Kitted-out, Australian filmmaker David Brown goes to work. David's extensive catalogue includes documentaries produced in Nepal, Australia and Cambodia through his company David Brown Films. David’s clients include government organisations of all types, businesses, individuals, community groups and Non Government Organisations(NGO’s) both in Australia and overseas. He believes the process of recording stories of all types is of great benefit in the development of individuals and communities. Going into a community and capturing that collective voice, the expression of that story is fundamental in creating understanding and change. Davids unobtrusiveness quickly develops trust in any environment, this enables him to get to the core a story and the hearts of the people involved. He has a gentle tenacity that enables him to work with a broad range of people in any environment without judgement, often guiding and supporting clients through the experience. His films have been broadcast nationally, shown on the big screens both in Australia and overseas. His considerable experience includes all aspects of film making.  

Australian television producers Luke Hunt and Craig Skehan prepped for a film shoot in Sihanoukville on the south coast of Cambodia. The area is home to pristine beaches, abandoned casinos and organized crime rings responsible for a human trafficking networks.  

Morgan Reinwald is an Australian journalist and filmmaker and is currently studying for his Masters of International Journalism at Melbourne University after completing his Graduate Degree at RMIT. He has worked on a variety of projects for Studio Bomborra for the last six years.

Ei Ei is a Burmese translator, fixer and reporter who covers the civil war in Myanmar from Mae Sot on the Thai border. She has worked with Bomborra since early 2024, among other media outlets including the BBC. Ei Ei also delivers humanitarian assistance across the border for people and children in need.

Vicheka Kol is a Cambodian filmmaker who has built-up an impressive resume working with her compatriot Rithy Panh and Australian documentary maker David Brown. She has produced for Voice of America and Minnow Films in the UK with Studio Bomborra and conducts her own work shops at Meta House in Phnom Penh.

Sreynat Sarum is a Cambodian journalist, fixer and videographer who has worked on stories for Voice of America, The Diplomat and UCA News. Sreynat studied journalism through programs sponsored by non-governmental organizations including Dan Church Aid and Newsroom Cambodia. She has also worked for Khmernas and maintained a relationship with Studio Bomborra while working as a fixer for overseas news outlets. This includes television, radio and the written word.

Oso Kuma is an artist and curator based in Phnom Penh who, among many things, acquires and sells art on behalf of artists and collectors. He currently has access to an extensive collection of works by the American artist Bradford Edwards. Oso can be contacted on osokuma@gmail.com.

Throughout 2022, when Cambodia was chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the nagging questions inside the corridors of power were fairly straightforward. Is Myanmar a failed state? Why negotiate with a junta that has little or no control over the country? Luke Hunt writes for The Diplomat.Those questions were put on hold as Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen attempted to negotiate the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus with junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, creating a veneer of public respectability for all parties until Phnom Penh passed the ASEAN baton to Jakarta.Indonesia has since indicated a tougher stand and as atrocities have escalated, including four massacres allegedly committed by the military this month, such questions are again being posed.This author’s last Myanmar story published by The Diplomat was about the Tadaing massacre and had barely been posted when word came through of yet another atrocity.This time, the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) released details of the killings of 29 civilians on March 11, including three monks, at Nam Nein Village in Pinlong Township, Shan State, near its southern border with Karenni State.A coroner, who declined to be named, investigated the killings and told an NUG press conference that many of the dead had been tortured before being shot at “very close range” and that people were “in great suffering… this is a serious inhumane war crime.”The NUG also claimed that the junta was attempting to ignite a religious conflict by blaming the deaths of Buddhist monks on the NUG’s armed wing, the People’s Defense Force, and has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to expand its current in-country investigations.The U.N.’s special rapporteur for Myanmar, Tom Andrews, then told The Guardian in regard to Russian arms sales to the junta that “the same types of weapons that are killing Ukrainians are killing people in Myanmar.”More importantly, he said that under the junta’s rule, Myanmar is a “failing state” and would likely get worse. The U.N. envoy for Myanmar, Noeleen Heyzer, then told the U.N. General Assembly that “there is no prospect for a negotiated settlement” to the crisis.Worthy acknowledgments not before their time.There is no strict definition for a failed state, but it is usually defined as a state that has lost its effective ability to govern. That includes its people, territory, its ability to maintain infrastructure and exercise control over its economy.A briefing paper released last September by the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar found the military does not have effective control and could only claim to have stable control over 17 percent of the country’s territory.It found that the NUG and resistance groups had “effective control” over 52 percent of Myanmar while the military and opposition forces were actively contesting the remaining 23 percent.Adding further fuel to the argument is the Fund for Peace,which publishes an annual Fragile State Index (FSI). It scores states on 12 factors and 100 sub-indicators and then raises the alert on states that are at the tipping point of becoming failed. It stops short of labeling a state as failed.Yemen, Somalia, Syria, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic took out the worst five FSI spots, respectively, in 2022 as teetering on failed, with scores of between 111.7 and 108.1.Myanmar occupies 10th place with a score of 100, after Chad and Afghanistan.Obviously, last year’s score did not take into account the travesties in Myanmar committed over the past three months – including the ability of human traffickers to ply their trade at will – nor mounting arguments that the military should not be engaged by the international community.As a failed state, Myanmar’s membership with ASEAN could be suspended and negotiations restricted to the NUG while enabling the U.N., or more likely a Western coalition, to intervene and impose no-flight zones, further sanctions, and secure safe havens within the country.Then the ICC would be in a better position to execute warrants for the arrests of Myanmar’s senior military leaders for war crimes and quite probably, genocide. It would still be a risky enterprise but also one of Min Aung Hlaing’s own making.

