[Tlc] C-Dancing in Shadows: Lessons from the Cambodian Tragedy for Today

[Alvin Lim]

Spring 2009 Political Science Colloquium Series at University of
Hawai’i at Mānoa

Dancing in Shadows: Lessons from the Cambodian Tragedy for Today

Friday, April 17, 2009, 2.30 PM

Friedman Room, Level 6
Saunders Hall
2424 Maile Way
Honolulu, HI 96822

Dr. Benny Widyono will discuss his five years of international service
in Cambodia from 1992 to 1997, first as a member of the United Nations
Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), and later as the UN
Secretary-General’s Representative in Cambodia. From his perspective
as part of UNTAC's top administration, he observed the mission's
ultimate failure. Prior to UNTAC, Dr Widyono was stationed at the UN
headquarters in New York where he witnessed the Cold War manipulations
of the Cambodian tragedy by the big powers. Cambodia's experience with
the United Nations shows that the latter's capability to solve world
problems continues to be distorted by the dominance by the five powers
who won World War II sixty four years ago.

Dr Benny Widyono, an Indonesian, served as a United Nations civil
servant in Bangkok, Santiago, New York and Cambodia between 1963 and
1997. In 1992-93 he served as UNTAC's Provincial Director of Siem
Reap; subsequently in 1994-97 he served as the UN Secretary-General's
Political Representative to the Royal Government of Cambodia. His
recently published book, Dancing in Shadows: Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge
and the United Nations was written while he was a visiting scholar at
Cornell University. Dr Widyono holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the
University of Texas and is currently a professor of Economics at the
University of Connecticut at Stamford, CT.

Free and open to the public.