpation shook the kingdom of Angkor; so work on the temple ceased for the first time. During the reign of King Suryavaraman I, the construction started again but later it was abandoned uncompleted.However, because of absence of decoration, the temple became an impressively unique temple. And now Takeo Temple is an important tourist attraction in Angkor region.

by Nguon Sovan

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Work on the restoration of the deteriorating Ta Keo temple in the complex of Angkor Archaeological Park began on Saturday afternoon under the financial aid of China.

"The restoration work will be taken eight years to complete ( 2011-2018) under the financial support of 40 million Yuan (about 6 million U.S. dollars) from the government of China," Bun Narith, director general of Apsara Authority, which is in charge of management, protection and conservation of Angkor Archaeological park, said during the opening ceremony of the restoration work on Saturday.

This is the second phase of Chinese government assistance for safeguarding, conserving and restoring Angkor activities after the first phase on the conservation and restoration of Chausay Tevada temple from 2000 and ended in December, 2008, costing 14 million Yuan (about 2 million U.S. dollars).

"China is one of more than ten countries that has trained Cambodian archaeological experts, and helped financially and technically to conserve and restore ancient temples at Angkor archaeological park," he said.

The opening ceremony was presided over by Cai Wu, minister of the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China, and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, Minister of the Council of Ministers, as well as officials from UNESCO and Apsara Authority. Chinese ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue, other government and UNESCO officials, as well as more than two thousands people from all walks of life attended the ceremony.

Cai Wu said that he was very pleased to have a chance to see Angkor Wat, which is the world heritage, and to assist Cambodia in ancient temple conservation activities.

"The assistance to restore the temples will reflect the symbol of eternal friendship on culture cooperation between the two countries," he said. "Cambodia and China has a long history of friendship and bright civilizations, and China is committed to help Cambodia to preserve its cultural heritage and expand cooperation with Cambodia on all sectors."

Sok An expressed grateful thanks to China for the technical and

financial support for the conservation and restoration of Chausay Tevada temple in the past and now continues to restore Ta Keo temple.

"The start of the restoration work of Ta Keo temple is not the first project that China has helped Cambodia," he said. "China has helped Cambodia a lot to the development of the economy such as bridges, roads, irrigation systems, schools, hospitals, and the project to restore Chausay Tevada temple that finished in 2008."

"On behalf of the government of Cambodia and Cambodian people, I would like to thank the government of China and her people for valuable donations to conserve ancient temples as well as help to develop Cambodia all the time," he added.

"We hope that after the eight year restoration, Ta Keo temple will be as good as it was in original shape in the past," he added.

The restoration work begins after three year possibility studies by Chinese and Cambodian archaeological experts.

Ta Keo temple was built by King Jayavarman V and Suryavarman I from the late 10th century to the early 11th century and the kings dedicated this temple to Hinduism, according to the document from the Ministry of Tourism.

The monument of Ta Keo temple comprises of three level pyramids consisted of five rectangular terraces and five upper towers. This half finished massive pyramids rises to more than fifty meters high and this incomplete temple was built using so-called Khleang architecture.

The temple is located in the central zone of the Angkor archaeological site.
Editor: Fang Yang

Long Beach mourns Cambodians lost in holiday stampede

To learn more about the stampede and relief efforts, visit www.cambaonline.org.

Vigil kicks off fund-raising drive for survivors families of lost.

By Kristopher Hanson, Staff writer

Contra Costa Times
Posted: 11/27/2010

11-27-10 - Savy Pan of Long Beach says a prayer during a prayer an candle light ceremony for the victims of the tragedy at the Water Festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Stephen Carr / Press-Telegram)

11-27-10 - Melissa Suos, 9, and her sister Melinda,4, make a donation for the victims in this week's tragedy at the Water Festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Members of the Cambodian American Business Association and other civic organizations held a fundraiser and memorial Saturday at MacArthur Park, 1321 E. Anaheim St. (Stephen Carr / Press-Telegram)

Photo Gallery

LONG BEACH — Dozens of mourners gathered here Saturday to remember and raise funds for nearly 800 people killed or injured Nov. 22 in a panic-induced stampede during a national holiday in Cambodia.

