The land of heroes
Our heroes
Our land
Cambodia Kingdom


Thursday, October 27, 2011

Angelina Julie unwittingly purchased land from Khmer Rouge offial accused of crimes against Humanity, report says

Angelina Jolie has long been a champion for the impoverished nation of Cambodia, from which she adopted her first son Maddox in 2002. But a new report says the actress may have purchased land in the country to operate a foundation in her son’s name from a former official of the Khmer Rouge, the communist party that committed mass murder in the country in the 1970s.

According to interviews with Cambodian officials and documents obtained by Global Post reporters Douglas Gillison and Phann Ana, Jolie’s associate Mounh Sarath purchased 225 acres for approximately $25,000 from a man named Yim Tith in 2003. The land was for housing for Jolie and staff and other purposes, including a ranger station and an educational center for the locals.

 

In 2005, when Jolie was granted Cambodian citizenship and allowed to own land herself, she sought to transfer the land into her name.

In 2009, Yim Tith was charged with crimes against humanity by international prosecutors working with the United Nations and the Cambodian government in Phnom Penh, which alleged that he participated in eliminating government officials between 1977 and 1979.

According to the Global Post reports, Yim Tith allegedly had control over an area of Cambodia where 600,000 died as a result of the Khmer Rouge misrule.

“He is wanted for crimes against humanity,” Gillison told Fox411. “His job was to eradicate all the local officials and he oversaw operations of the prisons and execution sites across that part of the country. These were brutal places and things were very bloody. He had effective control over all these crime scenes.”

The Global Post reporters, working with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, spoke with Yem Yorn, chief of Samlot’s Meanchey commune, near where Jolie has her Cambodian base.

He confirmed to the Post that Yim Tith sold the land to Jolie’s intermediaries.

Jolie’s camp did not respond to calls and emails for comment; Gillison said that despite repeated attempts to reach out to the actress for the story, he never heard back from her camp either.

Gillison is not sure Jolie knew of Yim Tith’s crimes when she purchased the land in 2002, but that after the 2009 charges against him, it would have been hard for the actress to be unaware, given how much time she devotes to Cambodia.

“These crimes happened in the 1970s, and it is not clear to me anyone suffered as a result of her actions,” Gillison told Fox411. “While she may have known or should have known this individual is who he is, he had not been charged when this deal went down in 2002, and the charges weren’t brought until 2009.”

Jolie began the Maddox Jolie foundation in 2003 as a community development organization in Cambodia’s Battambang province. According to the foundation’s official website, its goal is “creating peace and stability in all communities by planning and implementing interventions that prevent negative environmental changes. Working with impoverished rural villagers and local governments to alleviate food insecurities and increase access to primary healthcare and education.”

Since the land transaction was made nearly a decade ago, there is little Jolie could do now to make amends for buying the land from a known criminal.
Read more!

Archaeologists says statues unearthed at Cambodia’s Angkor Wat are biggest in 8 decades

By Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Archaeologists at Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex say they have unearthed the largest Buddhist statues there in eight decades.

Ly Vanna, an artifacts expert for the government’s Apsara Authority that oversees the site, said Thursday the two stone statues found at Ta Prohm temple were headless but the larger one if complete would stand about 10 feet (3 meters) tall. He says the statues are believed to date from the 12th century and are the biggest discovered since the 1930s.

Saurav Ray of the Indian embassy says the statues were found by workers carrying out the Archaeological Survey of India’s 10-year, $4 million restoration project. Angkor’s rehabilitation follows decades of neglect due to civil war.
Read more!

Ex-king Sihanouk returns to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's ailing former king Norodom Sihanouk returned home on Thursday from Beijing where he spent nearly three months receiving medical treatment.

Sihanouk and his wife, accompanied by their son King Norodom Sihamoni, were given a red-carpet welcome by family members, Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials upon arrival at Phnom Penh airport.

A smiling Sihanouk, who will turn 89 on October 31, pressed his hands together in a traditional greeting to well-wishers before getting into a car that whisked him off to the royal palace.

"The health of his majesty has been good," Sihanouk's personal secretary Prince Sisowath Thomico told AFP, adding that the former monarch may stay in Cambodia for "many months" this time.

Sihanouk has suffered from a number of ailments in recent years, including cancer, diabetes and hypertension.

One of Asia's longest-serving monarchs, the revered king abruptly quit the throne in October 2004 in favour of his son, citing old age and health problems.

Despite abdicating, Sihanouk remains hugely popular and tens of thousands of Cambodians are expected to flock to the palace on Sunday to mark the 20th anniversary of his return to the country from exile after years of civil war.
Read more!