Chinary Ung

Cambodian-American composer Chinary Ung is set to highlight the Zeitgeist’s concert season with a special concert performances May 17-19, 7:30 p.m. and May 20, 2 p.m. at Studio Z, 275 E. 4th Street, Suite 200, St. Paul, MN 55101.

Ung will be present for the Zeitgeist world premiere of his major new chamber work Spiral XIV: “Nimitta”.

Ung’s music weaves together his Cambodian heritage, Western classical training and a powerful sense of purpose born of life’s challenges to create music that is profoundly moving and transformative. His singular approach to color, gesture, timbre and form results in a highly authentic music that sounds unlike anything else being created today.

Spiral XIV “Nimitta” incorporates vocalization, chant and Cambodian percussion instruments in addition to Zeitgeist’s unique instrumentation of two percussion, clarinet and piano.

Continue Reading

From left, Rep. Bruce Anderson, Chief Legislative Author with Khmer Freedom Fighters. (Photo by J. Lee)

By J. Lee
ST. PAUL (April 26, 2012) — The Minnesota legislature passed a Resolution honoring Cambodian veterans who fought in support of the United States in the War in Southeast Asia.

Continue Reading

AAP staff report

In collaboration with Global Connections Project, the Pan Asian Office at Augsburg College invited students from its campus along with others from Cardinal Stritch University, the University of Minnesota Augsburg alumni and community members to participate in its annual service trip to Cambodia.

Continue Reading

NEW YORK (Feb. 3, 2012) — The United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal in Cambodia has ordered the Khmer Rouge’s main jailer to spend the rest of his life in prison for crimes it says were “among the worst in recorded human history.”

The ruling increased a lower court’s 19-year sentence that had been appealed by prosecutors as too lenient.

Continue Reading

NEW YORK (Dec. 14, 2011) – The United Nations-backed genocide tribunal in Cambodia ruled today that Ieng Thirith, a 79-year-old former senior member of the Khmer Rouge who was found unfit to stand trial, will not be released as ordered last month but remain in detention.

Continue Reading

NEW YORK (Nov. 4, 2011 — The United Nations reported today that it is increasing its joint efforts with Cambodian authorities and aid providers to offer food assistance to some of the thousands of people that have been displaced by severe flooding recently.

Continue Reading

Vivian Po & Cicy Wang
New America Media

OAKLAND, Calif. — Despite what he’s been through, Vietnamese Colonel Ne Lam, now 83 and residing in a senior housing unit in Oakland, looks young for his age. These days he’s recognized as a devoted Cambodian Buddhist monk, a community leader who travels back to Cambodia and Vietnam every year to do charity work. But to the survivors of the Vietnamese Dong Rek Refugee Camp, he was more than a leader. He was a life-saver.

Continue Reading

Cambodian Appreciation Day, an event to honor the selfless and noble attributes of the earliest community leaders, living and deceased, who put the traumatizing anguish of the genocidal Killing Fields behind them, to not only succeed in a new home but to ensure the help was there for others — will be held Aug. 5-6, all day at the Wat Munisotaram Cambodian Buddhist Temple, 2925- 220 St. E, Hampton, MN 55031.

Continue Reading

NEW YORK (June 14, 2011) – The United Nations today rejected media reports that it instructed judges at the tribunal in Cambodia dealing with mass killings and other crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge three decades ago to dismiss its third case, stressing that the court is an independent body.

Continue Reading

Yanat H. Chhith, the new Executive Director of Southeast Asian Refugee Community Home in Minneapolis. (AAP staff photo by Tom LaVenture)

By TOM LAVENTURE
AAP staff writer

MINNEAPOLIS (May 11, 2011) – Hoang K. Tran, Esq., founded Southeast Asian Refugee Community Home more than 18 years ago and has served as its only director until 2010. After two interim directors he is finally able to retire as Yanat H. Chhith recently stepped in as the new executive director.

Continue Reading