The memorial and candlelight vigil drew people from across the Southern California to the heart of Cambodia's largest expatriate community, centered on East Anaheim Street in Central Long Beach.

The vigil, organized by the Cambodian American Business Association and other civic groups, launched a fund-raising drive to assist the injured and help the families of those killed.

Relief organizations say at least 395 were hurt and 347 killed.

"We're raising awareness, honoring the dead and collecting funds through the end of December to take back to Cambodia to help," said Steve Meng, a Long Beach resident who helped organize Saturday's event.

The group raised more than $2,500 on Saturday afternoon before performing traditional blessings for the dead. Earlier in the day, they visited dozens of local businesses to enlist help for further fundraising efforts.

Thary Ung, a community organizer and member of the Long Beach Police Complaint Commission, plans to fly to Cambodia in late December with funds raised in Southern California.

"Every bit helps, $1, $20...this money will go a long way to helping people recover," Ung noted. "The response so far has been very positive."

Tax-exempt donations can be made through the business coalition's website, cambaorg@aol.com.

The tragedy erupted when a crowd of festival-goers stampeded across a small bridge outside the nation's capital, Phnom Penh, reportedly after the span began swaying violently as if nearing collapse.

The event deeply shocked the small, peaceful nation, still recovering from years of internal violence and foreign interference culminating in a genocide during the brutal 1975-79 reign of notorious despot Pol Pot.

Those injured and killed were among several thousand participating in an annual "Water Festival," a national ceremony marking the end of the monsoon season.

Aid groups report 221 females and 146 males were killed, mostly by suffocation or internal bleeding. A few drowned after being pushed from the bridge.

Long Beach is home to some 50,000 Cambodian immigrants and their descendents, many of whom arrived in America as refugees and have since formed a thriving cultural, business and educational community in the heart of America's most ethnically diverse city.

To learn more about the stampede and relief efforts, visit www.cambaonline.org.

Kristopher Hanson 562-499-1466 kristopher.hanson@presstelegram.com

'Journalists must never betray a source, even a mass murderer'

Seeking the truth: Journalist Thet Sambath interviews Nuon Chea in Enemies of the People
DOGWOOF FILMS

Two filmmakers tell Andrew Johnson why they're standing by a promise to Pol Pot's chief killer

Sunday, 28 November 2010
The Independent, UK

Which is more important, the story or the source? It is an age-old journalistic dilemma.

For Thet Sambath, a Cambodian journalist who has spent years investigating the war crimes of the Khmer Rouge, extracting a confession of mass genocide from Pol Pot's right-hand man was the scoop of his life.

He has spent nearly a decade befriending and gaining the trust of Nuon Chea – second-in-command to Cambodian dictator Pol Pot – who is the most senior leader of the Khmer Rouge alive since Pol Pot's death in 1998. But the confession was granted to Sambath on the condition that he promise to use it as a historical record only, and that it should not be used against Nuon Chea.

Now, the UN has requested that Sambath hand over his 160 hours of footage, to be used as evidence in its trial of Nuon Chea for genocide, which begins next year. Rob Lemkin, the Oxford-based film-maker who produced Sambath's film, Enemies of the People, has even had uninvited visits from UN representatives at his home. "They rang up and said they were in town and could pop round to pick the films up," he says. "When I refused, they told news organisations that it was because I wanted to make money from the film."

The trouble for the UN is, Sambath and Lemkin are determined not to hand over the tapes: they are honouring their promise to Nuon Chea. To some, it may seem a perverse choice, given the brutality of his crimes. It is particularly surprising given that Sambath's own family were victims of his appalling regime. "It's essential as a journalist or filmmaker, that if you give an assurance, you don't change the goal posts after you've made the film," says Lemkin. "They engage in a process with you and you must stick to that promise. As a result of not bowing to the court we are now seen as an independent party in Cambodia, and more Khmer Rouge people are talking to us and they will not talk to the court."

