Life in Cambodia

I lived in Cambodia for about four of the last ten years, from July of 1995 to September 1997 and from February 1998 to February 1999, and returned to visit from February to April 2000 and to work from February to August 2003.

Cambodia links

When I left Philadelphia for Cambodia in 1995, there were only one or two Cambodia sites I could find on the web, and soon, this joined them as one of the early ones. Now there are too many to catalog. Here are some useful ones.

For general information on Cambodia -- brief background, stats and so on -- try NationMaster or Wikipedia.

The first Internet servers in Cambodia went on line in May 1997: CamNet and Telstra's BigPond, which has since evolved into OnLine. For some early history, read my articles on Cambodia and the Internet.

News

The Phnom Penh Post is on line, though you have to pay to see most of it.
The Cambodia Daily, where I used to work, started a limited web site in late 1998. The news content of the site is growing--slowly--and now there are some feature stories, but nothing like a searchable database. Falling a bit behind the Times...
There is also a site for the Bayon Pearnik, a travel, humor and culture magazine that injects some much-needed levity into the Phnom Penh scene.

More:

• The citizen-viewer comments on Cambodian events.
• CambodiaPolitics selected articles from local press inside Cambodia
• Richard Ehrlich's collection of articles about Cambodia and more at his site
• A comprehensive overview of the Cambodian political and economic scene as of 2000, by John Marston.
• IFEX Cambodia press freedom alerts
• The Cambodia page of "Attacks on the Press 2003," an annual report produced by the Committee to Protect Journalists
• Press release about Cambodia's newest book store

History

• A terrific site for contemporary Cambodian history is Cambodian Recent History and Contemporary Society: An Introductory Course by Dr. Judy Ledgerwood of Northern Illinois University.
  
• Andy Carvin's From Sideshow to Genocide offers a comprehensive history of Cambodia, especially through recent decades, in manageable length.
  
• I also like Marco Capriz's quick history of the 1990s in Cambodia, called Musings Over Beer at the FCCC. Breezy but hits the essentials with insight.
  
• In Cambodia, the Documentation Center of Cambodia, or DC-Cam, records and preserves the history of the Khmer Rouge regime and assembles evidence for those who seek accountability.
  
• The Cambodian Genocide Project has a searchable database of the photographs of people killed by the Khmer Rouge. Visitors can submit information to be added in the effort to identify the dead and to document the actions of one of history's cruelest regimes. It's a fascinating and innovative use of the Web: to assemble information from people scattered all over the world, in a way that could never have been done before.
  
• Beauty and Darkness: Cambodia in Modern History and the Dith Pran Holocaust Project also focus on this period. (You may recall Dith Pran as a character in The Killing Fields; he was portrayed by Haing Ngor.)

Laws

• The Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia
  
• Laws of Cambodia

Politics

• The Cambodian People's Party: the ruling party, led by Hun Sen, Cambodia's prime minister and self-proclaimed strongman.
  
• Funcinpec: the "royalist" party and partner with the CPP in the government coalition, led by Prince Norodom Ranariddh, former "First Prime Minister".
  
• The Sam Rainsy Party: the democratic opposition party; formerly the Khmer Nation Party. See also the Alliance for Democracy and Reform in Asia and the Council of Asian Liberal Democrats.
  
• The Khmer Neutral Party: a smaller party that was aligned with Funcinpec and the SRP before the 1998 election.
  
• The Khmer Unity Party: a smaller party founded by Khieu Rada, formerly of the Khmer Nation Party.
  
• King-Father Norodom Sihanouk. Frequently updated with commentary on political events. For more, see this unofficial site.

Human Rights

• LICADHO - The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights. Cambodia's premier human rights organization, founded in 1992.
  
• Cambodian Center for Human Rights is an independent human rights organization founded by Kem Sokha, former MP and Senator.
  
• ChildSafe Cambodia is building a movement to prevent the sexual exploitation of children. It's a project of Friends-International.
  
• Still mealy-mouthed after all these years: 2004 US State Dept report on human rights in Cambodia. See the 1998 report.
  
• FAS Report: Post-Coup Cambodia

Art & Culture

• Take a virtual tour of Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia. This exhibition was on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in 1997. Beautifully done.
  
• See also Object ID - Tracking Stolen Artifacts

Environment

• Cambodia's Ministry of Environment
  
• Global Witness, exposing illegal logging in Cambodia--at considerable personal risk.
  
• The Cardamom Project, supporting wildlife diversity and sustainability in the Cardamom Mountains
  
• The Parks Society of Cambodia

Drugs

• Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues: Yearly reports on drug trade in Southeast Asia and Cambodia (in French and English)

Other sites of interest

• TalesofAsia.com's Cambodia Today, a descriptive approach to Cambodia by Gordon Sharpless, an American photographer and journalist who lives in Siem Reap
  
• Sophal's HomePage - articles and writings, mostly on Cambodian economic themes)
  
• Year of the Pig: the movie was a film project by two videographers who stayed in Cambodia in 1995-96. They focused on The Cambodia Daily (where I worked then), Sam Rainsy (leader of the political party I worked for in 1998-99), and a prostitute in trouble. The Year of the Pig site is down as of mid-2000, but you can read a blurb about it on the NY Underground Film Festival Site.
  
• Holiday in Cambodia: stories by Tom Beller
  
• Photos of Cambodia by Ian Taylor
  
• Impressions and pictures by Ann Okerson, 1996
  
• Indochina image bank
  
• Phnom Penh Weather Forecast

Cambodia pages on this site

A Tragedy of No Importance
All about the March 30, 1997 grenade attack in Phnom Penh

collected Cambodia photos on this site (in progress)

notes from 1995-97, 1998-99 and 2000 in Cambodia

a FAQ on working at The Cambodia Daily

a wide variety of articles on Cambodia I've written or co-written, mostly for The Cambodia Daily

articles on Cambodia and the Internet

a page about the 1998 elections ( in progress), with a collection of Sam Rainsy Party documents

Cambodian Personalities on Parade -- a short parade at this point

My page of Cambodia travel tips

Patrice visits Cambodia, a travelogue from 1996

Other related pages on this site

To explore other parts of the site, go to the main entrance.