Eighty mostly young Cambodians and a smattering of resident foreigners gathered on September 12 for the opening of the House of Friendship with Cuba (Casa Cuba). Casa Cuba is the initiative of the Association of Cambodians Graduated in Cuba.
After the overthrow of the horrific Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, Cuba contributed to the rebuilding of Cambodia by providing scholarships for education in Cuba. Through the 1980s and 1990s, more than 100 Cambodians completed university degrees in Cuba.
Hem Chanly, who studied in Cuba in the 1980s, told the meeting that many Cambodians at that time thought of Cuba "as a communist country with dictatorship, violation of human rights and poverty".
The reality was quite different. "This communist country and its people spend a lot for students from many other countries. The people of Cuba give us the support we need and consider us as part of their own lives."
The meeting also heard from San Seidarong, who also studied in Cuba and is the president of the local committee seeking the freedom of the Cuban Five — unjustly jailed in the United States for the "crime" of seeking to prevent terrorist attacks. Ivette, a moving short film about the daughter of one of the five was also shown.
Casa Cuba is establishing a library and planning cultural performances.