The interview forms part of Sambath and Lemkin's award-winning Enemies of the People, which is released in cinemas next month, and which won the special jury prize at this year's Sundance Festival. Nuon Chea, now 84, comes across as a benign old man; sitting in his simple wooden shack in a rural part of Cambodia, he weighs his words carefully. "These people were categorised as criminals," he says of his victims. "They were killed and destroyed. If we let them live, the party line would have been hijacked. They were enemies of the people." Asked about his regime's policy to kill traitors, he replies: "At the time I agreed. I just wanted to get the problem solved. It was the correct solution."

Like many architects of the Khmer Rouge, Nuon Chea has kept his head down ever since, living in retirement close to the Thai border. Known as Brother Number Two, his confession to ordering the torture, murder and arbitrary executions of up to two million people is an important step for a people still coming to terms with the atrocities of 1975 to 1979.

This spell-binding confession is just one of many that Sambath has been granted in years of speaking to ordinary foot soldiers, many of whom seem relieved finally to unburden themselves of their guilt. "After I filmed Nuon Chea I was only the third person who knew of his role, after Pol Pot and himself," he says. "It was very difficult to interview him, but over 10 years I got to know him and his family very well and we became very close. I think that was almost inevitable."

Why will he not release the films to the UN? "I don't think revenge is good for anyone. My work was focussed on gaining as complete an account of the Killing Fields as I could. Revenge has no part in that. I think the court is focussed on justice, which is okay. But I think reconciliation would be a better end result. For reconciliation to take place we need first the truth."

Nuon Chea's prosecutors have thought about legally seizing the film – a public showing cannot be used as evidence – but ran out of time. "The investigating judge did ask to look at the film," says a spokesman for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which is prosecuting Nuon Chea. "We wanted to see if any part of it was interesting and could be used as evidence. The request was turned down. We don't have any comment on that but the indictments have been made."

Lemkin stresses that neither he nor Sambath want to "get in the way" of the court, but says that a truth and reconciliation process, such as took place in South Africa after the fall of apartheid, is more important than bringing a handful of people to justice. "It is more important for people who suffered the kind of trauma they have suffered to have the fullest public access to what happened," he says.

"When a huge number of killings happen it's not done by one person at the top. There are thousands of people and they live in communities all over Cambodia. If there's a way those people can talk and be able to take part in genuine conversation with the victims, then that's more important than sending one or two of them to jail."

Enemies of the People is in cinemas from 10 December.

A Woman. A Prostitute. A Slave. [Not only in Cambodia, but in America also]]

Damon Winter/The New York Times
Nicholas D. Kristof

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: November 27, 2010

Americans tend to associate “modern slavery” with illiterate girls in India or Cambodia. Yet there I was the other day, interviewing a college graduate who says she spent three years terrorized by pimps in a brothel in Midtown Manhattan.

Those who think that commercial sex in this country is invariably voluntary — and especially men who pay for sex — should listen to her story. The men buying her services all mistakenly assumed that she was working of her own volition, she says.

Yumi Li (a nickname) grew up in a Korean area of northeastern China. After university, she became an accountant, but, restless and ambitious, she yearned to go abroad.

So she accepted an offer from a female jobs agent to be smuggled to New York and take up a job using her accounting skills and paying $5,000 a month. Yumi’s relatives had to sign documents pledging their homes as collateral if she did not pay back the $50,000 smugglers’ fee from her earnings.

Yumi set off for America with a fake South Korean passport. On arrival in New York, however, Yumi was ordered to work in a brothel.

“When they first mentioned prostitution, I thought I would go crazy,” Yumi told me. “I was thinking, ‘how can this happen to someone like me who is college-educated?’ ” Her voice trailed off, and she added: “I wanted to die.”

She says that the four men who ran the smuggling operation — all Chinese or South Koreans — took her into their office on 36th Street in Midtown Manhattan. They beat her with their fists (but did not hit her in the face, for that might damage her commercial value), gang-raped her and videotaped her naked in humiliating poses. For extra intimidation, they held a gun to her head.

