Cambodian Wonders 'What If' About Angelina Jolie

Solida ("Lida") Ley (Credit: Daniel Ostenso)

Lida moved from a subsistence existence in rural Cambodia to a senior staff job at a women's advocacy organization in the city. But she still wonders what would have happened if she had said "yes" to a beautiful foreigner at a pagoda three years ago.

Friday, August 31, 2012

By Carly Rose Elson

WeNews correspondent

(WOMENSENEWS)--Solida ("Lida") Ley has a disarming smile and gracious way of offering cold grape juice on a sweltering morning.

You see these things right away. It takes more time to understand the courage and personal conviction it's taken to reach this point in her life.

Lida was a young girl in the post-Khmer Rouge years. At a time when 25 percent of the Cambodian population had just been murdered during a government-led genocide, her father revealed that he had another wife and family in a different village. He abandoned Lida, her mother and her sibling.

Not long after, Lida's mother crossed the Thai border looking for work to sustain her family. After nearly a year, she sent word to the family of the date she would be crossing the border back home. She never showed up. To this day, no one knows what happened to her, or if she is even alive. It was common then for thieves and human traffickers to target Cambodian women returning across the Thai border, since it was likely the women were carrying money they had saved up from their labor.

What's Cambodian For Caveat Emptor? Ask Angelina Jolie

10/28/2011
Caroline Howard
Forbes Staff

Investing in postwar countries requires a certain leap of faith. War and revolution play havoc with legal titles to land and property, so figuring out who owns what is tricky. Caveat Emptor, in other words. There’s also the reputational risk of doing business with unsavoury characters. That seems to have been the case with Angelina Jolie, Hollywood actress and high-profile philanthropist. According to an investigative report in the Global Post, Jolie may have erred when she expanded her charitable operations in Cambodia. The accusation relates to the purchase of two plots of land for her Maddox Jolie Pitt Foundation, which is named after her adopted Cambodian son. The seller of the land in northwest Cambodia, a final redoubt of the notorious Khmer Rouge (KR), was Yim Tith. In 2002, Jolie paid him over $25,000 for a total of 225 acres, according to sale documents cited by Global Post. The land was then used as a base of operations for the foundation’s work in the area.

Who is Yim Tith? An alleged mass murderer. In 2009, prosecutors at the slow-moving KR tribunal in Phnom Penh indicted him for crimes against humanity. As a senior KR cadre, he oversaw purges of other party officials and “cleanings” of the general population. In short, he was in a position of authority during the 1975-79 KR regime when an estimated 1.7 million people died of famine, overwork, torture and executions. That’s why he was in a docket presented to the investigating judges at the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal. Yet the judges have effectively squelched the case, to howls of dismay from human-rights groups and victims of the genocide. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has made it clear that he wants the tribunal to wrap up its work after the latest trial of four elderly leaders. That means that Yim Tith and his fellow accused would be off the hook.

Angelina Jolie, Cambodia, and the Khmer Rouge, Oh My

October 25, 2011
Celebs.gather.com

This is the kind of press that Angelina Jolie doesn't want. Jolie, a long-time advocate of environmental conservation efforts, better education, infrastructure and health care in the Southeast Asian country of Cambodia may now be linked to the purchase of property from the 'wrong' person. That person in question was a high-ranking official under Pol Pot, leader of the notorious Khmer Rouge.

The Communist Khmer Rouge's reign of terror for four years in Cambodia led to the genocide of more than two million people. According to reports, Angelina Jolie purchased land from Ta Tith, a high-ranking leader of the Khmer Rouge, for her charity. The land was reportedly purchased for $25,000.

The problem is that Ta Tith is sought after by the United Nations to face 'crimes against humanity' charges stemming from the genocide that occurred in the late 1970s.

Angelina Jolie and Cambodia's perils

26 October 2011
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.

Did Angelina Jolie knowingly pay $25,000 to a Cambodian mass murderer for a piece of land?

Spokeswoman: Angelina Jolie, 36, has Cambodian citizenship and runs a charitable foundation in the country, where she shot this Louis Vuitton ad

Complicated borders: The area in the red box is where her foundation is located

Yim Tith (aka Ta Tith) (L) and Ta An (R) are former KR cadres involved in Case 004

25th October 2011
By Daily Mail Reporter

While Angelina Jolie is famous for her Hollywood blockbusters and colourful personal life, her humanitarian work has made her popular with world leaders and philanthropists.

