MR. BUN RITH KUY
BORN IN 1947 IN PHNOM PENH, LIVES IN SOUTH AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND.

​​At the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, Bun Rith returned to his home in Phnom Penh. There he resumed his former work as a nurse at a hospital, Pet Lok Sang (known as the ‘monk hospital’). At the end of 1979, he decided to escape to the border. He went to many camps in Thailand such as Rithy Sen, Nong Chan, Site II and Khao I Dang.
He lived unofficially at the camps with his wife and daughter, facing many difficulties as they were not provided with food or any other materials. They had to hide underground or under the toilets when the Thai police came to survey the camps.
Bun Rith said: “Being refugees, we lost everything. But we did not lose our belief and hopes.” In 1985, through the assistance of the UN, they were sent to a refugee camp, Jaratin, in Malaysia. There they had to convert to Islam. Some Cambodians were not happy about this. They then moved again to an island camp, Pulau Bidong. While living there, Bun Rith and his wife were able to plant some herbs such as basil (Chi Neang Vorng) to sell. In 1988, using money saved from selling basil, he decided to buy a watch for 70 ringgits through a UN staff member.
To him, this watch is more than just a watch. It is a great souvenir of his experiences, not only telling the time but also signifying his emergence from a difficult period of his life. Bun Rith and his family first arrived in Dunedin in 1988 and moved to Auckland in 1994.