If she continued to resist working as a prostitute, she says they told her, the video would be sent to her relatives and acquaintances back home. Relatives would be told that Yumi was a prostitute, and several of them would lose their homes as well.

Yumi caved. For the next three years, she says, she was one of about 20 Asian prostitutes working out of the office on 36th Street. Some of them worked voluntarily, she says, but others were forced and received no share in the money.

Yumi played her role robotically. On one occasion, Yumi was arrested for prostitution, and she says the police asked her if she had been trafficked.

“I said no,” she recalled. “I was really afraid that if I hinted that I was a victim, the gang would send the video to my family.”

Then one day Yumi’s closest friend in the brothel was handcuffed by a customer, abused and strangled almost to death. Yumi rescued her and took her to the hospital. She said that in her rage, she then confronted the pimps and threatened to go public.

At that point, the gang hurriedly moved offices and changed phone numbers. The pimps never mailed the video or claimed the homes in China; those may have been bluffs all along. As for Yumi and her friend, they found help with Restore NYC, a nonprofit that helps human trafficking victims in the city.

I can’t be sure of elements of Yumi’s story, but it mostly rings true to me and to the social workers who have worked with her. There’s no doubt that while some women come to the United States voluntarily to seek their fortunes in the sex trade, many others are coerced — and still others start out forced but eventually continue voluntarily. And it’s not just foreign women. The worst cases of forced prostitution, especially of children, often involve home-grown teenage runaways.

No one has a clear idea of the scale of the problem, and estimates vary hugely. Some think the problem is getting worse; others believe that Internet services reduce the role of pimps and lead to commercial sex that is more consensual. What is clear is that forced prostitution should be a national scandal. Just this month, authorities indicted 29 people, mostly people of Somali origin from the Minneapolis area, on charges of running a human trafficking ring that allegedly sold many girls into prostitution — one at the age of 12.

There are no silver bullets, but the critical step is for the police and prosecutors to focus more on customers (to reduce demand) and, above all, on pimps. Prostitutes tend to be arrested because they are easy to catch, while pimping is a far harder crime to prosecute. That’s one reason thugs become pimps: It’s hugely profitable and carries less risk than selling drugs or stealing cars. But that can change as state and federal authorities target traffickers rather than their victims.

Nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, it’s time to wipe out the remnants of slavery in this country.

Cambodian stampede had air of inevitability

AFTERMATH: People place offerings and incense sticks for the victims of the stampede near the Diamond Gate bridge.

The appalling human tragedy during the annual Bon Om Touk Festival in Phnom Penh was not only predictable but also preventable

Published: 28/11/2010
Bangkok Post

Cambodia's Rainbow Bridge tragedy is the country's biggest peacetime disaster, and the world's second worst such calamity after a similar stampede across the Tigris River in Baghdad left about 1,000 dead in 2005.

Rumours, panic and flight dominated both catastrophes as the sheer weight of numbers at this year's Bon Om Touk, or Water Festival in Phnom Penh resulted in an extraordinary death toll.

At the last count 347 (seems to be the most recent figure) people, mostly women, had died and at least another 755 were injured on the suspension bridge that linked the recently developed Diamond Island with the Cambodian capital across the Bassac River.

The response _ dominated by the blame game, the launch of special investigations, a day of mourning, pledges of financial support and condolences from across the globe _ was sadly almost as predictable as the crush itself.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith perhaps encapsulated the perspective of authorities before Monday evening's tragedy when he told journalists that police had been more concerned with pickpockets and boats capsizing than ''this kind of incident''.

The facts speak for themselves.

Completed earlier this year, Rainbow Bridge, also known as the north bridge, was a one-way route providing access from the island _ known locally as Koh Pich, or Diamond Island _ to the city. A second bridge, designed for people heading the other way, was closed.

On the final night of the three-day Water Festival a 10,000-strong crowd surged across the walkway towards a free concert. The number of people got out of hand, the crowd began pushing from both ends, the footbridge swayed sparking panic due to fears of a collapse, which led to the stampede. Rumours circulated among the trapped and frightened crowd that a fight had broken out. People leapt into the river and drowned. Others were trampled, suffocated and died of internal injuries.

