Lao Mong Hay Awarded Un Medal

A democracy advocate and former exile has been awarded the prestigious Nansen Medal by the UN for his work with refugees after the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge. Lao Mong Hay, a leading Cambodian intellectual who was a refugee in Britain from 1975 to 1993 when he returned to start the Khmer Institute for Democracy, said an unspecified cash award accompanying the medal would be used to start a humanitarian foundation. "It is gratifying that my work has been recognized and it is satisfying for my wife and children in Britain, who have been deprived of the care of a husband and father because of my being with the refugees and now in Cambodia," he said. The award is named after Norwegian explorer and humanitarian FRIDTJOF NANSEN, who was the first high commissioner for refugees for the League of Nations, the forerunner to the UN. The award this year also went to ABUNE PAULOS, the orthodox patriarch of Ethiopia, JELENA SILAJDZIC, a Bosnian film producer, and Argentine pianist MIGUEL ANGEL ESTRELLA.