Husband Remembers Fatal Night on Diamond Bridge

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Wednesday, 02 March 2011

Cambodia University students lay down flowers during a memorial service near a bridge where festival goers were killed Monday in a stampede in Phnom Penh, Nov. 25, 2010.

Like other families of stampede victims on Diamond Bridge, Leung Porn's family decided to hold the 100-day ceremony last weekend at a Buddhist clergyman's suggestion. Leung Porn's wife, Tor Sophal, was one of the 353 victims killed in the stampede on the bridge during last year’s water festival. Leung Porn, who is 54 and now the single father of three children, said the ceremony will help his wife rest in peace.

Former Forest Hunter Turns Eco-Tour Guide

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Friday, 23 April 2010

The 54-year-old had been a guide since 2007, but he has not always been so kind to the forest. At one time, he was a hunter and a logger in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia’s ecological gem, where elephants, tigers and crocodiles still live—although in dwindling numbers.

An elephant killed in Africa

Grey-haired Soth Sophal prepared one recent day to lead a group of six villagers through the forest to a waterfall. He would guide them in a way responsible to the environment, showing off the natural splendor of the area, near his home village of Prey Praseth, in Preah Sihanouk province’s Kampong Seila district.