Then witnesses said police started firing a water cannon into the crowd, possibly in a naive attempt to get people moving. But this just aggravated the situation by saturating the lighting and electrifying parts of the span. Authorities insist nobody was electrocuted despite eyewitness accounts contradicting this.

Tragedies in Cambodia always seem to have an air of inevitability about them.

The anti-Thai riots in 2003 and the massive slum fires around the same time, 40-odd land mine victims a month, floods, droughts and a high level of street crime amid police corruption and a culture of impunity have marred this country's return to peace over the past 12 years.

The trade-off has been the fulfillment of a national yearning to reconstruct Khmer culture, which had been dismantled by the the Khmer Rouge, 10 years of Vietnamese occupation and ongoing civil conflict for much of the 1990s.

Bringing back Khmer dance, music, traditional New Year, the Water Festival and annual boat races was helping get life back to ''normal'' for Cambodians.

The Water Festival heralds the end of the rainy season when the Tonle Sap is filled to the brim and reverses direction, feeding back into the Mekong River. It's when country folk come to town that the numbers can be terrifying. Three to four million people, or 20-25% of the country's entire population, are crammed into a few square kilometres of the capital.

Families hold onto each other and weave through the crowds along Sisowath Quay in file with one hand on the shoulder of the person in front hoping not to be separated or lost, all angling for the best view of the regatta.

The country cousins can be seen inspecting the buildings, restaurants and shops that have turned Phnom Penh into a rapidly modernising city.

For the most part, Phnom Penh is safe during the Water Festival, however, Cambodian crowd control measures are atrocious. Foreigners and middle-class Cambodians who live in the city know what to expect, and for more than a decade they have made an exodus during the festival.

At the official mourning ceremony on Thursday, Prime Minister Hun Sen shed tears as he paid his respects to the dead while the government noted in an official statement: ''This tragic, untimely and unexpected loss of many lives will remain a bitter and painful memory for Cambodia.''

Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema sounded a similar note amid calls for his resignation, telling journalists this was ''a huge lesson for me and other authorities in preparing for such large events in the future This is an incident that no one wanted to happen, it happened unpredictably.''

City police chief Touch Naroth was a little understated but closer to the mark when he said sudden movement on the bridge had terrified the festival-goers, many of whom were from the provinces and unfamiliar with such bridges.

By most accounts Touch Naroth's men did their best after the stampede had taken its toll. But the prime minister has never favoured a fully professional police force, and prefers a patronage system that rewards loyalty over ability.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission issued a report saying there were contradictory accounts about what instigated the stampede _ crowd antics, poor bridge construction or a failure by the authorities to control the crowd.

''In addition to death by crushing, suffocation and drowning, there were multiple deaths due to electricity,'' it said.

The report noted it was clear Phnom Penh was unprepared for any large-scale disaster.

''Responses by police and military were lacking and may even have contributed to the stampede while hospitals were overwhelmed. Emergency and medical personnel resorted to piling bodies together, covering them with mats or sheets.''

When the authorities investigating the tragedy ask themselves who could have seen this coming, the answer really should be everybody. When they try and figure out exactly why so many died last Monday, one also hopes they will look at themselves and the man who employs them.

World Cinema: Cambodians take hard self-look

Suon, a Khmer Rouge militia commander, in "Enemies of the People," a documentary directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath. (Old Street Films)

Two new movies in the nation's inaugural film fest deal with the Khmer Rouge horror.

By Dustin Roasa,
Special to the Los Angeles Times
November 28, 2010

Reporting from Phnom Pehn, Cambodia —On an unseasonably cool evening last month, nearly 700 people filed into the Chenla Theater for the final night of the inaugural Cambodia International Film Festival. The four-day event had drawn sizable audiences to films from more than 30 countries, but it was the premiere on this night of a Cambodian film called "Lost Loves" that attracted the festival's largest crowd. As TV crews angled for shots of the well-coifed cast members stepping onto the red carpet, inside the theater multigenerational families chatted excitedly and students snapped cellphone photos and waved to friends.

