CIVIL RESISTANCE
My TREASON & INCITEMENT MASS TRIAL (Initial Page on Trial Matters) TUESDAY, 14 JUNE 2022 VERDICT ANNOUNCEMENT Court Statement: Concluding Remarks ការការពារ ផ្លូវច្បាប់ របស់ខ្ញុំ [ ... ] |
CIVIC EDUCATION
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The Launch of our New Website; CIVICUS President to Attend the Commemoration of Victims in March 30 Grenade Attack and People’s Congress
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Phnom Penh, 28 March 2014 CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education proudly announces the launch of our new, dynamic website www.civicus-cambodia.org. It features a new blog on our Speak Truth to Power program, updated content on our latest activities, photos, videos, lots of fascinating external reads, ways to get involved, and much more. They are all presented in a new, sleek, user-friendly format. Check us out! Come back to visit us often and join in our activities. On a more somber matter, CIVICUS Cambodia expresses deep concern about the lack of justice for victims of the grenade attack on 30 March 1997 during the passing of these 17 years. On that Easter Sunday morning 1997, four grenades ripped through a peaceful group of demonstrators in front of the National Assembly, killing 20 people and wounding 100 others. The demonstrators included garment workers, cyclo drivers, vendors, advocates of democracy, and political activists led by Sam Rainsy, demanding independence for the judiciary. Ms. Theary C. Seng, who missed the gathering that fateful 1997 Sunday morning because her alarm clock failed to ring due to the battery running out, will be attending the commemoration ceremony this Sunday, 30 March 2014. Ms. Seng will then proceed to join Cambodian citizens who love democracy and freedom at Democracy Square for the People’s Congress hosted by the pro-democracy Cambodian National Rescue Party later in the afternoon. After the violent crackdown earlier this January, the Cambodian People’s Party issued a ban against a gathering of more than 10 people, effectively creating a de facto police state. Ms. Seng explains why it is important for CIVICUS Cambodia to participate in this People’s Congress: “The core identity of CIVICUS Cambodia is all about being a citizen—a person who knows about and exercises her rights with responsibility. Our motto captures this well: ‘transforming subjects … transforming survivors … into citizens.’ This ban is unacceptable and violates the fundamental right of a Khmer citizen to peaceful assembly.
“As such, it is of great importance that we, the Cambodian citizens and all lovers of freedom, challenge the ban at every opportunity before it becomes, by habit because of appeasement over time, a way of life.”
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Phnom Penh by Night 28 March 2014 Hanging out with Friends
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Postcards from Kirirom Leisurely soaking in God's beautiful world in Kirirom on a lazy Sunday afternoon 23 March 2014
See more photos from Kirirom at Facebook...
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We need to reduce our "doublespeak"
This 18-page legal brief HOW IS THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FORMED? has exceeded 360,000 hits... If this is the simple truth, then the issue is not one of comprehension, BUT rather of INTEGRITY, of deleting the deleterious "DOUBLESPEAK" that we regularly engage in in deliberately distorting, disguising the nature of the truth. We must more and more reduce that"doublespeak" that 'is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind" (Orwell).
* * * Relatedly, posted 28 March 2012 And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed--if all records told the same tale--then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." "Doublethink": To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy... - George Orwell's 1984 The basic question which Orwell raises is whether there is any such thing as "truth." "Reality," so the ruling party holds, "is not external. Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else . . . whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth" . . . An American writer, Alan Harrington...has coined an excellent expression for the contemporary concept of truth: "mobile truth" . . . It is one of the most characteristic and destructive developments of our own society that man, becoming more and more of an instrument, transforms reality more and more into something relative to his interests and functions. - Erich Fromm, Afterword to Orwell's 1984 (Signet Classic, 1961)
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50th Year of Friedrich Naumann Foundation's International Work Meta House Phnom Penh, 17 March 2014
Frolicking about town with friends and Delilah
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Joel Brinkley
Timesman Joel Brinkley dead at 61 Politico | 13 March 2014 May you rest in peace, Mr. Joel Brinkley. I will always remember doing this interview (Foreign Affairs, below) with you and also hearing of your concern and presence at CSD in 2009 during one of its turbulent last days when the government sent the police and court officials to shut it down (of course, always when it knows I am away overseas at a conference or speaking engagement, then in Lisbon).
