PHOTO: Cambodian-American refugee speaks to Oswego students

ARN CHORN-POND, a Cambodian-American refugee featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary “The Flute Player,” speaks Nov. 3 to a small group as one of the highlights of the annual Hart Hall Global Awareness Conference. An internationally known human rights leader, speaker and trainer, Chorn-Pond was sent to a children’s work camp after the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia in 1975. He escaped execution and starvation by playing his flute for the camp’s guards, and escaped in 1979 when Vietnamese troops invaded the Southeast Asian country. Chorn-Pond, who founded Cambodian Living Arts, was keynote speaker for the two-day conference, which is supported through an anonymous bequest to the Oswego College Foundation from a deceased faculty member.