While the final results of the parliamentary elections were announced, Boeung Kak Lake (see here and here) and sympathizing communities returned to current affairs and staged a demonstration requesting the release of Yorm Bopha in front of the Supreme Court. Relying on their very long experience regarding demonstrations, they invested in umbrellas, sheltering them from both the sun and the rain.
The app for iPad, ‘Quest for Land’ is still available here at the iTunes store.
Even before the complaints on voting procedures were examined, the NEC (National Election Committee) announced virtually unchanged final results of the July 28th elections for the parliamentary elections, giving 68 seats to the CPP and 55 to the CNRP. The remaining CNRP leaders (CNRP’s President, Sam Rainsy, in a strange move, is in the U.S. for the wedding of his daughter) stated at a press conference a few hours later that they still don’t agree with the results. An independent investigation in the election’s irregularities is still pending.
Well, at least for the following:
Some time back I received a message through my Twitter account:
“@vinkjohn I’m not sure how much you recall of the Evelio Bonilla Ayala incident as it was 24 years ago, but do you have more pictures”
And later on:
“@vinkjohn of that incident that are not published on your site? I ask only because he’s my father.”
By email I asked Marina Dubon, the person who was sending me the tweets, to wait some time, until I got access to my negatives in Brussels and the exchange went on as follows:
“Hi John,
First of all, I’d like to thank you for taking the time and sending me those pictures. It is surreal to be able to look at photographs of what happened to my father after only hearing about it and seeing the scars on his body.
I’m unsure of the details of my father’s life prior to the civil war, he’s not present in my life but I’ll ask my mom about it and email you again. I can tell you that my parents lived in the refugee camp for about 10 years…that is where they met each other. Three of my siblings and myself were all born there during that time. When this incident happened to my father my mom was actually pregnant with me at the time. That day he was in the corn fields fertilizing the stalks when Honduran soldiers approached him asking him to go outside of the camp limits. My father knew they had bad intentions and told them to give him a moment to put something away and started to flee from them. It was at that moment they began to shoot him. It is by the grace of God my father survived this horrible experience. Because of what happened to my father our family was given the opportunity to come to Canada. My parents did not jump at the opportunity as they didn’t want to leave their families, especially my mom did not want to leave my grandma’s side. The last chance she had to go to an interview to begin the process someone convinced my mom to go and in March of 1990 my father, and 4 of my siblings and myself arrived in Canada. My mother arrived about a month later because she gave birth to my younger brother in March, and about a month or so after that my grandma also arrived in Canada.
I’ve always been curious to know where I came from, how my family lived during those years, etc. The place where this refugee camp used to be is just an empty field with no real signs that it used to be “home” for so many Salvadorians. So every once in awhile I go to Google and search “Mesa Grande Honduras”. And I’ve always had the hope of one day finding pictures of my family, as pictures of them prior to Honduras are non existent. One night I was scrolling through the search results and I saw the one picture of my father. I was viewing it on a mobile device so I clicked on the picture but it was still too small to tell, but seeing him on the stretcher I was almost certain. So I clicked on the link that led me to your site. When I saw the caption on the picture I was confused for a bit because I had never heard the name Evelio (the last names confused me as well but they are a family name), but I knew it was my father. You see during the war Salvadorians, at least those on the FMLN side used pseudonyms to help protect their identity…I later found out Evelio was the name my father used after I asked my mom about it. Anyways, I went through your whole album, I also showed my whole family the pictures. We (and by we I mean mostly my mom and grandma) were able to see familiar faces and a few family members. I wish I could see all your photographs from the camp, it would be such an experience to hear the stories they would stir up in my mom and grandma. But I am truly grateful for the photographs you have provided me as they have helped me further understand this difficult period of my family’s life. You are free to post something on your weblog about this. If you have any other questions let me know.