For many Cambodians 2023 was a grinding affair. Dominated by the jailing of dissidents, a one-sided election and a father to son transfer of power, it was a year that entrenched the ruling families while opposition politicians wilted behind bars or in exile.And while most eyes were on politics, the economy stagnated while human traffickers continued to ply their trade, resulting in co-ordinated sanctions imposed on individuals and corporate entities, as the year ended, by the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.“We will not tolerate criminals and repressive regimes trampling on the fundamental rights and freedoms of ordinary people around the world,” UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said as the sanctions were imposed on Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.Click here to read more Luke Hunt and UCA NewsPhoto: Theary Seng is interviewed outside the Khmer Rouge TribunalPhoto by Luke Hunt

Prime Minister Hun Sen has won Cambodia's general election with absolute authority and will transfer power in a "generational" change of leadership, to his eldest son Hum Manet by the end of August.Additionally the children of cabinet ministers are to be hand the portfolio's of their fathers, an unprecedented if not extremely rare reshuffle in the history of government, ensuring power remains within the ruling families.Here is a list of links to background stories from immediately before and after the July 23, 2023, poll that culminated in that change.Naval Base to Test Hun Manet's Reationship with Washington. The DiplomatCambodia's Fate Mapped-Out. Election wrap from VOACambodia's 'Pantomime' Election wrap from UCA NewsPM Wins Big in 'Rigged' One-Sided Election. Hun Sen wins from UCA NewsRadio report from RTHK in Hong KongCambodians Braced for one-sided election. Election preview from VoACambodian Braced for one-Sided Election. Election TV preview from VOA 

Australians failed to deliver its indigenous people a Voice to Parliament after a constitution referendum was defeated on Oct. 14, prompting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to call for a week’s silence to reflect on a “devastating” outcome.At the last count, 60.3 percent of Australians voted no at the national level. Similar results were counted among the six states. Constitutional change requires a double majority — approval at the national level of at least 50 percent and from at least four states.“For more than six years, we have explained to our nation why the Voice was our great hope to achieve real change for our families and communities,” the Aboriginal Land Council said.Click here to Read more from UCA News.

Thirty years ago Michael Hayes arrived in Cambodia with his life savings of about US$50,000 and his then-wife Kathleen just as the United Nations began pouring into the Southeast Asian nation to oversee elections and hopefully end decades of war. Luke Hunt writes for the Phnom Penh Post.Armed with a royal seal from King Norodom Sihanouk Hayes founded the Phnom Penh Post from scratch, and for the next 16 years was responsible for a newspaper that enjoyed a reputation for telling the truth while maintaining a sympathetic ear for this country’s plight and its tragic history.But this reputation came at a price. Several Khmer contemporaries were assassinated and there were many sleepless nights from the top floor of his home and office in Street 264. Hayes literally slept one floor above the news room that produced every issue, once every two weeks.By the time I returned to Cambodia as bureau chief for Agence-France-Presse (AFP) in mid-2001, his marriage had collapsed and financial insecurity was a constant. The wars were over and efforts to put the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge on trial were dominating headlines.In those days tribunal detractors were loud, not unlike now, and too often the people bellowing about the tribunal’s perceived inadequacies would hog the kind of attention that others thought belonged to Pol Pot’s many victims who had become an important part of the paper’s focus.As such, the PPPost’s reputation was largely borne out of the Khmer Rouge and how these ultra-Maoists wiped out a third of their own population between 1975 and 1979. But covering what had happened all those years earlier could prove tiresome, especially when seen through the prism of the late 1990s when a low-level civil war persisted.With conflict topping the agenda the economy became the most underplayed story in the country, particularly in light of the never-ending aftermath of the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis which dominated news everywhere else in the region. Hayes often complained about the lack of economic coverage, and he understood the fiscal realities of the day first hand.During the 10th anniversary of the newspaper, he quipped: “Basically I’ve spent the last 10 years not getting paid to worry about money every day, how this paper survived is an absolute mystery to me.”In his own words Hayes also “daydreamed about finding boxes of cash” and once told me that “if I had a buck for every time I worried about money I’d be a millionaire.”Things were tight but Hayes was also being modest.The secret of the PPPost’s survival and its great successes was largely due to Hayes’s ability to attract young and talented journalists who were prepared to live on a shoestring and work their hearts out. As a result the paper became a giant stepping stone to wider careers.The likes of Ker Munthit, Sarah Colm, Leo Dobbs, Liam Cochrane, Rob Carmichael, Nate Thayer, Matthew Granger, Jason Barber, Hurley Scroggins and Peter Sainsbury along with scores of other seasoned journalists have spent time at the PPPost.They earned rich praise from heavyweight academics and commentators including David Chandler, William Shawcross, Milton Osborne, Peter Maguire and Craig Etcheson and this would continue through much of the first decade of this century when news coverage changed dramatically.The US-led War on Terror had its own specific consequences on individual countries around Southeast Asia as al-Qaeda affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) made its presence felt with a series of bombings, like the 2002 Bali blast which left more than 200 people dead.In Cambodia the flak held added dimensions. Amid this post 9/11 atmosphere and its borderline paranoia, Phnom Penh was for the first time about to chair the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and host leaders from around the world.Conditions in the capital were rough, politicians blissfully ignorant of what was expected and Islamic extremists were using Cambodia as a hideout.The Bali bombing was masterminded by Hambali who had entered Cambodia after passing himself off as Thai, a decision he would later fear and regret, and he spent much of the year plotting that bombing from a guest house behind the Phnom Penh Mosque on Boeung Kak Lake, which is now little more than a very big sand pit.Following the blast Hambali held his ground in Cambodia until he panicked in late January 2003, after witnessing the whole sale destruction that erupted amid the anti-Thai riots that effectively shut down the country, spawning the memorable front page headline in the PPPost:  Mobs Go Berserk.Hambali fled and was soon captured in Thailand.A year later I was on Sabbatical, working regularly for the PPPost and investigating stories about hard-line Wahabi groups from Saudi Arabia allegedly funding Muslim Cham conversions and building opulent mosques in the Cambodian countryside where locals had known little more than traditional stilt houses and maybe a cow shed.During a series of interviews Cambodian Muslims came forward and told how they had been ordered out of the Madrassas in Southern Thailand where they had studied. Trouble was brewing and from his contacts in Thailand and Phnom Penh, Hayes had also heard of a military crackdown.The PPPost was all over the story and ahead of the game on the outbreak of a conflict that continues to this day, just as it had been during the years of civil war and when history was being written, such as the coup in 1997, Pol Pot’s death and the arrest of his cohorts.There were lighter moments, like the time Hayes confiscated a gun he gave to his guard after he was caught firing it at the next door neighbor’s property for target practice. The guard agreed to give it back and added the gun didn’t work anymore.He put it to his head and pulled the trigger, there was a bullet in the chamber but it had jammed.As AFP bureau chief from 2001 to 2004 the PPPost and its competitor The Cambodia Daily were highly prized sources of information. The Internet was only just making its presence felt as a news source and Cambodia as a hunting ground for journalists was all about primary reporting.This meant reporters had to spend time in the field. Good yarns didn’t arrive in press releases, government handouts, and junkets. To be fair this has not totally changed in Cambodia like it has in most parts of the world.But back then Phnom Penh was just a two paper town and the PPPost’s ability to produce highly informative, in depth articles without fear or favor was as appreciated as they were difficult to produce, and the staff on the paper held the respect of their peers and a community.ED's note: The story was part of a 68-page supplement celebrating 20 years of the Phnom Penh Post and won the World Association of Newspapers, Gold Prize for Best Feature in 2013. it was updated in 2022.

