Cambodia to build memorial for slain journalists

Cambodia will erect a memorial to nearly 40 foreign and Cambodian journalists who died covering a savage five-year war that ended with the triumph of the Khmer Rouge 35 years ago, a government official said Saturday.

The groundbreaking for the monument will take place at the end of April, the anniversary of the Khmer Rouge victory, as foreign journalists who covered the conflict also gather for a reunion, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said.

At least 37 journalists were killed or are listed as missing from the 1970-75 war, which pitted the U.S.-backed Lon Nol government against the North Vietnamese-supported Khmer Rouge.

They included reporters, photographers and television cameramen from Japan, France, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, India, Laos, Australia and Cambodia.

A number of the journalists were captured by the Khmer Rouge and never seen again. When the ultra-communists seized control and began their reign of terror, at least 17 Cambodian journalists were executed or disappeared.

Khieu Kanharith said the memorial, built to remember the work of the journalists, is being designed and will be erected near the hillside Buddhist monastery of Wat Phnom in the heart of the city.

The initiative for the monument came from Chhang Song, who served as information minister in the Lon Nol government, and organizers of the April 20-23 reunion, which will be followed by a similar one in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a week later.