Kind regards,
Marina”
“Hi Marina,
Fascinating destiny, and so nice to know that it turned out that way… It is so extremely rare to know about what happened to people I photographed. How many times have I thought while looking at the photographs I took years ago: ‘What has become of them?’ In fact I’ve gotten feedback only two or three times with the thousands of people I took photographs of.
Thank you so much for the feedback. It means a lot to me.
I will send you the photographs of Mesa Grande I have scanned and which are not on my website some time later.
I wish you and your family all the very best.
John”
“Hi John,
So here is a little bit more information on my father:
My father is from Chalatenango, Arcatao which is located in northern El Salvador, about 30 km from the Honduran border. He comes from a lower class family, he only went to school up to the third grade. He came to Honduras with his family fleeing the war in 1981, he was about 20 years old when he arrived in Honduras…so he would have been 27 when he was shot. Prior to the war he worked in the fields as a farmer just as many others growing beans and corn to sustain their families. My mom says she doesn’t know too much about my father’s life prior to war so I think this is all the information I can give you.
I’m glad we have been able to connect and have this exchange of photographs and stories. Really, it is a fascinating destiny, especially as children of parents who went through all of this we can see the opportunities we have had that our parents never even dreamed of.
I look forward to the photographs of Honduras! Thank you for everything.
Marina”
Photography can be so powerfull when it comes to stirring up memories…
The story on the refugee camps in Honduras on my website (see here) was updated with new scans and a broader edit.
The opposition CNRP (Cambodia National Rescue Party) staged a rally at ‘Freedom Park’ in the aftermath of the contested results of the July 28th parliamentary elections. CNRP President Sam Rainsy and Co-President Kem Sokha (see also here) addressed a crowd of some 3000 to 4000 supporters. The word ‘yuon’ was pronounced quite a few times. Hopefully the speeches were not only exploiting anti-Vietnamese feelings within the crowd. The votes have been cast. Time to move on to the real issues: Human Rights, justice, corruption…
Sam Rainsy, President of the opposition coalition CNRP (Cambodian National Rescue Party) visited the Boeung Kak Lake community (see here and here). Having spent a few years in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail sentence for having uprooted a border post, Sam Rainsy was, with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s blessing, pardoned by King Sihamoni and returned to Cambodia 8 days before the parliamentary elections held on July 28th. The as of yet unofficial results of the poll turned out to be the first real threat to the 28 year-reign of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his CPP (Cambodian People’s Party) as they managed to retain only 68 out of their previous 90 seats against 55 for the CNRP, in what most independent observers and thousands of Cambodians regard as a fraud-ridden election process for the 123 seats parliament. In terms of votes this means 49,8% for the CPPP and 45,2 for the CNRP, according to the CPP’s official website. Close, very close…
The CNRP is questioning the results and calls for an internationally monitored investigation whereas the CPP agrees on an investigation set up by the existing NEC (National Election Committee) which is considered as extremely close to the still ruling party. Both sides are now locked into a tense political game.
Together with the demographic factor of hundreds of thousands of young voters who are not fooled by a layer of undeniable development of the country on top of a corrupt-ridden and ageing leadership, there is no question the return of Sam Rainsy orchestrated by his political ennemy has played a huge role in the outcome of the vote.
The flight is over and the jetlag persists. I hate the travelling part to be somewhere else. Somewhere else is home now. Back in Phnom Penh, time to catch up with what’s up…
A last visit to the Atomium, the place where I took my first photographs in 1958 with a Kodak Brownie given to me by my father, and I’m flying back to Phnom Penh today, trying to catch up with post-elections developments there.
More on Belgium at these links: here, here, and here. And more recently here and here.
Only ONE day left before flying back to Phnom Penh… My short yearly trip to Europe has three advantages: I can eat strawberries for breakfast, and I can scan old negatives while AT THE SAME TIME watching the Tour de France. But the Tour de France is finished since several days now. And the holidays are nearly finished as well.
Pictures about elections in Kashmir in 1996 but never used. You can see the other photographs of the story here on my website. The only time I was shot at (by a poor marksman)…