Author Thierry de Roland Peel, revisits the slaughter of French Catholics is Saigon as WWII drew to a close, and how the Japanese gave rise to the Khmer Rouge, Viet Cong and Pathet Laoby LUKE HUNT / Phnom PenhFor decades author Thierry de Roland Peel was spell-bound by the stories his grandparents told of how their family, and their dog named Mephisto, had survived the slaughter in Saigon as World War II was drawing to its close in 1945, when the Japanese realized they had lost.Hitler had been defeated and in Japanese occupied Southeast Asia local communists were attempting to assert independence with Tokyo’s encouragement before the inevitable arrival of the British and French.“Before the Japanese surrendered it was total confusion, disorientation, there was no security and Saigon was ripe for trouble,” said Thierry de Roland Peel, author of Ashes from Annam, a Mother’s Tale. “No body knew what was going on or who was in charge.”He says very little has been published about the southern Vietnamese city – now know as Ho Chi Minh City – at this point in time but the political machinations that evolved did culminate in civil wars which would last for decade.“The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Viet Minh in South Vietnam and the Pathet Lao in Laos all had their start in what happened back then,” said De Roland Peel, whose family roots in IndoChina date back to the 19th century.Central to Ashes from Annam is De Roland Peel’s French-English parentage – his mother Josette and her parents Emanuel and Germaine.Their family villa in Saigon was caught in the crossfire as the frontlines changed repeatedly after the Japanese ended the Vichy French administration in March and began arming pro-independence groups.“Mum kept very very quiet about what happened throughout her life. But my grandparents were a grand source of information,” he said, while toying with a double nip of single malt at the Raffles’ Elephant Bar in Phnom Penh.De Roland Peel also put in a considerable amount research, fact checking with official archives and was helped by a cousin who had written a diary during the war.Daily life was as spartan as it was dangerous and their only link to the outside world was Mephisto, a lively Groenendaelwho delivered secret messages hidden in his collar to sympathizers within the French colonial community. Hundreds of families were earmarked for slaughter by the Viet Minh, communist insurgents who would become known as the Viet Cong during the 1960s and 70s.He said women and children had their throats slit and in many cases were buried alive by the Japanese-backed militiasdemanding independence from France before the allies could re-establish the pre-war colonial order.“The Viet Minh buried children alive in front of their parents, and visa versa,” said De Roland Peel. “They skewered men and women with bamboo poles – like pigs in a market – and continued poking them to death.”The massacres lasted for more than six months and the family was forced to move into a compound with other foreigners after a Japanese general commandeered their villa.On September 2, the day Japan formerly surrendered, a French Catholic Priest, Father Tricoire, was murdered alongside five French civilians.“He was a very well known priest because he was based at the Cathedral of Saigon,” De Roland Peel said. “If people were in trouble he’d be there to help.”“Of course as soon as the Viet Minh were in charge, he was top of their list to be killed and he was dragged through the streets of Saigon by his feet,” he said. “Communists don’t believe in religion or religious people. Churches had to be destroyed, that was their mindset.”His death also sparked fears of reprisals as the Vietnamese authorities began arresting French civilians and Vietnamese looters targeted colonial businesses culminating in the Herault Massacre when more than 300 Europeans were killed.The British, under General Douglas Gracey, arrived later that month and attempted to restore some kind of order but the situation was further complicated when he rearmed Japanese soldiers and used them to suppress the communists.“My family survived through faith, hope and charity and Mephisto was an unexpected bonus. My parents were allowed to keep Mephisto, that was a surprise, when they moved into the compound and he kept ferrying messages with outside contacts.“That included words of encouragement and advice like ‘stay put’ and ‘don’t move’. They were also told the Japanese were digging fox holes in the garden and had found the family’s jewelry – buried under a tree in a silver Cambodian-madejewelry box.”Gen. Gracey was soon joined by the Free French general Jacques Philippe Leclerc and gradually Saigon was brought under control and foreign civilians were ordered home.“When the French evacuated there was one man wandering around the deck of the ship, naked, he had gone mad, lost his mind, lost his children, lost everything he had,” De Roland Peel said. “it was a great tragedy”.Following the end of World War II, the family moved to Ceylon where De Roland Peel was born and another civil war was unfolding; and then to Britain where he spent three years in the British military before embarking on a career in finance.Over the past 30 years De Roland Peel has worked as an investor in Cambodia following a request from King Norodom Sihanouk – extended through his mother – to help in post-war reconstruction, which began after long running civil wars ended in 1998.More recently he has toured Cambodia promoting Ashes from Annam, published last month, which has received flattering reviews.De Roland Peel notes that the legacy of the tumultuous events that his family survived all those decades ago are still being played out to this day in Phnom Penh where an international tribunal is winding down after securing convictions for war crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge. “Wars are great tragedies that leave their mark on the generations to come. Eighty years ago my mother witnessed this and we’re seeing it again today, in Ukraine,” he said.Luke Hunt is the author of the Punji Trap, Pham Xuan An The Spy Who Didn’t Love Us. ENDS

