Remembering Robert Novak
2009-08-19
Conservative columnist Robert Novak passed away on Aug. 18 at the age of 78. RFA Executive Editor Dan Southerland tells the story of a dangerous road trip with the famous commentator at the outset of the war in Cambodia in 1970.
A Tribute to War Photographers
2009-07-20
As the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh sheds light on horrors perpetrated by that regime thirty years ago, Dan Southerland recalls that reporters and photographers were also not spared.
Dith Pran dies at 65
2008-04-04
Dith Pran, the hero of "The Killing Fields," was an interpreter and “fixer” in 1970. It was the first year of the war in Cambodia, a time when many Cambodians truly believed that they could defeat the Vietnamese Communists. At that time, the Khmer Rouge were just emerging as a military force that would ultimately conquer the country and send Dith Pran to a labor camp.
The Making of a Mass Murderer
2007-11-19
Duch, now 66 years old, seems the right choice to go to trial first, though he’s not the highest-ranking of the four Khmer Rouge officials so far to be charged and detained. Duch was the chief of the notorious torture center known as S-21. But it’s not easy to understand how he transformed himself from kindly teacher to chief executioner.
Child Soldiers — Driven by Fear and Hate
2006-07-20
On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, starting a four-year reign of terror in Cambodia. RFA’s chief editor Dan Southerland visits battlefields he covered as a war correspondent from 1970-75. In these blogs, Southerland reports how many older Cambodians are trying to forget the Khmer Rouge trauma, while younger Cambodians know little of their own history.
The Killing Machine
2006-06-20
Interviewing refugees can be tricky business. They sometimes tell you what they think you want to hear. Some exaggerate in order to gain sympathy.
"We Just Tried to Survive?textonly=1"
2006-05-19
The brother of one of the world’s most notorious mass murderers is sleeping peacefully in his hammock.
Why Did They Kill So Many?
2006-05-04
In the later stages of the war in Cambodia, refugees began to describe the widespread killing of civilians in areas under Khmer Rouge control.
War "From the Other Side?textonly=1"
2006-04-21
Nothing looks familiar to me except the empty highway stretching straight ahead toward Vietnam. But I can still make out the place where my two colleagues disappeared, never to be seen again
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