Sep. 21, 2009
Norimasa Tahara
Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent (Japan)
PHNOM PENH--Thirty years after the end of the Khmer Rouge regime that killed nearly 2 million people,
a former Japanese news reporter has been appointed as a public relations officer at Cambodia's special war tribunal.
Yuko Maeda assumed the post at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which was jointly set up by the United Nations and the Cambodian government to try former senior members of the regime led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998.
Since taking up the post, Maeda has been up to her ears dealing with media interviews.
"I believe that after these trials end, Cambodia at long last can become a normal country again," Maeda, 45, said.
After working as a reporter for The Kobe Shimbun, Maeda studied journalism at Michigan State University.
She first became interested in Cambodia in 1996, when she came across The Cambodia Daily, an English-language newspaper, while studying war and media coverage in Michigan. After graduating in 1997, Maeda became a reporter for the daily newspaper in 1998.
Maeda worked day in and day out reporting on how the country was rebuilding itself.
During this time, "I started feeling that I wanted to play a role in reconstructing a country," she recalled. This ambition inspired Maeda to go to Liberia in 2005 and work as a public relations officer for the U.N. mission in the African country.
When she returned to Phnom Penh, the skyline showed more high-rise buildings than before as the city showed definite signs of growth.
However, Maeda strongly believes the psychological scars of the Cambodian people have yet to heal.
"That's precisely why the special tribunal's role in helping to settle the past is so significant," Maeda said. "When I have time, I'd love to sit with a group of Cambodian people and listen to their stories about the Pol Pot era."
Maeda's spirit as a passionate reporter remains undimmed.
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