Student Uses Her Experiences to Promote Peace in Cambodia

Bouncing across the war-torn landscape of Cambodia on the back of a motorcycle, the Occidental College senior knew that she was in a dangerous area, one controlled by the infamous Khmer Rouge. Following a dirt road into the jungle, she and the motorcycle’s driver came face to face with the barrel of a rifle.

Heather O’Brien said she still doesn’t understand why the Khmer officer didn’t kill her when she refused to give him her camera and note pad, deciding instead to throw her into a raging river along with her belongings.

The American-born resident of Hong Kong, now safely returned to quiet campus life in Eagle Rock, is hoping to use her experiences from two summers in Cambodia to further the prospects for an end to the warfare that has plagued that country for two decades.

O’Brien, a diplomacy and world affairs major specializing in international relations of Southeast Asia, has organized a two-week series of seminars, drawing together some of the nation’s most knowledgeable observers of the turmoil in Southeast Asia.

She hopes that the conference will produce a series of recommendations that may be used by international organizations, such as the United Nations, to end the cycle of violence through dialogue.

The 1991 Indochina Conference began on a humorous note Monday when students sampled Cambodian food and then tried to mimic the cook in a traditional Cambodian dance.

But O’Brien’s serious intent became apparent Monday evening when 60 students gathered to hear Academy Award-winning actor Haing S. Ngor, who used his own experiences during the Khmer Rouge’s brutal repression in the 1970s as a foundation for his portrayal of photographer Dith Pran in “The Killing Fields.”

In an emotional speech, Ngor described the desperate conditions of the tens of thousands of Cambodian orphans whose numbers he said continue to grow.

O’Brien met Ngor in a refugee camp and established contacts with many of the people who will participate in the conference during her extensive world travels.

O’Brien, whose father is an international banker, has spent most of her life in Southeast Asia. Her fascination with Cambodia began when she saw the film “Situation Zero,” a documentary about the plight of Cambodians in refugee camps along the border with Thailand.

Last summer, O’Brien went to Bangkok, Thailand, where she persuaded a general in charge of border relief operations to issue her a pass to four refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border.

She moved among the camps, living with refugees while keeping a journal and photographing her travels. Moving among the camps inevitably brought her into contact with the Khmer Rouge, whose camps dot the “invisible border” between the two countries.

“Going to Cambodia made what I had seen in ‘Situation Zero’ real,” O’Brien said. “To go there and stand in front of children who are dying, who have no legs because they’ve stepped on mines--nothing can compare to actually being there.”

O’Brien said she didn’t expect her journey to have such a profound effect on her. Upon returning to Occidental in September, she conceived of the conference as a way to heighten awareness of Cambodia, which she said will only emerge from civil war through an external framework designed to bring the country’s divergent groups together.

Hoping to extend the conference beyond the campus, O’Brien publicized the event in the Cambodian community around Los Angeles, to Asian groups throughout the city and to other campuses in the area. She said Los Angeles is home to the largest group of Cambodian nationals outside the Southeast Asian country.

Other experts who will be appearing include Jacques Leslie, a veteran free-lance reporter who covered both the Vietnam War and Cambodia’s civil war; Nayan Chanda of the Asian Wall Street Journal, whom O’Brien said is a top expert in Cambodian affairs, and author Ben Kiernan, an expert on Cambodian politics.

Seminars featured at the conference include Perspectives on the Cambodian Civil War, April 21; Regional Power Perspectives, April 22; Superpower Roles in Indochina, April 23, and Cambodian Peace Process: Light at the End of the Tunnel? on April 27. All seminars begin at 7 p.m. in Occidental’s Alumni Auditorium.

O’Brien said the goal of the conference is to establish a foundation for a Cambodian peace initiative by the United Nations. One of the dangers the United Nations faces, she said, is trying to apply a Western viewpoint in its policies in the region.

“How the U.N. presents itself to Cambodians is very important,” O’Brien said. “If it doesn’t approach these people from a Cambodian perspective, it risks alienating the people and possibly undermining the peace process.”

O’Brien has already made her views known at the United Nations.

In New York last summer, as part of the Occidental-at-the-United Nations program, she helped write a report about what the United Nations should be doing in Cambodia. She said this experience has helped her formulate a personal goal--to become undersecretary of state for Southeast Asian affairs.

At least one Occidental professor believes that O’Brien has what it takes to accomplish anything.

“I tried to discourage her from taking on this conference because I thought it would be too much for her,” political science Prof. Jane Jaquette said. “But she did it all on her own. This could turn out to be one of the best conferences in the United States on Cambodia in years.”