Excerpts from Face Masks & Hand Gels; A Year of Living Covidly. These works were first published by Howl in Siem Reap, 2021, in response to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.A near-death experience raises a question for Luke Hunt—international correspondent and author—’should I stay or should I go?’ “… my life review – a euphemism for near death experience or NDE – really didn’t do it for me.”As the new coronavirus took hold about 100 people were doing what they do best, sorting a barbecue, the last to be held in the garden of House Nine on Street 830 in Phnom Penh, my home for the last eight years.Old friends and the odd luminary – famed correspondent Jim Pringle among them – indulged in a hedonistic mix of food, music and intoxicants of choice on a lazy Sunday afternoon.It was on the eve of lockdowns. Government quarantines, social distancing, face masks and must have sanitizers were still over the horizon. Hugs, kissing and the odd dance were still allowed.Two weeks later I collapsed with severe abdominal pain, fever and volcanic chills. My doctor, Gavin Scott, listened to my gut with his stethoscope and said: “I can’t hear anything at all. Nothing.” Gratefully, I couldn’t feel anything either but the look on his face said too much.My organs were shutting down as I was rushed into ER at Royal Phnom Penh Hospital then five hours later into an ICU with suspected salmonella or typhoid as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, up-ending and closing-out life as we knew it.Dr Kraipope Jurapaiboon got it. As my internal organs were nearing retirement he did the charts. A stomach inflammation reading of one to three is considered normal, five is high.I was clocking around 265.The ICU resembled a NASA control room. Ten electrodes connected me to the EKG. Three intravenous needles delivered a milk substance and antibiotics. There was a catheter, assisted breathing and four or five staff on hand 24/7 as I drifted in and out of consciousness.Needles and blood tests followed more needles, more blood tests and CT Scans.Kraipope diagnosed salmonella leading to complications, which included pneumonia with pulmonary embolisms in both lungs, peritonitis, thrombosis on the liver, kidney stones and diverticulitis resulting in a perforated colon.That infected my stomach and sent me into sceptic shock, twice.Blood was turning into sludge and clots, of which I was blissfully unaware. The morphine – a must have at the next barbecue – was terrific.But as the bells and whistles sounded from my ICU, I instinctively knew exactly what was happening and I was ready to go. I also had the best view. I could see Kraipope, another doctor and a team of nurses dart to my bedside. I was impressed.I was looking at them from just above, then drifted towards the window as my life review, also known as a near death experience or NDE, began to rewind through a montage of black and white photos.It was entertaining, I liked my life but like too many of the photographs I’d taken over the previous decades my NDE was in large parts dreadfully out of focus. There was a light that ran in a curve out through the window and up, and I was overwhelmed by a comfortable urge to follow. Just go.I hesitated for a nano-second. My life review looked a bit clumsy. It lacked clarity. It was a bit like my old school report cards: “Could do better”.Then I thought of friends and family. Mum had passed barely 12 months earlier leaving a tribe of grandchildren behind and I didn’t need to add to their anguish by buggering off so soon afterwards.Last and least, I didn’t want that concrete skeleton – the Booyoung construction site next door – to be my last picture of a planet blighted by environmental destruction.I shot upright. Literally; awake, throughly alive and totally aware.ENDS PART ONEBroken Needles & Busted VeinsLuke Hunt, on the road to recover, questions those who query the rights of the elderly during these Covid times—in this, the second part—of his personal medical account.“Covid, senicide and shades of Hitler in the ranks of the self-entitled.”Near death experiences are not that uncommon but doubts over the veracity of such stories are understandable, particularly in a world riddled with self-righteous petty indignations and expressed all too loudly as the new coronavirus took hold. But as I awoke there was a second doctor who was watching over me and with a reassuring smile he reminded me to thank Dr Kraipope for saving “you, you nearly succumbed twice”.Asked whether I had contracted Covid-19 – at that point the diagnosis was incomplete – he laughed, saying: “Nooooo, you’re four, five, six times worse than that”. Hardly encouraging.The following days, weeks and months were difficult. More blood tests, more needles. I actually ran out of veins. They were all broken. My weight dropped from near 90 kilograms to under 70.I was locked down in hospital and then home for about two months amid a crazy mix of symptoms that were similar to Covid-19; respiratory issues, blood clots, pneumonia.My only access to the outside word was a television fixed on CNN and the Internet where the plight of the human race was unfolding as the new coronavirus took hold and leaders like the US president Donald Trump crashed to an unprecedented level of incompetence.Covid-19 was the common cause, lockdowns were enforced and the world as we knew it flipped from great freedoms to house detention and it continues to bring out the best, and the worst in too many people.But what stunned me, were the horrible attitudes expressed about old people as if some kind of Darwinian experiment was being played out through the new corona virus. I never realized so many people simply didn’t care about their plight.Scorned and blamed for quarantines, right wing twits were prepared to put business before health as one Texas governor suggested grandparents should be willing to die for the sake of the economy.In the online world – where every expert, every idiot and everyone in between can express themselves badly – such attitudes are all too easily amped-up.In Australia and the Covid hotspot of Melbourne, one on-liner points out that total Covid deaths announced for Victoria today were one female in her 80s, three females in their 90s and one female in her 100s, and this does not justify lockdowns.That prompts responses like: “Mate, just because they were old, doesn’t mean their lives are worthless.” and then: “Why not ban death hazards altogether. No cars. No skateboarding, cycling, hijinks or hipsters. Then we can all die of nothing.”The attitude is ‘people should ignore the science, do as they please and if the elderly die off a bit earlier than they otherwise might have then that’s an acceptable price to pay so that the rest of us can carry on as usual’. There’s a mangled argument in there. A sizable minorityare saying the elderly are too prone, too inconvenient, too expensive, and too old to treat. Unworthy of care, besides they’re going to die soon, anyway. Expendable.But why stop there? Why not just abandon all help and hope for the elderly in all circumstances, relieve society of their burden and everyone else can go to the football or do as they please.That would remove awkward questions like who decides who dies and when.It’s actually called senicide, a disturbing, Hitleresque word which means the killing of elderly or their abandonment to death, which makes the issues that exploded out of lockdowns with the stir-crazy protestors of the Black Lives Movement look rather petty.Humans don’t do Darwin, animals do. Humans – perhaps not all – have ethics and culture. That’s how we sort out the bullies and how people look after society as a whole. I never did get to the other side so I can’t vouch for it but at 57 I went close.I’ll be forever grateful for the doctors, nurses and the caring people who helped me, whether I last another 10, 20 or 30 years. They were professional, ethical and served according to the needs of the patient. It’s the type of care all people should be entitled to, including the old.There could be exemptions. Those advocating senicide come to mind.ENDS PART TWO

