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The Killing Fields and Indonesia's Relations with Cambodia Revisited

Dr. Benny Widyono with Prime Minister Hun Sen who after the clash in 1997 continued to consolidate his power until today 2010.
Benny eventually represented the U.N. Secretary General in Cambodia after the Killing Fields in which about two million Cambodians perished
In his capacity of UNTAC Governor, Benny inspected U.N. forces in Cambodia.
Benny Widyono, Mrs. Bintari Sudarpo, King Norodom Sihanouk, Queen Monineath,
with Indonesian Ambassador Taufik Sudarpo, and Benny's wife Francisca.
Benny sits on the Board position of an NGO running slum area schools in Phnom Penh
founded one of his former staffers honored as a CNN hero for her work with children.
September 16, 2010
Jim Luce
The Huffington Post (USA)


I first met Benny Widyono at an Indonesian Consulate fete years ago. I knew upon meeting him that he had an extraordinary mind and knew Asia's southeast as well as he knew this nation's northeast. Living in Connecticut and commuting to his office at the U.N. for decades - when he wasn't living in Phnom Phen, clued me into that reality. I told him if he ever wrote his memoirs I wanted to read them. Sure enough, they arrived by post last week. And they are riveting.

The book Dancing in Shadows: Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge, and the United Nations in Cambodia has just been published. It is excellent. I had planned to read it next month, but I could not put it down. It is well written, engaging, and highly informative. I now understand so much more of Cambodia's Cold-War history and how it led to the Killing Fields in which about two million Cambodians perished. Google reviewers have given this excellent book 4.5 stars.

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