"Lost Loves" tells the true story of a woman who lost most of her family during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, which oversaw the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Although the brutal communist regime has proved fertile ground for many foreign productions, most notably "The Killing Fields," which won three Academy Awards in 1984, "Lost Loves," by 45-year-old Chhay Bora, is the first feature film about the Khmer Rouge by an all-Cambodian cast and crew in nearly 25 years. It is only the second such movie made since the regime's demise (the first, a mid-1980s action movie called "Shadow of Darkness," did not make much of an impression here).

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Together with another landmark Cambodian-made film released this year, "Enemies of the People," a documentary co-directed by and starring 42-year-old journalist Thet Sambath that examines the motives behind the mass slaughter, the movies are a sign that Cambodian filmmakers are finally ready to grapple with the traumas of the past.

"The Khmer Rouge has been a complex and political issue for a long time. But after 30 years, Cambodia is ready to cope with this," said Chhang Youk, a survivor and the country's foremost researcher of the regime. "You will begin to see more films about this subject now."

Both directors, who are self-taught and were boys during the Khmer Rouge, said their goal in making the films was to spur discussion about a topic that many people here would prefer to forget. "Helping people understand history is the most important thing I can do," Thet Sambath said. "I want Cambodians to know the truth about what happened. Then we can move forward as a country."

The films are generating a level of discussion about the Khmer Rouge that is rare in Cambodia. During many harrowing scenes in "Lost Loves," there were gasps from the audience, and many cried. "I'm no longer angry about the Khmer Rouge," Chhay Bora, who lost two brothers to the regime, told the crowd. "I just want to share with the nation, and with the world, Cambodia's untold story."

"When our parents tell us about their experiences during the Khmer Rouge, we have a hard time believing them," Lim Seang Heng, a 22-year-old university graduate, said after the premiere, echoing a common sentiment. "Telling stories is not enough, because we can't see. Film allows us to see."

Although "Lost Loves" and "Enemies of the People" are very different movies — the former focuses on the nightmarish experiences of one family, while the latter investigates larger issues such as motives and reconciliation — they are complementary.

"Lost Loves," co-written by and starring Chhay Bora's wife, actress Kauv Sotheary, follows Phnom Penh resident Amara, a character based on the actress' mother, as she is shipped with her family into a forced labor camp in the countryside. She endures overwork, near starvation and the death of family members before emerging from her nightmare shellshocked, yet defiantly hopeful, after the Vietnamese invasion in 1979.

Shot in the Cambodian countryside, "Lost Loves" is at times strikingly beautiful, featuring wide-angle shots of shimmering rice paddies and skies smeared purple with the setting sun. But these scenes are punctuated by acts of brutality, turning the landscape into a "prison of torture and killing," as Amara says in the film.

As Amara adapts to this alien world, the familiar structures of Cambodian life crumble around her: She is separated from her family, cruel and uneducated children take positions of authority over adults, and unending, grinding labor under the hot sun becomes the central fact of her life. The mysterious Angkar ("organization" in English), the Khmer Rouge's name for itself, is omnipresent yet somehow always hidden. "The village chiefs endlessly talked about Angkar, Angkar, Angkar, but I didn't know what Angkar was," Amara says in the film.

"Enemies of the People," which was just named as one of 15 contenders for the Academy Award for best documentary feature, attempts to answer some of Amara's questions. Director Thet Sambath, a reporter

at the English-language Phnom Penh Post, spent 10 years traveling alone with a camera into the countryside to interview Nuon Chea, second in command to the late leader Pol Pot and the regime's highest-ranking surviving leader, and foot soldiers who carried out the regime's murderous policies.

English director Rob Lemkin worked with Thet Sambath to craft this raw footage into a finished film. The director was driven by a need to understand the killers' motives (his parents and brother died under the Khmer Rouge) and to share what he found with other Cambodians.

"No one has confessed to killing during the regime," he said. "I felt that maybe I could talk to the killers and understand why they killed."