Luke Hunt examines Islamic militancy in the wake of the 2019 Easter bombings in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which claimed 269 lives. The story was initially published by La Croix and UCA News before syndication. Ever since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS) emerged as a ruthless, rampaging force to be reckoned with more than five years ago, the question that has haunted intelligence circles has been: If home is an option for foreign jihadists, what will they do if they return?IS has claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka that left more than *250 people dead and hundreds more wounded, confirming what many had feared.IS, al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, and affiliates such as Jemaah Islamiyah, have a long history of inspiring and coordinating Islamic suicide bombers.Before Easter Sunday, IS alone had inspired 143 attacks in 29 countries while acting as a magnet for fanatical Muslims wanting to reshape the world in their own image, sucking them into war in Syria and Iraq.As IS nears defeat in the Middle East, its militias are leaving to rejoin their families at home and hook up with the ranks of other jihadist groups in Asia and the West, where terror tactics have become an unfortunate and deadly norm.Nightclubs, city malls, office blocks, public transport, pop concerts, hotels, schools, hospitals churches and mosques — with lots of people and lax security — are the low-hanging fruit for terrorists of all stripes.Immediately after the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, suspicion fell on local Islamist group National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), which had been named in an intelligence warning 10 days earlier.Jama’ath means council, while thowheeth has been romanized from Arabic with various spellings. The most popular is tawhid or tawheed and signifies oneness with God, Islam’s central and most important tenet.NTJ’s brand of Islam is straight out of the IS playbook: cheap, homemade simultaneous bombings targeting society’s most vulnerable, using fear to underscore a political or religious agenda. In military parlance, it is the very definition of terrorism.What they want is a Sri Lankan Islamic caliphate and for non-Muslims to submit.Almost 40 Sri Lankans are known to have fought with IS in Syria, similar to jihadist numbers from as far afield as Malaysia and Indonesia to Australia and Britain. Perhaps the most infamous Sri Lankan IS jihadi was Sharfaz Shuraih Muhsin, killed in an airstrike on Syria in 2015. More came from the nearby Maldives.Small in number, potent in reachRadical groups such as NTJ are small. Jemaah Islamiyah terrorized Indonesia and beyond for more than a decade but could only boast about 1,500 core members. Including the periphery, often made up of family and close friends, the number was closer to 5,000.The group’s ties with bin Laden and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan were extensive. That included funding, tactics, political strategies and demands for a caliphate encompassing most of Southeast Asia and northern Australia — a stupid and incredulous claim.It’s a relationship that NTJ and IS appear to have mimicked.According to the Center for Strategic and International Strategic Studies, the number of jihadists globally has quadrupled since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, and the number of people killed by them stands at about half a million. Terrorism is cheap, nasty, psychotic and potent.As recently as the Vietnam War, Hanoi and the Viet Cong reputedly had a hand in teaching the Irish Republican Army terror tactics, while their use of plastic explosives inspired the Tamil Tigers who used similar terrorist techniques in their bloody 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka.Not since that war ended in 2009 has Sri Lanka endured such carnage.The Easter Sunday bombings were carried out with precision, even if word had leaked. Ten days before the attacks, police were warned by international intelligence agencies of a threat by bombers to “prominent churches” and the Indian High Commission in Colombo."A foreign intelligence agency has reported that NTJ is planning to carry out suicide attacks,” it read in part.There have been other threats in Sri Lanka, where Buddhists make up 70 percent of its population and 12.6 percent are Hindu while Muslims and Christians account for 9.7 and 7.6 percent respectively, but reports of ethnic and religious strife are not that common.According to the Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka, there were 86 verified reports of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians last year. That’s hardly rampant in a country of 22 million people.NTJ has been active in recent years, earning a reputation for vandalizing Buddhist statues, and it went very public with its goal of importing the global jihadist movement to Sri Lanka. Secretary Abdul Razik was charged with inciting racism in 2016.Following his arrest, one commentator noted: “Tawhid Jama'ath [sic] is an organization which is despised by the majority of Muslims in Sri Lanka, India and the world over. They are a minority of minorities who carry no respect whatsoever in the community.”Maniacal dogmaFor all the ethnic bloodshed which has dogged Sri Lanka, the island state had escaped the tentacles of Islamic terrorism and the type of maniacal dogma normally associated with bin Laden and IS.The latest bombings put the Vatican and its dioceses, and any government that felt immune to this type of attack, on notice.Forensic scientists have determined that at least seven suicide bombers were deployed. At least 40 people have been arrested and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admits security measures initiated after the intelligence warning were inadequate.The Indian High Commission was presumably warned and was not hit. Whether the churches and hotels were warned and what measures they took to protect their parishioners and guests may well emerge as one of the great issues in this tragic and bloody terrorist act.From the Vatican down, prayers will be said alongside reminders to turn the other cheek. Priests will deliver sermons based on peace and eternal love and the victims will be deservedly venerated.Writing in The American Conservative magazine, commentator Rod Dreher noted that “we live in an age of martyrs.” Perhaps. But the Church has no shortage of martyrs. Its most confronting issue is the laity and their security. Parishioners would like to go to Mass in peace.Luke Hunt is a senior opinion writer for ucanews.com. Twitter: @lukeanthonyhunt

Can Funcinpec win any seats at the Cambodian election this Sunday. Luke Hunt write for the Diplomat that just maybe the party of the royalists might win "two or thee seats" and end this country's status as a one-party-state. Click and read more here.

Cambodians head to the polls this month in an election that has been widely criticized by Western countries, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and pro-democracy activists, but authorities in Phnom Penh insist the ballot on July 23 will be free and fair. Read more about this election from VOA.