Click to read the 12-page essay in FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Vol. 88, No. 2
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Over the years, since the mid-1990s, visiting friends are shocked, appalled and in awe of the electrical wiring, more like thickets or dense bird nests, that spread and clumped across the capital. They wonder how the potential deadly thick bundle of anarchy has not resulted in more deaths... Well, here's one little reflection of how potential explosive the problems of anarchic electrical wiring continue to pose for the residents of Phnom Penh. This section of the fuse box, for my building, exploded and charred any semblance of electrical wiring this past Sunday, 2 March 2014 (Photo: Theary, 4 March 2014)
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LAW TALK Konrad Adenauer Stiftung 28 Feb. - 1 March 2014, Sokha Beach Hotel, Sihanouk Province
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Mourning the Passing of
Two Great Cambodian Nationalists and Heroes
whose popular blogsites (Sacravatoons and KI Media)
were considered subversive enough to be banned
by the Hun Sen government. Mr. UNG Bun Heang ("Sacrava") My heart is bleeding right now for the family of Mr. Ung Bun Heang who passed away on Saturday, 8 Feb. 2014 in Sydney. My prayers and condolences for the family, especially for his widow, Nekbong Phiny Ung and his brother UNG Bun Ang, both of whom I met, with lauk Bun Ang in the mid-1990s in Phnom Penh.
(As an aside, I am glad to see commentaries of lauk Bun Ang in Truth2Power Media, an association and insight admirable.)
See more of Sacravatoons on topic of Khmer Rouge Tribunal
and Dr. Phalkun Tan ("Heng Soy")
Even though almost one year ago, my heart is still bleeding for the death of the creator of KI Media, best known as "Heng Soy", whom I could not mourn properly due to the sensitive nature of KI Media and its future at his moment of his passing.
I had the great privilege of meeting Dr. Phalkun Tan 3 or 4 times when visiting my relatives in California over the years, and with whom I communicated on a regular basis on the language issue (1 | 2 ) and with my requests / submissions for publication on KI Media.
I will always appreciate his high consideration of my submissions to KI Media, which he never failed to post via "Heng Soy", "Socheata", "Khmer Democrat", "KI Media" of the names I recall, and possibly other posters.
"Funeral Announcement" which was quietly made by his SRP / CNRP friends and colleagues in the US in light of his KI Media and other Cambodia-related work considered highly sensitive. Dr. Phalkun Tan passed away on 27 May 2013 in Southern California.
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In celebration of LOVE during this MONTH of love, I'm sharing my favorite books on the topic: THE FOUR LOVES
SONG OF SONGS / The Song of Solomon
https://app.box.com/s/w4kprz7b9yrykja5e0o3
I CORINTHIANS 13
https://www.box.com/s/nlt8iggk6vgl84apq5s3
The HOLY BIBLE (punctuated Khmer)
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World Renew Regional Assembly Siem Reap, 26 - 30 Jan. 2014
Cambodia team at World Renew Regional Assembly (Siem Reap) showing off their national pride, 29 Jan. 2014
Violent Crackdown on Mam Sonando
A Second Day of Violence
27 Jan. 2014
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Bloody Return to Freedom Park Sunday, 26 Jan. 2014
All photos: Theary C. Seng
(go to Facebook, 26 Jan. 2014 for more photos and corresponding captions / narratives)
I spent 10-15 minutes in front if this group among their leaders asking them: are you here to protect us or wage war on us? Here to she'd more blood of monks and innocent civilians, your parents and siblings? It is our right to be here, my right to be here...
With the courageous(!!!) lauk Yeay Khuon Nget
Images / Videos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
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Wisdom from Neang Delilah
Lioness Delilah contemplative about the violence of this morning in this road trip with Toulouse uncle to Sre Ampil to meet with Lauk Pou Son Soubert and his children and visiting friends for lunch Neang Delilah says:
STOP THE VIOLENCE.
It's so uncool.