In "Enemies of the People," Nuon Chea admits for the first time on record that the leadership ordered executions, about which he expresses remorse. But it is the director's interviews with two low-level killers, Soun and Khoun, that are most haunting. They speak matter-of-factly about killing their victims by slashing their throats, dumping their bodies in mass graves and, in one scene, drinking bile from a human gall bladder.

Although it was men like Soun and Khoun who killed Thet Sambath's brother, the director was able to forgive them, an act of reconciliation that he hopes can be repeated throughout Cambodia. "I pity them. They don't understand how they ended up becoming killers," he said. In the film, Soun says he's haunted by shame and regret. "But I want to tell the truth exactly as it happened," he says onscreen. "Otherwise we will be gone soon and the next generation won't know the story."

The directors could not turn for help to the country's few film studios, which invest mostly in low-budget horror movies, the only reliable way to draw audiences to the two remaining cinemas in Phnom Penh. "People told me I was crazy to make this kind of film," Chhay Bora said. Regardless, the films have drawn capacity audiences at screenings in Phnom Penh, and there are plans to show them in rural Cambodia through unconventional means, such as at community forums held by nongovernmental organizations.

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Koh Pich security guard died mysteriously

The body of Tep Virak with swollen belly and (inset) Tep Virak in his security guard uniform.

By Khmerization
Source: CEN

A security guard working at the Koh Pich Bridge on the night of the stampede which killed 347 people has died mysteriously upon returning home 5 days after the stampede.

40 year-old Tep Virak, died at 1 a.m on the morning of Friday 27th when he returned home 5 days after he finished his shift on the night of the stampede. His wife, 30 year-old Oeur Chanthou, said since finishing his shift at Koh Pich on the night of the stampede on Monday the 22nd November, her husband did not return home. He just returned home on Thursday night 26th November, but died mysteriously early Friday morning.

Oeur Chanthou said after finishing his dinner, her husband played with their 23 day-old daughter for a short time and went to sleep. At around midnight, she noticed that he snores so loud, so she woke up and touched his body and felt that his body is very cold. She massaged him for a few minutes and he stopped snoring and stopped breathing. She took him to the hospital, but the doctor told her that her husband had already died.

People are wondering why he was prevented from returning home straight away when he finished his shift on the night of the stampede. With accusations that there might be a cover up of the real cause of the stampede, people are wondering if he was deliberately prevented from leaving the site because he might have some information about the cause of the stampede. Was he poisoned just before he returned home to prevent him from revealing the truth?

SRP meeting and hold a 7th day memorial service for the victims in Koh Pich Tragedy

Please watch video clip of "SRP meeting on 7 days Funeral of victims in Koh Pich

Tragedy" at http://youtu.be/14l8YT5hKtQ

SRP Cabinet

SRP holds a special meeting in response to the Koh Pich Bridge stampede. They hold a 7th day memorial service for the victims as well as assigning party officials to visit victims in each hospital.

China donates 500,000 USD to Cambodia's stampede victims

People's Daily News
November 26, 2010

Chinese government on Friday donated 500,000 U.S. dollars to Cambodia to relieve the families of the dead and the injured in the stampede tragedy on Monday night at the Diamond Island Bridge during the final day of the Water Festival.

Jin Yuan, commercial counsellor of Chinese Embassy to Cambodia, on Friday informed the donation during meeting with Sok An, deputy prime minister and minister of the council of ministers, and also chairman of the special committee for Diamond Island Accident.

"On behalf of Cambodian government, I would like to profoundly thank China for her attention on the stampede tragedy and donate money timely to help the victims," said Sok An. "Cambodia and China are fraternal and always assist each other all the time."

The stampede tragedy left 357 people killed and other 397 injured, he said, adding that the dead were due to suffocation, stampede and drawn, no any sign of terrorism.

Sok An said that main cause of the tragedy was due to the very crowded people pushed each other back and forth, and some shouted the bridge was collapsing, causing the stampede.

Cambodia's Water Festival from Nov. 20 to 22 is the largest annual festival in the Southeast Asian nation, around three million Cambodians, especially those from rural areas converged to the city to enjoy the regatta.