About 9.7 million Cambodians go to the polls on July 23 for a one-sided election, which will secure Prime Minister Hun Sen’s absolute authority and an endorsement for a widely-anticipated transfer of power to his eldest son Hun Manet.Only his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) — which has ruled since a Vietnamese invasion ousted the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979 — is capable of winning a contest bereft of competition since the disqualification of the main opposition party in May, amid a six-year crackdown on dissent.Click here to read more from UCA News.

Three podcasts focussed on the conflict in Myanmar, which erupted after the military seized power from an elected government in February 2021. Since then National Unity Government (NUG) and its armed wing the People's Defence Force (PDF ) have formed the backbone of the resistance..Security-risk consultant Ross Milosevic has worked across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East for almost three decades but his focus has often remained on Myanmar. He backs international support for the forces arraigning against the generals and notes the similarities between Myanmar and Syria, and the realities of China.Listen on PodbeanListen through The DiplomatThe United States-based organization Unbound Now has spent the last decade focused on the prevention of human trafficking, professional training, and survivor advocacy. It has shifted its focus to Myanmar where -- because of the civil war -- traffickers are plying their trade with impunity.Listen through The DiplomatScott Johnson is an Australia-based lawyer, journalist, and human rights advocate with more than 20 years of experience focusing on indigenous groups and geopolitical issues in Southeast Asia, in particular Myanmar, which he still calls Burma.Listen through The Diplomat

Cambodian journalist Sreynat Sarum was part of an award winning team, led by Thy Rath at CambodjaNews. Alongside Horn Thovan, the three were awarded a Certificate of Achievement by the online publication in regards to a story about development and the problems with debt.

A winner at the first-ever RUSU Student Short Film Festival at RMIT University in Melbourne was One Of The Good Ones, a short film by Morgan Reinwald, Mairin Angel and Leah Oliveria, produced by WITNESS studio.

Finalists. Journalist Denise Hruby wrote: "With 2.5 million victims, human trafficking is a global issue, but it is Asia that is one of the major flashpoints, both as a source and destination. In weeks of hard work and intensive research, Denise Hruby, Luke Hunt and Shane Worrell strove to cover every aspect of human trafficking – from victims to traffickers to legal aspects and the economic demand that fuels modern-day slavery."

Amnesty International and the Human Rights Press Awards in Hong Kong awarded a Certificate of Special Merit for Outstanding Contribution in 2015 to journalists Luke Hunt, Shane Worrell and Denise Hruby for a package of stories about human trafficking, published by the Edge Review. 

Studio Bomborra is sponsoring the Mae Sot Book Dispensary to deliver books written in English, Burmese and Karen for children under eight years of age across the border from Thailand to a school in Myanmar. Key people involved in this are Ei Ei Love, David Armstrong and Luke Hunt. Please do not send money. If, however, you have old, unwanted books at home that are suitable for young children and you're prepared to send them via sea mail, then please post to the following address:Mae Sot Book Dispensary: 61/21 Rat Uthit Road, Mae Sot Subdistrict, Mae Sot District, Tak Province, 63110, ThailandWe would appreciate as much help as we can get. The school looks after 80 children who have been isolated into relative safety from the civil war in a remote corner of Myanmar. Regular deliveries of humanitarian assistance includes food, clean water, medical supplies, hand-me-down clothing and there is an allocation for books. Most of this is doable, however, there is a big shortage of children's books. Books written in English, Burmese and Karen are fine. Children are taught English from a young age. Cartoon and picture books that help to explain the written word for ages between 5 to 14 years old would all be welcomed.If you have any books that are age appropriate and are not needed anymore then we can put them to good use. There is also a shortage of crayons, pencils and the sort of stuff children must have to learn how to draw and write. A small library has already been established by Ei EI at a school built by Karen Brigade 7. Surplus books, will be shared with other schools. There locations are not to be disclosed for security reasons.We will also follow-up with Facebook posts, photos and a big thank you as books arrive.Sincerely,Ei EI, David and Luke  

The much anticipated Ashes from Annam, written by Thierry de Roland Peel was launched on Feb 20. at Raffles Le Royale in Phnom Penh. About 150 guest arrived as Peel delivered a robust speech about his family's life and tragedies towards the end of World War II in Saigon. And of course the adventures of the family dog Mephisto.

In late 2018 Luke Hunt travelled to India where he addressed the University of Madras and the Women's Christian College in Chennai. The topic: Journalism from the Frontlines.

The Punji Trap was officially launched on January 24, 2018, at Meta House in Phnom Penh with more than 100 people attending. Journalist and videographer Craig Skehan hosted the event and former Saigon Reuters bureau chief Jim Pringle gave a telling talk about the Tet Offensive, which erupted at the end of January, 1968, and turned the tide of public opinion against the Vietnam War. Further launches followed in Kampot and Bangkok. See More.

Cambodians are celebrating the return of dragon boat races at this year’s Water Festival after a three-year absence amid hopes it will bolster the tourism industry and an economy struggling to recover in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Luke Hunt reports. Camera: Luke Hunt, David Brown, Vicheka Kol. A Bomborra Production for Voice of America.Click here to watch.

Cambodians head to the polls this month in an election that has been widely criticized by Western countries, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and pro-democracy activists, but authorities in Phnom Penh insist the ballot on July 23 will be free and fair. This piece for VOA television was produced by Luke Hunt, David Brown Vicheka Kol. Click here to watch and listen.

A promotional video produced by David Brown Films for the Punji Trap: Pham Xuan An the Spy Who Didn't Love Us which was authored by Luke Hunt. Shot at Raffles Hotel in Phnom Penh, this video offers a simple explanation as to why the Punji Trap was written. Click and listen here. 

Five years ago, Chinese investors began turning Sihanoukville, a sleepy coastal city with pristine beaches, into a gambling mecca rivaling Macao and Las Vegas, but that ended with a ban on online gambling and the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 200,000 Chinese workers had to return home. Plans are now being developed to rebuild and finish about 1,100 abandoned skyscrapers. Ravid Brown, Luke Hunt and Sreynat Sarum produced this television report for VOA. Click and Watch Here

Michael Martin is an adjunct fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) . He's also a Washington insider with a firm focus on Myanmar and a civil war that erupted after the military ousted an elected government in early 2021. He spoke with Luke Hunt from Beyond the Mekong. Click here to listen.

