Word: khmers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...have nothing to hide." Khieu Samphan, former Cambodian head of state under the Khmer Rouge, describing his autobiography, which asserts he had no knowledge of the mass killings of the 1970s
...never believed previously that people were killed when they stole one potato to stay alive." Khieu Samphan, Cambodia's head of state during the Khmer Rouge regime, who became the first senior leader to admit to widespread killings from...
...lawless gold rush across Asia. In the past year alone, Indian police busted a smuggling ring that allegedly stripped hundreds of temples and monuments of sculptures and frescoes, then sent them on to be sold to collectors in the U.S. and Europe; Cambodian cops seized several truckloads of priceless Khmer sculptures crudely ripped from archaeological sites in Banteay Meanchey province; and Chinese officials uncovered the theft of 158 pieces of religious statuary from a collection lent to a museum in Chengde by the Forbidden City's Palace Museum in Beijing. Over the past five years, at least 220,000 ancient...
...country has lost so much so quickly as Cambodia, whose jungles hid cities built by the mysterious Angkor Empire between the 9th and 14th centuries. Peace has proved far more destructive than war to the turbulent nation's antiquities. While the relic-rich northwest was under Khmer Rouge control through the mid-'90s, Western dealers couldn't reach many of the prime sites for fear of land mines and cross fire. It was only with the full cessation of civil war a few years ago that foreigners could once again freely visit the relic sites around the legendary Angkor...
...diminutive, bowlegged archaeologist named Michel Tranet stands alone in trying to stanch that flow. Tranet is officially designated Undersecretary of State at Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts--but it's a comically grand title for a man whose entire staff consists of himself. Tranet, of Khmer-French parentage, returned from exile in 1993 with the sole mission of protecting Cambodia's heritage. "Our history is so important to us that we have Angkor Wat on our flag," says Tranet. "So why are we as a people, as a government, as a country, allowing our heritage to slip...