Among those efforts, the actress has had close charitable ties with Cambodia, though recent reports bring some of her connections into question.

Her foundation is located along the Thai border in Battambang province, a part of the country that is bustling with former tyrants, one of whom allegedly sold her a significant piece of land.

Hollyworld: Angie's legacy in Cambodia

Angelina Jolie

Yim Tith (aka Ta Tith) (L) and Ta An (R) are former KR cadres involved in Case 004

Did Angelina Jolie do business with a crimes-against-humanity suspect?

October 24, 2011

Douglas Gillison and Phann Ana

Global Post

Editor's note: "Hollyworld" is a semi-regular series covering Hollywood's impact on the world and celebrity culture around the globe.

BATTAMBANG, Cambodia — As the most famous champion of humanitarian causes in Cambodia, Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie has for a decade been on a mission of mercy for the Southeast Asian country that granted her citizenship in 2005.

The 36-year-old star has run a multi-million dollar foundation for environmental conservation, health, education and infrastructure in the remote and impoverished northwest of Cambodia for the last eight years.

But choosing to set up operations among the hilly fields and remote tropical forests along the Thai border in Battambang province has brought Jolie into close quarters with former members of the communist movement known since the late 1960s as the Khmer Rouge, some of the principal actors in one of the bloodiest dramas of the 20th century.

According to interviews and documents collected here, Jolie has, in connection with her charitable undertakings in Cambodia, purchased land from a reclusive man who today ranks with the very biggest of fish among the world’s suspected mass murderers.

“Sometimes the moral hazard is too great. Other donors feel that it's worth taking the risk ...” ~Melissa Berman, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors president and CEO

To all appearances, Jolie maintains a strong personal connection to Cambodia and her charitable endeavors there are addressing urgent social and environmental problems. Yet she would not be the first American celebrity to suffer the pitfalls of charitable work in the developing world.

Angelina Jolie's Journey to Cambodia (Louis Vuitton Full Commercial)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX2OKv2TCtI&feature=player_embedded#at=73

Angelina Jolie in Louis Vuitton ad in Cambodia

The shot, taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, finds a barefoot, makeup-free Jolie sitting on a wooden boat in Cambodia's Siem Reap province.

Ta Prohm Temple renamed "Angela Jolie Temple"?

Cambodian temple named after Jolie

November 24, 2010
By WENN.COM

Angelina Jolie has been handed a major unofficial honour in her adopted son Maddox’s native Cambodia - a world-famous Hindu temple has been named after her.

Rajan Zed, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, tells WENN the movie star is so beloved in Cambodia one religious site in Angkor has been renamed the Angelina Jolie Temple.

He says, "It's a 12th century site called Ta Prohm; it is otherwise known as Old Brahma and was initially named Rajavihara or the royal monastery. Now it's popularly called the Angelina Jolie Temple.

"It was said to be the setting for various scenes in the first Tomb Raider film... Local restaurants sell Tomb Raider cocktails and she appears to be the patron saint of Cambodia."

Zed insists the unofficial renaming comes with a great responsibility - and he'd like the actress to consider helping to maintain the ancient site.

He adds, "I'd urge Angelina Jolie to raise awareness about better preservation of this world heritage as more needs to be done to safeguard the temple complex and its surroundings, save it from vandalism and looting."

Angelina Jolie To Feature In A Movie With Cambodian Backdrop

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
By Monimalika
Entertainment and Showbiz.com

We are not sure whether this one is again a rumor like the one where Angelina Jolie was said to be playing the role of legendary actress Marilyn Monroe. But the buzz is that a movie is being planned to be produced in Cambodia. The announcement was made on Wednesday in Phnom Pehn, by proposed the movie’s project manager Thomas Magyar and the project co-coordinator Tony Schiena. The title of the film is ‘Great Khmer Empire”.

The duo announced that it will be a massive and exhausting project as they will have to consult the Cambodian government and historians to gather accurate history. The film will take almost three years for making and it will cost approximately U.S. $ 70 million.

Schiena and Magyar stated that apart from Jolie they are looking into other famous stars those who can be part of the project. They have in mind the Chinese action hero Jet Li, John Cena of the World Wrestling entertainment and Song Hye Kyo a famous South Korean movie actress. It is likely to be a historical film focusing on the history of Cambodia during the reign of King Jayavarman the VII at 11th and 12th century. It is during this time the Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia was built.