Judah Tana has spent the last two decades in humanitarian work along the Thailand-Myanmar border where criminal syndicates have revolutionized human trafficking and 21st century slavery into an industry with world-wide turnover in the trillions of dollars. He recorded this podcast with Luke Hunt from Beyond the Mekong. Click here to listen.

Mechai Viravaidya has spent the last 50-years at the helm of Thailand's family planning policies and is credited with saving millions of lives through his  safe sex campaigns as the HIV-AIDS virus took hold in 1981. Mechai spoke with Luke Hunt from Beyond the Mekong. Click here to listen.

Alan Parkhouse has edited many of the mastheads around Southeast Asia, including the Phnom Penh Post, the Khmer Times and worked extensively on publications in Bangko. He recorded this podcast with Luke Hunt for his Beyond the Mekong series. Click here to listen.

The United Nations and the United States have condemned the heavy-handed tactics of the Sri Lankan government after the army and police forcibly dismantled a protest camp of tents and makeshift homes, the focal point of protestors for more than three months.Photo essay by Luke Hunt published by The Diplomat

The Indonesian-Malaysian border is often home for refugees who have settled here on Sebatik Island and are constantly on the move across the two countries. Malaysia on the left is separated from Indonesia on the right by a narrow creek which proves highly porous and difficult to secure. Luke Hunt travelled to border region on Borne for this report. Click here to view photo essaySebatik Island, just a kilometer from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, is home to thousands of illegal and U.N. recognized refugees. Children without U.N. or Malaysian papers recognizing their refugee status are denied access to schools and health facilities while their parents are forced to work illegally while Muslim girls recognized as refugees attend better schools on Gaya Island. There are up to four generations of Filipinos living around the Borneo coastline. Malaysian counter-terrorist forces on patrol in the Sulu Sea struggle to stem the flow of refugees fleeing decades of war in the southern Philippines for the relative safety of Borneo which is divided between Malaysia, Indonesia and the tiny sultanate of Brunei.Estimates vary but most observers believe there are up to 2 million refugees and illegal immigrants living in water villages and squatter camps around the northern coastline of Borneo.

The 2016 Nat Pwe in Taungbyone attracted perhaps 100,000 people from across Myanmar’s diverse religious, ethnic and cultural groups. Some came for the food, others for the party but most came to pay their respects to the famed spirits in the hope of attaining good luck.Click here to view a the photo essay, by Luke Hunt 

A photo essay from wars and conflicts shot by journalist Luke Hunt and produced by Craig Skehan. Hunt's work mainly covers the latter part of the 20th and early 21st century. Click here to view on YouTube.

John MacDougall, an American Academic in Indonesia, has Passed AwayA brave and intelligent man, and scholar of all things Balineseby Luke HuntJohn MacDougall, a cultural anthropologist from Princeton University in the United States who dedicated his life to Indonesia and all things Balinese, died on December 30 after a long suffering illness, a sad finale for 2023. He was 52.Over a career that spanned almost 30 years, McDougall’s writings and influence would reach the highest ranks of governments struggling to cope with Islamic terrorism across Southeast Asia which was borne out of 9/11 and the murkyties between al-Qaeda and its regional affiliates.He arrived in Indonesia in 1988 and quickly became a recognized specialist, universally known as Johnny. He spoke the many and varied dialects of Balinese and married locally before settling into an idyllic lifestyle raising two children and rollicking in the surf when time allowed.A decade later, he gained international attention through his work a writer and as an advisor in East Timor during the convulsions of independence.In 2002, he also acted as my translator after our good friend and colleague Dan Boylan, then a Fulbright scholar, invited me into a guest lecture series hosted for Balinese journalists when we specialized in war reporting and Islamic militancy.We had spent a day in maddening big big surf at Legian when the tide was receding but the waves grew taller and steeper.A gnarly rip had sucked us out to sea and I’ll always remember watching as Johnny caught and carved perhaps the biggest wave of the day into the safety of the shoreline.The same wave pummeled me to the ocean floor but we surfed our way out, held a lecture about potential terrorist attacks that proved telling and then retired to the Sari Club on the Kuta Strip for my 40th birthday, where Johnny knew all the staff and spoke their language.They turned on a fantastic evening. In the same club, a couple of months later, Johnny was a first responder looking for survivors; picking through the bones and flesh of the people he knew and had died in the first of the Bali Bombings.He once recalled upon hearing the blasts he raced to the scene and then being “up to his armpits” in body parts. He was in a trance-like state. Time and dangers were forgotten. He just kept digging.At about 5am he was exhausted and on the verge of breaking down when he felt a tap on his right shoulder from behind and he heard a voice, with a thick Australian accent, that said: "G’day, can I lend a hand, mate." A full contingent of rescue personnel had arrived from Darwin.He never forgot that accent, would always hold a deep affection for Australians.and on rare occasions when he spoke about that dreadful night on October 12 that left 202 people dead, he would shed a tear.The bombings also left Johnny with an equally dreadful case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – a term which is bandied about all too easily these days. He took the carnage personally, as he should have, and with Boylan and myself was determined to help in finding those responsible.At times the three of us would work together, from behind closed doors, focussing on Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and its latter-day off shoot Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT) as the authorities scored some success. Steadily, one-by-one, the militants were arrested.The last, Umar Patek was paroled last year.Johnny worked for the Carter Center, International Crisis Group, World Bank, and Menko Pokhkam, an abbreviation for Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs. He was also trusted advisor among the region’s security services.Many of his written works can be found on the Princeton alumnus site.In 2010, he returned to the United States with his then wife and two children, where he lectured at Princeton University but struggled with PTSD and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a disease that took a great toll on his family life.John MacDougall was an unsung hero from those dark days of Islamic militancy. As Dan Boylan wrote me: “My God, the surf of Bali almost took us all more than 20 years ago. Now our hearts are filled with sorrow, but minds calm with relief that Johnny’s suffering has finally ended.“Johnny was a great and true friend and a fighter for what was right.”ENDS

