PHNOM PENH, March 13 (Reuters) - Just over 30 years ago, a crackling radio in a refugee camp on the Thai border brought Sam Sophal word that the United Nations was coming to his war-ravaged homeland of Cambodia.

For Sam Sophal, who survived the Khmer Rouge genocide only because his mother bribed Khmer Rouge executioners with her silver watch, the promise of peace was irresistible.

The U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) arrived on March 15, 1992, with great expectations, the first U.N. nation-building operation after the collapse of the Soviet Union sparked hope that democracy would flourish around the world....

...When UNTAC was wound up, it left Cambodia with a fraught political arrangement that was almost bound to go awry.

"UNTAC was the first test," says Sam Sophal, "But they didn't complete the mission."

Now retired after 24 years with the United Nations, Sam Sophal says corruption and nepotism have left Cambodians with no political alternatives.

"People in this country believe in democracy and human rights but who is going to lead them?" he asked.

Full: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-paci ... 022-03-13/

Indeed, but I thought that it might inspire some personal recollections and more nuanced analysis from forum members.

I have friends who were here in the 90's and when I arrived in the 2000's was a little peeved I had missed all the 'action' (a term I would've used then but would not now). Turns out the last 20 or so years have been almost equally (although in a different way) as transformative and certainly fascinating.

It does make you wonder what could've been had certain significant events gone slightly differently...

Curiously unintelligible "analysis" and rebuttal from the "Khmer Times" today... Do any of you work there?

"Reuters' White Supremacist View on Cambodia"

So, someone believes the desire to promote democracy is merely a charade disguising racism... Is that a new twist, or what?

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501042040/ ... -cambodia/

orichá wrote: ↑Wed Mar 16, 2022 1:19 pm Curiously unintelligible "analysis" and rebuttal from the "Khmer Times" today... Do any of you work there?

"Reuters' White Supremacist View on Cambodia"

So, someone believes the desire to promote democracy is merely a charade disguising racism... Is that a new twist, or what?

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501042040/ ... -cambodia/

Already posted: post538909.html#p538909

by Kuroneko » Wed Mar 16, 2022 11:29 am

pootylicious wrote: ↑Wed Mar 16, 2022 8:24 am

A prophecy that foretold of a "god with blue eyes" that would one day bless and restore the land had spread through villages during Cambodia's darkest years.

So when UNTAC arrived with their sky-blue flag and helmets they were seen as an incarnation of that deity, some even painting their homes a U.N. shade of blue, recalled Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

This is incredible! First time I've heard this

Check this out:

Reuters’ White Supremacist View on Cambodia

Reuters wrote an article entitled “‘Mission Impossible’: U.N. in Cambodia Showed Early Limit of Nation Building” on 15 March 2022, arguing that Cambodia’s democracy is sliding backward after heavy investment by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), who failed to remove HE from power.

What is the most disturbing about this article is the sentence that says, “A prophecy that foretold of a “god with blue eyes” that would one day bless and restore the land had spread through villages during Cambodia’s darkest years.”
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501042040/ ... -cambodia/


Thought it was a fair article. I think you have misread or misinterpreted the article.

orichá wrote: ↑Wed Mar 16, 2022 1:19 pm https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501042040/ ... -cambodia/

Thanks for linking the article here, I hadn't seen it. It is indeed a very strange rebuttal. No name on it, I assume it's T. Mohan who is not a journalist and who can't write anything original, it would explain why it's so unintelligable.