Cambodia in the News

PBS

I spent an evening recently with a few of the former Cambodia SSTers watching a special on PBS about Cambodian-Americans who were deported by the US government back to their "homeland"-- Cambodia.

This was an issue we learned about first-hand while in Cambodia, hearing a lecture from four deportees. It seems to me to be an impossibly unfair situation, one that could benefit from public scrutiny.

According to a US law, all immigrants who are convicted of a felony are at risk of being sent to their native country without ever being able to return. One catch is that many of them served their prison sentences years ago and only recently, post 9-11, has the US government made an agreement with the Cambodian government that allows the law to be enforced in. In the past three years they have deported over 100 Cambodian-Americans, doubling the total from before 2005.

An organization called RISP is helping deportees with the reintegration process once they arrive in Phnom Penh. Their website provides detailed information about the situation as well as what some of the major issues with it are.

The program on PBS followed the stories of a few different Cambodians, catching them at various stages of the process of the law being enforced. You can find out about it in much more detail on their website. But to give you a bit of direction this links you to some more information about the law and more specifically here is the Wikipedia version of the law, and this is an interesting Q & A with the makers of the film that touches on some of the infuriating things about this law for me.

NPR

And just for another version of the story, here is a link to an NPR podcast about the law including the story of one Cambodian-American scheduled to be deported.

Many important stories relating to Cambodia's social issues can be found on NPR. A recent one of particular interest to most concerns the sex trade. This is an interesting/heartbreaking problem in Cambodia for two particular reasons. First, prostitution is legal there and second the deman for it began with the presence of UN officials who entered the country in the nineties in an effort to aid the country post-genocide.

NYTimes

Cambodia has shown up in Times' stories three times recently, in stories unrelated to the Khmer Rouge tribunals, previously a rarity.

First was the announcement that oil was found by Chevron off the southern coast of Cambodia. I think most of us fear the oil money will increase the corruption present in Cambodia, instead of help the deeply impoverished nation, which it has the potential to do. "Cambodia Faces Curse of Oil Money."

Then a type of turtle, thought to be extinct was found in a former Khmer Rouge stronghold. "How to Survive in Cambodia: For a Turtle Beneath Sand."

And finally on Sunday there was an article published online describing the discovery that villagers had come upon mass graves from the genocide period and were spending hours and hours digging through them for any sort of valuables. This is a tough issue because in one sense the spirits of ancestors are a very real part of Cambodians' spiritual lives and to disturb their graves seems unthinkable, but on the other hand, the valuables are just sitting there under the ground when they could be allowing Cambodians to feed their families for a little while. Ghosts "Wail as Cambodians Plunder Killing Field Graves."

Closing Thoughts

Having just spent three months in Cambodia, of course these bits of news from that front are incredibly interesting.

On a more general Goshen interest note, we've all recently received a bit of news from former SSTer Paul, who, as I mentioned at the beginning, is still in Asia. He and his fellow traveller, it seems have decided to become engaged while on the beaches of Thailand. Congratulations Paul!!!!