6 May 2013
Last updated GMT
Watch video at ABC.
Arn Chorn-Pond was a child in Cambodia when the Khmer
Rouge came to power in 1975. Born into a family of artists and
musicians, he was sent to a children's labour camp where he escaped
death by playing his flute for the camp guards.
His brother and sister starved to death and he had to attend
daily executions at the camp before he finally fled his captors when
Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia in 1979.
In a refugee camp in Thailand, Peter Pond, a Lutheran
minister and aid worker, adopted him in 1980 and took him to the United
States.
Today, Arn Chorn-Pond is a musician and activist. He created
several organisations, including Children of War, and Cambodian
Volunteers for Community Development.
He has just launched Season of Cambodia in New York, the
first major Cambodian cultural festival in the US, including
performances from 125 Cambodian artists.
As a Cambodian-American, he considers the festival his
personal answer to the US bombing of Cambodia. "The US bombed Cambodia,"
he says. "I am carpeting New York with artists."
Produced by Anna Bressanin; camera by Ilya Shnitser
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