And it makes everyone sad ; (
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Cambodian Unionists Mark Murder of Prominent Labor Leader (AFP | 22 Jan. 2014)
Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
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In Remembrance of Chea Vichea
Peaceful March on 10th Anniversary of his Assassination 22 Jan. 2004 - 22 Jan. 2014
Law on Peaceful Assembly in Cambodia "...the Free Trade Union as a matter of courtesy informed the Municipal of Phnom Penh about its plan to conduct a peaceful march in remembrance of Chea Vichea, the FTUWKC's slain union leader.
"As this is a march of remembrance and not a protest to make a public demand, the Free Trade Union is under no legal obligation to make a written notification to the authority... "Here, I am reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: 'There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.' (See his Letter from Birmingham Jail.)" - Theary C. Seng, 21 Jan. 2014
Route of Peaceful March, 22 Jan. 2014, starting at 8:30 A.M.
https://app.box.com/s/lv1hr35ujb6c7qkx1uue
Click to read Joint Press Release of Free Trade Union and CIVICUS Cambodia
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Burden of Proof
Theary C. Seng Phnom Penh, 14 Jan. 2014 -- In light of the court summons for CNRP president and vice-president Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha and union leader Rong Chhun and their appearance at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court today, I am again aghast at how easily this CPP regime violates basic principles of understanding, here the general (without the legal technicalities) idea of the burden of proof. As you read the article I had written in Jun 2008 published in The Phnom Penh Post, with a commentary on 30 Jan. 2010 published in KI Media, apply the principle to the current political turmoil and the threats of lawsuits against leaders representing garment workers.
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Hun Sen's War on the People
PLEASE, PLEASE, use discretion in posting images of the dead! We do not need to see an open bloody head or spilled out stomachs. An issue of respect AND emotional societal health. - Theary, 3 Jan. 2014
Go to Truth2Power Media for AGGREGATED news for more photos and both national and international coverage of fatal clashes, in both Khmer and English
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Happy New Year !!
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Cambodia Spring
For all AGGREGATED NEWS on Cambodia, I go to Truth2Power (T2P) Media
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LEAD WITH WISDOM
my gift arrived from Australia (on Christmas Eve)!!
What a BEAUTY!
Guess who's mentioned in Chapter 6?!
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Crackdown
on Christmas Eve Morning!
Read articles at Truth2Power Media TURMOIL in Phnom Penh this CHRISTMAS EVE -- Please help us to monitor during this holiday season, the time that this autocratic CPP regime normally cracks down on peaceful Cambodian demonstrators and activists, knowing that the world is busy celebrating Christmas and New Year.
- Theary, 24 Dec. 2013
Celebrating CHRISTMAS EVE at my sister-in-law's restaurant "Chenda;s BBQ" in Boeung Keng Kang I, immediately behind Lucky Market, corner of Trasaek Paem (Street 63) and street behind Lucky Market, next to Tokyo (Central) Hotel -- here, the CNRP youth leaders are celebrating Christmas Eve with Senators Mardi Seng and Vannol Teav after their many successful daily protest.
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GIVE THANKS!
(click to watch video)
ABC News (Foreign Correspondent) | CNN (World Untold Stories Film interview with me at Preah Vihear in 2007
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First day of 3-day Protest and March to UNOHCHR 23 Oct. 2013 (22nd anniversary of Paris Peace Agreements) More photos on KI Media 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Go to my Facebook pages for captions to these and other photos.
X. LAW TALK 20 YEARS OF CAMBODIAN CONSTITUTION Moving towards implementation of Constitutional Law? 11.-13.10.2013 Sihanoukville Province, Independence Hotel
My presentation on the first day was on The Right to Vote
Board of Trustees Meeting Ms. Theary C. Seng attending as Board President Tagaytay, The Philippines | 2 Sept. 2013
Sam Rainsy Returns
to a Rapturous
Hero's Welcome
Photos: Theary C. Seng, 19 July 2013 More images taken by me from the truck carrying Sam Rainsy at my Facebook accounts and in KI-Media 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Global Convening to End Mass Atrocities Istanbul (16-21 June 2013) Istanbul, Turkey's largest city at 15 to 17 million people, is magical, as exquisitely stunning as one can imagine it to be and more (!!). Also known as Constantinople, named after the Roman Emperor Constantine who converted to Christianity in 4th century, it has now only one percent Christian out of 55 Million population.