New Zealand-born John McBeth, one of Asia’s pre-eminent journalists with a record of scrupulous and ground-breaking reporting, has died after a short illness. He was 79.Over a career spanning more than 62 years McBeth’s reporting helped shape events in countries including South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia.McBeth was a blunt-speaking “old school” reporter and author whose writings pulled no punches and influenced many of the region’s policy-makers over decades.John McBeth was born in Whanganui New Zealand on 31 May 1944, the son of Taranaki dairy farmer Sandy McBeth and Isla Dickenson.After attending New Plymouth Boys’ High School he commenced his journalism career on the Taranaki Herald on 8 February 1962 and moved to the Auckland Star in late 1965.Like many New Zealand journalists of that era, London’s Fleet Street beckoned and he headed off on a cargo ship that inadvertently grounded during a night-time entry into Tanjung Priok harbor in Indonesia.Stepping ashore he immediately fell in love with Asia and never left.He took pride in being an Asian “lifer” – often chiding many of his colleagues who came to the region for a few years but never stayed.After spending time in Jakarta and Singapore McBeth settled for many years in Thailand, where he worked for publications including the Bangkok Post, Agence France-Presse, United Press International, London’s Daily Telegraph and the Hong Kong-based Asiaweek.He was one of the first Western journalists to uncover the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in Cambodia, often arriving at the border to interview survivors after a long and arduous overnight bus journey from Bangkok.His early reporting of the Khmer Rouge’s purges was initially met with incredulity by many other correspondents.He revealed how Cambodian refugees, unable to cross into Thailand, were forced back into the Khmer Rouge’s minefields.McBeth’s early reported from Thailand focused on the Indochinese refugee crisis and the Vietnam War, writing with passion about the plight of refugees and war victims.He wrote about the Thai pirates who raped and murdered Vietnamese boat people.In May 1979 McBeth joined the staff of the Far Eastern Economic Review, then Asia’s top political and economic affairs publication.He covered five coups including the aborted one that killed his close friend, the Australian cameraman Neil Davis in 1985.McBeth was a larger-than-life member of Bangkok’s hard-living and working international press corps, loving Thailand and its people.  It was in Bangkok that he met his future wife, Yuli Ismartono, a foreign correspondent from Indonesia.He wrote analytical pieces and many exclusive reports from offices in Bangkok, Seoul, Manila and Jakarta.Collaborating with colleagues Nayan Chandra and Shada Islam, McBeth broke the story that North Korea was developing a nuclear weapon.While based in Manila McBeth had a leg amputated but he was determined the setback would not impinge on his career and he was soon back writing exclusives for the Review.His wife Yuli helped him through his illness and restore his confidence so he could return to field reporting. He wrote about Filipino warlords, the fall of Indonesia’s President Suharto and in a series of articles in 2002 shone a light on the investigation into the Bali bombings, among countless other stories.From the end of 2004 until early 2015 John wrote columns for the Singapore Straits Times, specializing in Indonesian and regional affairs.His work has also appeared in The National (Abu Dhabi), the Nikkei Asian Review, the South China Morning Post, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s The Strategist and more recently the Asia Times.McBeth’s 2011 book “Reporter: Forty Years Covering Asia” describes many of his stories.In 2016 book “The Loner: President Yudhoyono’s Decade of Trial and Indecision” reviews the decade that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono spent in power.McBeth was a confidante of many of Asia’s diplomats, politicians and policy makers.He was a mentor and inspiration to many of the region’s journalists, particularly locals working for local publications and railed against journalists whose writings failed to make clear what was fact and what was opinion.John McBeth is survived by his wife Yuli Ismartono, a prominent Indonesian journalist.Lindsay Murdoch, Michael Vatikiotis, Philip Bowring and Luke Hunt contributed to this obituary.

Marc Carnegie, an American foreign correspondent who has reported from Iran, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan and dozens of other countries around the globe, passed away on Feb. 7 from complications of the liver and a brief illness. He was 59.His work in Iraq was lauded by his peers for many years afterward. Marc had worked the desk but knew where his correspondents were and did everything he could, and more, to get them across the line safely.Long time friend and colleague Susan Stumme wrote: "I’ve struggled to find the right words to describe this devastating loss. Marc Carnegie was so many things: dear friend, brilliant wordsmith, music lover, gifted drummer, obstinate pain in the ass, booze hound, complicated soul."

Shirley Shackleton, who passed away aged 91 on Jan. 15 was an author and tireless campaigner for Timor-Leste, she was best known as the wife of Greg Shackleton, one of the 'Balibo Five' journalists.The ABC reported she was an unlikely hero.A new mum and TV segment presenter from Melbourne, she suddenly became one of Australia's most vocal human rights advocates after her journalist husband Greg and four other Australian newsmen were brutally murdered in 1975 by Indonesian forces.They came to be known as the Balibo Five, having gone to Timor in the weeks leading up to Indonesia's occupation, to film the military invasion for Channel 7 and 9.But days after they arrived in Balibo, they disappeared.Read more here.

Our podcasts published by the The Diplomat have been relaunched as Beyond the Mekong and are now available on several platforms, including Apple, Spotify and YouTube and they can still be heard on The Diplomat's website.

Bomborra has gone through several redesigns over the last 15 years and we are thrilled with the latest efforts by Peter Pike, completed in March 2023.  The idea was to add clarity to the layouts and to help readers distinguish more easily between the different sections. Bomborra has also expanded into television and is producing more podcasts which have been added to the catalogue. 

Wealth gaps in Southeast Asia, and beyond, are ever expanding and issues which are arising are predictable. But as usual it's about too little for too few and too much for the handful who see themselves as elite. Cambodia’s Christmas carol: A Tale of Three Scrooges

Updates on China, its expansion policies and their impact across the world and in particular East and Southeast Asia where governments are torn between Chinese money and debt, and Western development policies.Read more, click on the following links:Hong Kong and the dark art of reading XinhuaBeijing haunted by nasty past, fearsome present and unlikely futureTiananmen Square: Remembering a massacreThe Meddling Kingdom’s threat to democracySlowing SE Asian economies will test social cohesionXinjiang: China’s trail of broken promisesA Chinese takeaway in Cambodia