His real family survived the "killing fields" and currently living in the US. What a homecoming for this gentleman- even though the current Prime Minister, Hun Sen, was one of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge! Incredible!
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Posted on 11/28/2010 4:48:56 PM PST by greatdefender
PHNOM PENH (AFP) – When the destroyer USS Mustin docks in Cambodia next week it will be more than just a routine mission for the ship's commander.
Michael Misiewicz is Cambodian by birth and was just a child when he was wrenched from his family and homeland 37 years ago, to be sent away from the country to escape the civil war with the Khmer Rouge.
He has not set foot on Cambodian soil since.
"I have been fighting a lot of emotions about coming back to my native country," said Misiewicz, who was born Vannak Khem, of his impending return.
"To know that I've got relatives there that have wanted to see me for decades... I don't know if I will be able to hold back the tears," he told AFP by telephone aboard the US warship.
The 43-year-old was a small boy in the early 1970s when Cambodia was engulfed in a civil war between government troops and communist Khmer Rouge fighters.
In 1973, his father arranged for him to be adopted by an American woman who worked at the US embassy and was preparing to leave the increasingly dangerous country.
The move meant Misiewicz avoided one of the most brutal chapters of 20th century history -- the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime that caused the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and execution.
"At that age I was a happy-go-lucky kid. I really didn't have any sense of the war or bad things going on in Cambodia," said Misiewicz, recalling that he had no qualms about leaving.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
His real family survived the "killing fields" and currently living in the US. What a homecoming for this gentleman- even though the current Prime Minister, Hun Sen, was one of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge! Incredible!
Great story! Thanks for posting.
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