By Milton Osborne
The Interpreter
Cambodia is that kind of place. Just when you think you are doing the right thing it turns out that the tentacles of the past are waiting to grab you.
Not only is The Guardian running bitter little stories about the fact that Angelina Jolie has been photographed lolling on a boat in a Cambodian swamp with a £7000 Louis Vuitton bag, she is now being portrayed as entering into a land deal with a notorious Khmer Rouge commander in Cambodia's Battambang province.
It's a complicated story but linked to an issue noted on several occasions in The Interpreter, the fact that international prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge tribunal have been blocked by government interference in their attempts to bring additional high-ranking Khmer Rouge figures before it.
The detailed story about the land deal has appeared in Global Post-International News, with the claim that the Maddox Jolie Pitt Foundation purchased land from a former Khmer Rouge commander, Yim Tith. Whether this deal was carried out knowingly, as a former and supposedly disgruntled Cambodian associate claims, or was the result of ignorance is not clear.
Three points are worth noting. First, there seems little doubt that Yim Tith was indeed a Khmer Rouge figure of importance and that his ownership of the land resulted from a policy pursued by the Phnom Penh government of providing former KR leaders with land as a means of preserving their non-involvement in current politics.
Secondly, although I have not seen his name listed before, it may well be that Yim Tith is one of the additional potential defendants that international prosecutors want to see brought before the Khmer Rouge tribunal but have been blocked from doing so.
Finally, of course, the whole affair of Angelina Jolie's involvement in Cambodia relates to the now vexed issue, as the article pointedly notes, of celebrity philanthropy. There is no question about Jolie's commitment to helping Cambodia and its inhabitants, but if this story is correct it is a classic case of unintended consequences resulting from the charitable acts of an outsider with little appreciation of internal issues in an underdeveloped country.
17 comments:
so what's the big deal? Was this notorious guy going to do anything productive on this land? If not, Jolie just turned it into something with worth. Or did this guy use this land to commit more crimes and now Jolie bought it to help commit the crimes?
If that's not the case, what's the big deal in vilifying this woman?
Jolie is robbing the Khmer people from their land, as a Human right activist, why is she owning an empty 250 hectare of land for her luxury life. is she better then the CPP party?
8:08 AM,do your homework b4 barking at the wrong tree.
7:54 AM
I totally support your idea.
We must know to differentiate between wrong and right.
Don't try to punish people who make good deed.
Stop blowing something out of proportion. Nobody wants to help Cambodia again if we behave erroneously.
Milton Osborne you a fuckup stupid idiot! use your mother giving braine!
Puok a lopp neak na krau pikhluon vea thveu ei tha ei xus teang oss !
A chhkuoy boll bai !
Angelina chett la-or chea muoy Khmer a eng tha khoss der ! Idiot !
hey man ! Don't be so silly with this, she bought the land from ex- Khmer R not stealing the land from Khmer citizen how come it made you angry like this and she might use this land for the interest of local people here in Cambodia( employ people the job) they can make the living, she is generous to Cambodian. You? What have you done for Cambodia or Cambodian?
My question is, she paid $100 a hectare, at 250 hectare. Cambodia land is so cheap, did she also purchase the land for 99 years? Since she purchased the land, has she created any jobs for the locals? How is she better then the rest of the foreigners such as Vietnamese Private companies or CPP families?
hi angelina jolie, we love you and your family! god bless you and your family.
Bless the Khmer souls that died on the land!
Is there any law to stop foreigners from buying half the province at the price of a car?
We LOVE you Angelina, may god bless you and your family.
How long some of you here have been geting in touch with the Cambodia situtaion. Did you help our people more than Mrs. Angelina Jolie or just spent your time to complain for this and that.
Remembered, Mrs. Jolie did not make any profits by doing the business in Cambodia, because she spent a lot of her own money to help our people and of course she always supports our country.
So what is happen, when you try to help the kids who authority (UN) put in the hand of their abussive parents!!!!
Our Khmer land are being taken over by foreigners and CPP families, because they have unlimited money. Is that progression for our country?
A lot of moron here barking on a dead tree. They couldn't penetrate the CPP's head so they turn their frustration to that one person who do so much for us.
Way to show your gratitude.
Wake up moron! How many millions did Angelina Jolie pour into this dirt poor country? You'll need to start with that.
God bless Angelina Jolie! God bless the victims of Pol Pot!
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