Angelina Jolie has previously shot her film ‘Lara Croft: The Tomb Raider’ at the Siem Reap province that also has the famous Angkor Wat Temple. She also adopted her eldest son Maddox from Cambodia and was also given Cambodian citizenship for her conservation work there.

Maddox is a brainy child besides speaking fluently Khmer

Maddox and Mom (AP)

MADDOX JOLIE-PITT IS A BRAINY CHILD

10th March 2010
Daily Star (UK)

NOT only does Maddox Jolie-Pitt have the world’s best-looking parents, he’s also got the brains of a mini-Einstein.

Angelina Jolie, 34, and Brad Pitt, 46, have been raving to pals that their adopted eight-year-old from Cambodia is intellectually gifted and has a high IQ.

A Hollywood source said: “Maddox is amazingly smart and loves books and tinkering with gadgets.

He is a gifted painter and sketch artist, takes piano lessons, does well in football and speaks fluent English, French, Spanish and his native Khmer.”

Yep, we feel slightly inadequate.

Angelina Jolie: Jolie narrates Cambodian ‘sex slave’ horror!

Wednesday, December 02, 2009
http://www.entertainmentandshowbiz.com

As an ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), actor Angelina Jolie has journeyed extensively around the world and has been privy to countless unfathomable plights that some desperately ‘unfortunate’ and ‘ungodly’ people go through for sheer survival.

She’s been to some places where not many ‘privileged’ people have cared to visit, places where the people for decades have suffered silently, with no ‘kindly’ ear to call out to for help!

Whether it be in the ‘dark continent’ (read: Africa) racked by poverty, illness, gross apathy and neglect or the distant Cambodia where millions suffer still from the ravages of the Khmer Rouge guerillas, Jolie’s eyes have soaked in lot’s of unshed tears around the world.

And now in a bid to raise global awareness about the desperately sorry state of women in Third World countries, the sensuous actor has brought out a special video narrating the ‘horror’ excesses committed on a hapless Cambodian ‘sex slave’.

The video, aired on Oprah Winfrey’s Talk Show on Tuesday, recounts the mind numbing horrors committed on the hapless 13 year old Cambodian girl.

Feeding in some more chilling details of the excesses that this poor girl has had to suffer, Jolie said that the girl was forcefully picked up from her home when a tender 13 and pushed into the dark world of prostitution and sex slavery!

And what’s more, despite suffering such horrors silently over decades, the girl has actually lived on to tell her tale!

Jolie further revealed, “Virgins bring in hundreds of dollars for brothel owners and are high in demand for men with aids, who believe having sex with a virgin will cure their disease. Because these enslaved girls are forbidden to request condoms, they are vulnerable to STD’s (sexually transmitted diseases) aids and pregnancies.”

Brangelina donate $1 mln to Human Rights Watch and roughly $1 mln to projects in Cambodia

Power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated $6.8million to charity last year. Photo Credit: Splash News

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie donate $6.8m

November 24, 2009, (Splash News) - Power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated $6.8million to charity last year.

The Hollywood Reporter obtained the pair's income tax returns for the year of 2008 which show they gave away $6.8million of their combined fortunes.

The A-listers rank among Hollywood's highest-paid stars and keep several residences around the globe. Jolie is passionately committed to her causes in Africa and elsewhere. Pitt has joined her in her chosen campaigns and taken a major philanthropic interest in the post-Hurricane Katrina city of New Orleans.

According to one estimate, Pitt and Jolie gave 10 times the amount other celebrities donate. The Jolie-Pitt foundation made donations of $2million to Global Health, $1million to Human Rights Watch, $1million to the Make It Right Foundation, $500,000 to the Armed Services YMCA of the US Army, $50,000 to the Springfield, Missouri Public Schools [Pitt's hometown], and roughly $1million to projects in Cambodia.

Maddox Jolie-Pitt [aka Rath Vibol], Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's oldest son, turns 8

Maddox with mom Angelina (AP photo)

August 5, 2009
Examiner

August 5 is Maddox Jolie-Pitt's 8th birthday, if you can believe it. Almost since the minute he was adopted by Angelina, Maddox has been in the tabloids and has certainly been leading a pretty cool life. Let's see what he's been up to for the past seven years, shall we?

Born in Cambodia, Angelina spotted him in an orphanage while as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. She had previously been in Cambodia while filming Tomb Raider and was taken with the country. Upon meeting Maddox, who was known as Rath Vibol, she applied to adopt him and it was made official on March 10, 2002.