I'm presenting on 19 June 2013 "Reconciling Peace with Justice in Cambodia: the Limitations of Tribunals to Address Mass Crimes"
https://www.box.com/s/g9go7em1jyvuhvy8jbjj
Click here to read narratives and see more photos, or go to Ms. Seng's Facebook accounts
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Theary C. Seng and the Road Ahead in Cambodia By Michelle Phipps-Evans Asian Fortune News, 3 Feb. 2013
The name Theary Chan Seng generates a fervor approaching reverence in the Cambodian community here and abroad. She is the Cambodian-born, American-educated lawyer and civil rights activist who founded the Cambodian Center for Justice & Reconciliation. It is a major component of another organization she serves as founding president, CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education. This nonprofit group is dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles. It is actively engaged in the practice of democracy and reconciliation in Cambodia and the larger, globalized world. So who really is Seng, the person? She is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime, and has spent almost two decades advocating for its victims, many of whom were orphaned, widowed, abused or molested—victims who were like Seng herself.
. . . Obama, in Cambodia for a Meeting, Sidesteps the Ghosts of History
International Herald Tribune (Peter Baker, November 20, 2012)
Theary Seng, president of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia, said, “President Obama should have met with the human rights community and activists challenging the Hun Sen regime, and while then and there, offer a public apology to the Cambodian people for the illegal U.S. bombings, which took the lives of half a million Cambodians and created the conditions for the Khmer Rouge genocide.”
Click here to read this complete news analysis
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Protests Greet Obama's Visit International Herald Tribune / New York Times PHNOM PENH — Theary Seng was taking aim with precision and anger. The 41-year-old U.S.-trained lawyer and a regular on Cambodia’s crowded protest circuit was about to throw a dart at a poster of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Kissinger is one of 13 politicians and senior Khmer Rouge leaders in a dart game created by Poetic Justice, a nongovernmental organization run by Theary Seng that highlights deficiencies of the special U.N.-backed tribunal judging the Khmer Rouge’s crimes. Each player gets five throws. A bull’s-eye is worth seven points. The highest score wins. Last Sunday afternoon, Theary Seng and three members of her staff were playing on Phnom Penh’s riverfront opposite the storied Foreign Correspondents’ Club. On this occasion — the fourth time the game has been staged in public — the point was to draw attention to the narrow scope of the Khmer Rouge tribunal ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit for a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Click here to read full article.
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Watch the TV3 New Zealand broadcast with Mike McRoberts (aired 21 Nov. 2012) At ASEAN summit, trade overshadows human rights
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Open Letter to U.S. President Barack Obama Published in The Phnom Penh Post, 20 November 2012
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Theary Seng and some 30 security (plus more embedded in Wat Phnom Penh and Sunway Hotel) Narrative of harassment and images of Ms. Theary C. Seng's stand-off with at least 30 big bulky, heavily armed security in front of US Embassy Phnom Penh (Tuesday, 19 Nov. 2012)
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Emotional Violence of Past Poetic Justice Dart Games flared into Physical Assault on Ms. Theary C. Seng and those around her along the Riverfront, Sunday, 18 Nov. 2012
Reykjavik, Iceland SESSION 3: CALLING 4.15 - 5.45 pm Led by Miriam Subirana, Foundation for a Culture of Peace The session includes: Theary C. Seng, Founder, Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, Cambodia
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More at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia... "Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Court 'Dying' ABC News film, aired 16 Oct. 2012
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Khmer Rouge defendant Ieng Thirith ruled unfit for Cambodian genocide trial due to dementia The Washington Post, 13 Sept. 2012 Of course if she is seriously ill with Alzheimer’s, she should be released. There is no point in trying an incapacitated person,” said Theary Seng, a human rights advocate representing some victims who are allowed a role in the proceedings. “The point is the (tribunal) is so late in coming. The political foot-dragging and inertia has caused this travesty of justice.”
