Echoes of War -recounted by the one born after the Genocide
December 29, 2025 Oxfam’s Humanitarian Response teams departed in two directions on December 26, 2025. One team headed toward the internally displaced persons (IDPs) safe camp in Preah Vihear province to prepare for the next day’s relief, while another returned from Anlung Veng district in Oddar Meanchey province to Siem Reap after completing distributions. At exactly 15:02, the team en route to Preah Vihear received a chilling message: “The bombs just dropped at O’Kon Teng again. We passed this area only this morning.” Thankfully, they were safe because they had taken a different route out. Reading that message, I felt my body turn cold, haunted by memories from the mid-1980s in Kampong Cham province. I was five years old, walking home from a neighbor’s house with a rack of grilled fish in my hands. It was around 5:30 p.m. when the ground shook violently beneath me. A deafening explosion froze me in place. The fish fell into the dirt. An explosion took place as Khme...