The Bunong people of Cambodia are a people under siege. One of several hill tribe groups that inhabit the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam border highlands, the Bunong (also referred to as the Phnong) lead a precarious existence in their traditional forest homeland in the highlands of eastern Cambodia. Survivors of the wars that ravaged Southeast Asia in the 1970s, the Bunong today face new internal and outside forces that threaten their continued existence.

But the Bunong are not without friends. Refugees International (RI), a 28-year-old organization that provides effective solutions to refugee crises, has worked assiduously in recent years on behalf of the Bunong. Lionel Rosenblatt, Refugees International’s President Emeritus, became aware of the Bunong’s plight when he found members of the group going home in a UN convoy in 1999. The Bunong and other indigenous groups were among the last of 250,000 refugees returning to their homes in Cambodia and they received far less assistance from the UN than those who had been repatriated earlier when the budget had been more generous.

With advice from the Bunong and Rosenblatt’s guidance, Refugees International has focused attention on specific areas that can help the Bunong maintain their ethnic identity while adapting to the realities of the 21st century. These areas include education, health care, the promotion of traditional handicrafts, and helping the Bunong find their own political voice. RI has also played a major role in resurrecting traditional Bunong weaving.

Refugees International, in partnership with Cambodia Corps Inc., supports a high school for orphaned Bunong youth in Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province. A handful of graduates of the school are now in college in Phnom Penh.

RI has also urged the Royal Cambodian government, the United Nations, and other international aid organizations to help stem the hijacking of Bunong land by outsiders and to create a system for respecting Bunong property rights and cultural identity.