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Poetic Justice and Civil Party Withdrawal in the News Nov. 2011 Ex-leader: Khmer Rouge atrocities are 'fairy tale' AP Newswire, 23 Nov. 2011 "I'm not surprised that Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary continue to deny their crimes as the charges against them of genocide, war crimes are very serious," said Theary Seng, a Cambodian lawyer and human rights activist who lost family members under their regime. "Even if I am not surprised, I am however disgusted by their lack of remorse for the suffering they caused. They are delusional in their denial in light of the weight of evidence against them - the mounds of skulls and bones, the horrific testimonies from every survivor of cruelty, the magnitude and scope of evil unleashed by them across the whole of Cambodia."
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"Khmer Rouge trial is failing Cambodian victims of Pol Pot's regime" Human Rights Watch Brad Adams' editorial The Guardian, 26 Nov. 2011
. . . "Justice Denied" Douglas Gillison, Foreign Policy Magazine, 23 Nov. 2011 . . . Deputy President of Victims Association, a Civil Party of the Orphans Class, Mr. CHEY Theara, Withdraws Civil Party Status, Denounces ECCC as Political Farce _______________________ PRESS RELEASE _______________________
Full statement in both Khmer and English in KI-Media. Here, if ISP censors in Cambodia.
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Khmer Rouge Trial Missing a Marquee Defendant Wall Street Journal, 21 Nov. 2011 “The release of Ieng Thirith is only one reflection of how incredibly late these trials are coming into place,” said Theary Seng, founder of the Cambodian Center for Justice and Reconciliation and herself, too, a victim of the Khmer Rouge regime, having lost her parents and spent five months in prison. She has withdrawn from the tribunal process, and instead put her energy into organizing public games of darts featuring the faces of the Khmer Rouge leaders along Phnom Penh’s riverfront – a “way of release” following victims’ frustrations with the trial process, mixed with “dark humor,” she said.
But the trial - a joint enterprise between the UN and Cambodia - has been heavily criticised. Theary Seng, whose parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge, said putting three people on trial for the deaths of 1.7 million simply wasn't enough. (BBC News, 21 Nov. 2011)
Khmer Rouge Trial: Cambodia Awaits Answers BBC News, 21 Nov. 2011
. . . AFP, 21 Nov. 2011 Khmer Rouge survivor Theary Seng told AFP she was "frustrated beyond words" that only Khieu Samphan looked likely to shed light on what happened. "The people want to know who is behind the Khmer Rouge, we want to see and understand the larger picture and we're not going to get that," she said.
From Tragedy to Sham in Cambodia Asia Times Online, 19 Nov. 2011 In KI-Media Others have gone further, arguing that the time might be ripe for the UN to pull the plug on the controversy-plagued court altogether. Last week, Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime and a prominent advocate for victims' rights, withdrew her status as a civil party to the court, describing the proceedings as a "complete sham". She said the UN should threaten to withdraw after setting some clear conditions for its continued participation. By pressing ahead, Seng said, the world body runs the risk of rubber-stamping a flawed process and further embedding cynicism in the Cambodian population. "I understand the unwieldiness of any large bureaucracy, but at the end of the day it comes down to personalities, and there have been extremely weak personalities," she said. "In this regard, the UN is complicit."
In the End, Loss of Faith in Tribunal: Former Complainant Hello VOA Special with Theary Seng, 16 Nov. 2011 Khmer Rouge Victim Quits Tribunal Saying UN-backed Court is a Sham DPA, 15 Nov. 2011
Prominent Victims' Advocate Quits Khmer Rouge Tribunal VOA International/English, 15 Nov. 2011 KRT Critic Offers 'Poetic Justice' The Phnom Penh Post, 16 Nov. 2011 Theary Seng Denounces Tribunal; Introduces Dartboard Scheme The Cambodia Daily, 16 Nov. 2011
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Click here to read the full press release...
More information at "ECCC Civil Party" More information at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia Theary Seng Criticizes KRT as "Political Farce" The Phnom Penh Post, 10 Nov. 2011
Radio Free Asia (both AM and PM broadcasts on 10 Nov. 2011)
Cambodian-American Lawyer Withdraws her Civil Party Status Voice of America Khmer Service, 10 Nov. 2011
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