At the time, Angelina was married to Billy Bob Thornton, but the two divorced and Angelina was granted sole custody. Angelina famously went on to meet Brad Pitt in 2005 and the two actors forged a relationship. It wasn't long before Brad adopted Maddox, along with Zahara, Angelina's adopted daughter from Ethiopia. They Jolie-Pitt clan has grown steadily since then, and now Maddox has even more siblings: Shiloh, Pax, Knox, and Vivienne.

Maddox has toured the world in his short life. Some of the exotic locales include India, Jordan, Namibia, France, Spain, Italy, Cambodia, the UK, and even recently went to Iraq. He spends part of his time in the Jolie-Pitt homes in New Orleans, France, Los Angeles, and New York. As such, he speaks French and Angelina has stated before that she wants him to learn about his Cambodian culture and plans to take him there frequently as he grows older.

Happy birthday, Maddox!

Australian research helping Angelina Jolie's work in Cambodia

June 19, 2009
Herald Sun (Australia)

AUSTRALIAN researchers are helping Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie improve the lot of Cambodia's farmers.

Work is underway to expand an SMS-based information network developed by the University of Canberra, which provides market updates to ensure remote Cambodian farmers get a fair price for their produce.

While these farmers live in areas which often lack basic infrastructure, Cambodia does have 85 per cent mobile coverage and text messages cost as little as US3 cents.

"We wanted to help farmers access the price of maize or soybeans on demand, so they were in a stronger position to negotiate the sale of their crop," says Dr Robert Fitzgerald.

"Some traders and farmers knew some price information but that was not always shared, so the only way the farmer could find out about the price was to travel to town or ask nearby friends.

"Now farmers can text the agricultural information server and straight away find out about the prices."

Working with the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation (MJP) - named after the Hollywood couple's adopted son from Cambodia - the scheme will be expanded on a trial basis to also offer health and pest warnings and other important information.

Only Zimbabwe and South Africa had higher rates of tuburculosis infection than Cambodia in 2007.

"We need, therefore, to find effective tools to quickly disseminate information to isolated and rural communities," says Stephan Bognar, Executive Director of MJP.

The project, also with involvement from the University of New England, is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.

The celebrity couple have also donated $1 million to a UN refugee agency to help Pakistanis displaced by fighting between troops and Taliban militants.

Jolie, the star of 2008 movies Changeling and Wanted, has visited Pakistan three times to witness United Nations relief operations since becoming a "goodwill ambassador" for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 2001.

The agency said it was grateful for the donation from Pitt and Jolie, and added that more than 2 million people in Pakistan had been uprooted this year as a result of the conflict in the northwest part of the country.

Most Pakistanis forced from their homes are living in government buildings or with host families, but 260,000 of them are in camps run by UNHCR, the agency said.

The Hollywood power couple, who gave the $1 million through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation, donated $2 million in September to help children in Ethiopia stricken by disease.

Jolie's refugee comment stirs debate in Thailand

Monday, February 16, 2009
By AMBIKA AHUJA

BANGKOK - Thailand's government may still be miffed at Angelina Jolie for speaking out on behalf of impoverished boat people, but the actress has prompted soul-searching among some in the Southeast Asian country.

For a second day, Thai officials rebuked the globe-trotting leading lady for calling on the country to respect the rights of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority people fleeing nearby Myanmar's military dictatorship.

"It was not her role to comment on the matter," Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said Thursday. Jolie was in Thailand last week as a United Nations goodwill ambassador, touring a northern camp for other refugees from Myanmar.

Thai authorities have been accused of routinely abusing Rohingya refugees, including towing more than 1,000 out to open sea and leaving them to die in boats with no engines late last year. Some drifted to the shores of India and Indonesia weeks later, but survivors said hundreds others died. Thailand has denied any abuse, but says the boat people are economic migrants, not refugees.

Local newspapers seized on the controversy - but not all took the side of the government.

"Instead of blaming Jolie ... why don't we start talking about the root cause of the problem?" an editorial in the English-language The Nation asked, calling on the government to re-examine its policies based on "humanitarian principles."

Thai academic Pavin Chachavalpongpun, writing in the Bangkok Post, even said that a "particular brand of Thai-ness has successfully impeded society's responsibility to nurture human rights."

Jolie - who has visited refugees in many hotspots including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan - did not directly criticize Thailand's actions. Her offending comment merely expressed hope through a U.N. statement that authorities would respect the rights of Rohingya and all refugees.