Source:Xinhua

Cambodia calls for resumption of six-party talks on Korean Peninsula tension

People's Daily Online
November 27, 2010

The Cambodian government issued a statement on Saturday calling for a resumption of six-party talks on problems in Korean Peninsula.

The statement sent out to the media on Saturday morning said the Royal Government of Cambodia has "learned with great concern the exchange of artillery shelling on the Yeonpyeong Island of the Republic of Korea, on 23 November, resulting in damages and casualties."

"The Royal Government of Cambodia calls for the resumption of the six-party talks at the earliest possible in order to prevent further escalation of the tension which will endanger peace, security in the Korean Peninsula as well as in the whole region," according to the statement of the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The statement also appealed to "all parties concerned to stop any act of provocation and exercise maximum self restraint in order to prevent the situation from escalating and to seek for a peaceful settlement of problems in the Korean Peninsula."

South Korea and the Democratic People 's Republic of Korea ( DPRK) exchanged artillery fire on Tuesday in waters off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, leaving four people dead.

Source: Xinhua

First Vietnamese supermarket to open in Cambodia

A corner of the first Vietnam Supermarket in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which will open in the end of December.

Saigon News
Saturday ,Nov 27,2010

The first Vietnam Supermarket in Cambodia will open on December 29, creating advantageous condition for domestic businesses to sell and advertise Vietnamese goods to people in this neighboring country.

Construction of the Vietnam Supermarket, in Monivong Street, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, has a total capital of US$3 million, invested by Z38 Company, a member of Vietnamese Business Association in Cambodia.

Located on 3,300 square meters, the supermarket will sell goods for Vietnamese companies with the prices set by themselves. Payment would be conducted through Agribank, BIDC Bank and Sacombank.

Seng Meng, the supermarket chairman and the association deputy chairman, said that the Vietnam Supermarket will meet demand of oversea Vietnamese living in Cambodia and the rising number of Cambodian who have loved Vietnamese goods.

In addition, the facility will help those who want to but yet expand business to Cambodia as they have been afraid of language difference and procedures, he said.

Besides having his supermarket to sell their goods, Vietnamese companies could hire stalls to do that themselves. The Vietnam Supermarket will assist them with export-import procedures and selling staff, who are oversea Vietnamese being able to speak both Vietnamese and Cambodian.

The Z38 Company has planned to open another three Vietnam Supermarkets in other Cambodian provinces including the famous tourist destination Siem Reap.
By Hai Mien

Officials refused to resign over Cambodia's worst stampede

By Khmerization

Source: Free Press Magazine

Cambodian officials who are tasked with the organisation and management of the Water Festival that have resulted in more than 347 people stampeded to death are adamant that they have done nothing wrong, and therefore will not be resigning from their positions.

In the aftermath of the stampede, opposition parties and the civil society have called for the resignations of officials directly linked to the event. Among the officials they called for their sackings are Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema and Phnom Penh Police Commissioner Touch Naroth (pictured). However, both have said that they have done nothing wrong and therefore will not be resigning.

Mr. Keat Chantharith, spokesman for Police Department, said that any resignations or sackings of any officials will have to wait until the investigation is completed. However, when pressed about the recent resignation of the South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young, who took responsibility over the artillery attack by North Korean which killed only four South Koreans, Mr. Keat said that is a total separate matter. "We have different cultures and different applications (of the laws). Cambodia is Cambodia. All policies or laws of various countries are not the same. The police will conduct the investigations into the incident in order to improve the event in the following years", he said.

Mr. Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said Cambodian officials have no cultures of succumbing to criticism and pressures. "The resignations of government officials at a time of strong criticism is not a custom in Cambodia", he said.

In the aftermath of the stampede, the oppositions and civil society have called for recriminations, with the minor Human Rights Party writing to Prime Minister Hun Sen calling for the full and independent investigations and the sackings of officials directly responsible for, or failed to prevent, the stampede.

Critics and oppositions have claimed that there is a cover up and that many witnesses are too afraid or have been warned not to say that electrocution as the cause of the stampede, which claimed by eyewitnesses that that could be the likely cause of the stampede.