Summer '06 Trip Post #1

Day 1: Wednesday, June 28 – Flying to Bangkok

After almost missing my first flight thanks to the long and inefficient lines at Dulles Airport, I found myself sitting next to Gregory Stanton. Mr. Stantion happen to be the man who founded The Cambodia Genocide Project at Yale over 25 years ago with the mission to bring the Khmer Rouge to justice with a war crime tribunal. He visited Cambodia often over the past 25 years and worked with both the UN and US to achieve justice for the Cambodia people who were so brutally killed by the Khmer Rouge. Over 2 million were killed in little over 2 years by the nasty Pol Pot regime, which was largely overlooked by the western countries and often little known today. Mr. Stanton could not have been happier and had the air of someone reaching a life-long goal and a dream come true. The judges and advisors to the tribunal were finally going to meet and the trial is set to being very soon. Many of the Khmer Rouge are dying and there is great urgency to get the tribunal underway. It is a Cambodian run tribunal with UN assistance.

Mr. Stanton was a fascinating man and also the founder of Genocide Watch in Washington DC. It was great to be out again traveling and I was most excited about going to Cambodia and seeing the killing fields for myself. The rest of the trip to Bangkok was largely uneventful. Thai Airways was incredible even in coach and the 17 hours went by very fast.