"A Birthday Wrapped in Cambodian History"; [Op-Ed] by Loung Ung. April 17, 2005 pg. 4.15
Here is an excerpt from the New York Times Op-Ed piece:
"TODAY is my birthday. April 17 is what's on my driver's license and other documents. But I don't know for sure, and probably never will. All I know is that I was born in Cambodia, sometime during 1970."
She continues later in the piece ,"On April 17, 1975, the Communist Khmer Rouge regime took over my country, and my charmed life came to an abrupt end. I remember that day well. I was on the street playing hopscotch with one of my sisters when rows of mud-covered trucks drove by. On the trucks, men in uniforms were yelling into bullhorns, ordering us to leave our homes, telling us that the Americans were going to bomb us and if we didn't leave we would die. Chaos and fear swept through Phnom Penh. More than two million people were evicted in less than 72 hours."
Click here to read the entire New York Times article - A Birthday Wrapped in Cambodian History.
Comments