The last 8 weeks in Cambodia spent documenting the work of International Bridges to Justice and IBJ-Cambodia Fellow Ouk Vandeth have been an encouraging and rewarding experience. I’ve been able to observe and learn a great deal about IBJ’s work here in Cambodia and I hope that I’ve fulfilled my main goal of giving you a realistic and objective peek into the “what, where, when, why and how” of IBJ’s work here.

I leave Cambodia with the hope and confidence that with the continued hard work and growth of IBJ in Cambodia, and, with the continued support of the international community, IBJ’s goal of ’supporting justice for the lives of the many’ can be fully realized.

With that I sign off and present my final post, a series of photos with captions documenting the overall work of IBJ Cambodia over these past 8 weeks. If you have any questions or comments please leave them in the comment section and I’ll be happy to respond to them.

Best,

Jeff
http://www.jeffkennel.com

*for a full screen presentation click the icon on the right-hand side (please allow a few seconds for it to load).

With the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia now starting the process of prosecuting the top planners and directors of the Khmer Rouge atrocities, I thought it of utmost importance to visit Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, or Security Prison 21 (S-21), as it was known, in hopes of coming to a better understanding of the present day Cambodia in which IBJ does its work.

The shock and horror that the people of Cambodia were put through for those three years, eight months and twenty days that the Khmer Rouge were in power and the following near 20 year civil war are beyond my powers of comprehension. All I can do is bear witness, listen, observe, contemplate and attempt to share this experience for those of you who are unable to come to Cambodia to experience this emotionally draining museum yourself.

No Cambodian living today has been unaffected by this tragedy. Children have lost parents, parents have lost children, a brother, a sister, a wife, a husband…whole families. Those that survived live with the horrors of the past. Even those born after 1979 are not immune to the endless personal tragedy that their elders still suffer from. A whole nation suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not something easily comprehended.

This is the reality in which IBJ does its work. A people once again learning to trust authority, law, justice and government.

I hope this small and insignificant photo essay of just one part of the Khmer Rouge horror story provides some context to what Cambodian have gone through and live with on a daily basis. More importantly, I hope it encourages you, as it has done me, to dig deeper into the complicated challenges facing modern day, post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia.

text source: wikipedia
music: John Williams, Schindler’s List-Theme

Greetings! I’m happy to be reporting from the Kingdom of Cambodia for IBJ. I’ll be here for the next few weeks and I look forward to giving you an “eyes on the ground” look into IBJ’s important work here and of life in Cambodia in general.

I’ll be based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capitol city (pop. 1 million) where IBJ’s office is located and traveling with IBJ Fellow Mr. Ouk Vandeth to document the work he does here in the many provinces throughout the country and here in the capital as well.

Let me pause here and give you a little explanation of his name because just reading it I got the pronunciation totally wrong. In Cambodia the Family name comes first and his is pronounced, in American English, like “You” without the “Y” and with a “K” on the end. His first name is pronounced “Wondet,” like “Wonder” but with a short “T” on the end instead of the “R.” Also of note is that in Cambodia you refer to people by their first name, so you’d say “Mr. Vandeth,” not “Mr. Ouk”. Things here are very casual in most situations it seems, so we just call him “Vandeth.”

I’ve had the first week to get myself acquainted with the city as Vandeth and Sarah Brundage (an American law student and IBJ intern here for 10 weeks) were out of town. So without further ado here are a few of the things I’ve seen in this bustling capital city.