Still, her star power has helped highlight the long-overlooked plight of the Rohingya, a stateless minority who live mostly in Myanmar but are not recognized as citizens by its military rulers.

Myanmar's consul-general to Hong Kong defended the junta's policy this week by telling the South China Morning Post this that the Royingya are "ugly as ogres" whose "dark brown" skin is in contrast with the "fair and soft" ethnic Burmese majority.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)

Thai official rebukes Angelina Jolie for making [Rohingya] refugee plea

Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Canadian Press

BANGKOK — A senior Thai diplomat has rebuked Hollywood star Angelina Jolie for speaking out on behalf of Muslim refugees from Myanmar.

Jolie is deeply involved in the plight of refugees in her capacity as a United Nations goodwill ambassador. She called on the Thai government to respect the human rights of Myanmar's Rohinyga "boat people" while touring a camp in northern Thailand for other refugees.

Virasakdi Futrakul, permanent secretary of Thailand's foreign ministry, said Jolie's mission last week was to inspect a camp that houses refugees mostly from Myanmar's ethnic Karenni minority - and not the Rohinyga.

He said Jolie's comments were out of place as "it was not the purpose of her visit."

The Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in their native land, have been trying to land in Thailand after treacherous sea journeys in recent months only to be towed back to sea and cast adrift by the Thai navy.

UNHCR spokeswoman Kitt McKinsey declined to comment on Virasakdi's remark.

"She was extremely touched by the plight of the Rohingya people. She expressed the hope that the human rights of the Rohingya people will be respected just as the human rights of everyone in the world should be respected," McKinsey said last week.

Angelina Jolie Knew She Was Destined To Adopt A Cambodian Boy

10/12/2008
ContactMusic.com

ANGELINA JOLIE knew she was destined to become a mum during her first trip to Cambodia - because she flew out of the country thinking she had left something behind.

The actress insists she still doesn't believe in fate, but there was something that lured her back to Cambodia, where she met and fell for her first adopted child, Maddox.

She tells WENN, "I went to that country and left that country feeling like I'd left something behind. I went back to that country on a humanitarian mission and was playing with blocks with a little kid and felt, 'My son is here.'

"It was the strangest feeling. I woke up one day and they were going to introduce me to a kid and I wondered how I would feel, and the moment I saw him I knew I was his mother.

"I can't explain it and I don't know why I chose that country but it was absolutely meant to be."

In Siem Reap, don't miss the Angelina Jolie cocktail at the Red Piano restaurant

Jolie Gets Her Own Cocktail In Cambodia

2007-11-29
Movie & Entertainment News provided by
World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

ANGELINA JOLIE has been honoured in Cambodia - by having a cocktail named after her.

A bartender at The Red Piano restaurant in Siem Reap created the drink especially for the actress, when she visited the south east Asian nation to shoot Tomb Raider in 2002.

Now all visitors to the Red Piano can experience the beverage - named Tomb Raider in Jolie's honour.

The cocktail is a mix of vodka, Malibu rum and pineapple juice, served with an umbrella.

Forget France, Angelina Jolie Wants to Move Family to Cambodia

Forget France, Angelina Jolie Wants to Move Family to Cambodia (Image: WENN)

Aug 9, 2007
By Susan Hatch
The National Ledger

There have been reports that Angelina Jolie is adamant on moving the Jolie-Pitt family to France. When on holiday there, the pair reportedly looked at several estates. But Angelina has revealed that she would prefer an even more distant country, far away from the United States.

Where does she want to live? "Not in Hollywood, that’s for sure," she tells the French magazine Public. Angelina says she wants to move to Maddox's native country of Cambodia in ten years and cover her body in tattoos. “I’m sure everyone would leave me in peace over there,” she says.

But if Jolie wishes to be left alone why does she continue to take on multiple movie roles and attend red carpet events? Some observers don't buy the idea that Jolie wishes to settle down anywhere. She seems to love the lifestyle of constant travel and that has reportedly caused a lot of problems with her boyfriend Brad Pitt.

Her globe-trotting lifestyle is causing tension, reports In Touch Weekly. Even though Brad, 43, wants to settle in LA with the kids, Angie told Public magazine her dream is to live on an isolated farm in Cambodia.

A tiny village in Southeast Asia is miles away from the modernist architecture and pampered lifestyle Brad is used to. And he’s right to have concerns — not just for himself, but for their kids. “It breaks Brad’s heart that the kids are always jet-lagged,” the confidant adds. “They need routines and regular bedtimes. They desperately crave stability.”