Cambodia had quite a bit of coverage this week, and much of it is not just news, but some fascinating stories, as well.

A while back I wrote about Sythan Leam a fourteen-year-old Cambodian girl who has been suffering the effects of a horrendous burn in infancy that make it impossible for her to walk.

She's now in Hawaii and preparing to undergo surgery.

Yesterday Leam's leg was X-rayed at Shriners Hospital, and she was tested for tuberculosis, Deeth said. Shriners will treat Leam for free, but transportation costs are not covered.

After her story appeared in the Star-Bulletin, the nonprofit group Medicorps raised about $10,000 to bring Leam to Honolulu.

She traveled by bus from her village in Kampong Thom province to the Thai border, where she said goodbye to her mother, Teartear, and continued by road to Bangkok.

I'll be keeping this girl in my heart and hoping for the best.

This look at the practice of hunting down a minority, members of the 54 ethnic hill tribes loosely defined as Montagnards, to sell to the Vietnamese.

The main crimes of the minority peoples of Southeast Asia is that they aligned themselves with the Americans during the Vietnam War and that the hardliners in the Hanoi politburo have never strayed from their obsession with collecting their blood debt after the war. The communist party of Indochina founded by Ho Chi Minh has given the world the boat people, the reeducation camps, the genocide of the Hmong people in Laos, and the killing fields of Cambodia.

And far be it from me to let a slam against the UN go without mention:

... The UNHCR who is supposed to be there to assist the Montagnard refugees then enters the picture. After most of the Montagnards have been captured and sold back to the Vietnamese, Prime Minister Hun Sen gives permission to the UNHCR in Phnom Penh to travel to Mondulkiri to help the escaping Montagnards.

After an 8-hour drive from Phnom Penh to Mondulkiri in their shiny white Land Rovers, the UNHCR workers give the pretense of searching for the escaping refugees, and once in awhile, they happen to find a few. One has to wonder why the UNHCR has their refugee camp an impossible distance of 300 kilometers for the fleeing Montagnards to reach safely.

There's a lot more to this story, and it's worth a read.

And for a poignant look back at a true hero, this tribute to Dr. Haing S. Ngor remembers his life and tragic death, and the Academy Awards of 1985, when he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Dith Pran.

Twenty-five-year-old twins, Pholi and Phola Sun, children of Cambodian refugees that have been living in Washington State since the age of nine, have been inspired by a trip to Cambodia to build a well for a village. It's a nice story of giving back to a homeland while learning.

And here's an interview with Li-Da Krugar, the Cambodian-born adoptee who made the film "Belonging", the story of her search for birth family in Cambodia.

Her adventure is very interesting, and her attitude hopeful and inspiring.

What I found was that it was a real advantage having a dual identity. I felt enriched and lucky that I could pick and choose the best of both worlds.

... The other think about identity I had firmly established in my head before the search began was that everyone has the same questions about identity. Being adopted was an obvious opening for exploration. Therefore, adoptees are luckier than some because we are given an opportunity to explore our identities."

Continued ...