The Cambodia Land Mine Museum

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
10:03 PM ICT
The Cambodia Land Mine Museum
32km outside Siem Reap, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia

Today, I visited the Cambodia Land Mine Museum, a small but amazing museum about Cambodia’s dark history of landmines. The wars of the twentieth century that ravaged Cambodia continue to affect Cambodian life in many ways. But among the worst of the reminders of war are landmines. Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. The mines come from the Khmer Rouge, who primarily laid them along the Vietnamese border, to help prevent an attack from the Vietnamese (who were raging a separate war with Cambodia throughout the 70s). But the mines also come from the Vietnamese themselves, from the Soviets, and, of course, from the Americans. American planes dropped thousands and thousands of landmines over the countryside. Many of the mines are about the size and shape of a large hockey puck – easily disguised in tall grass, in the water in Cambodia’s many many rice paddies, or even mistaken as toys by Cambodian children.

It is estimated that, even today, there are somewhere between 3 and 6 million active landmines around (of course, there are no official records of how many or where they are). You do see landmine victims around a lot – the NGO where I’ve been working is right near a physical disability rehabilitation centre, and you see quite a few people – adults and children – missing limbs, scarred from old burns.

The Land Mine Museum itself – besides documenting the tragedy of landmines – is perhaps most impressive for its founder, a Khmer man named Aki Ra. Aki Ra was a child solider with the Khmer Rouge. He learned to shoot a gun at age 5, before he could read. He worked for the Khmer Rouge, then for the Vietnamese when they took power, then for the Cambodian army, working as a miner – laying mines. At some point, though, he realized the error of his ways, and since the mid 90s, has been working tirelessly to clear landmines, often using little more than a shovel, a screwdriver, and a long tree branch. He has since worked with UN agencies and NGOs, helping them with his considerable experience both laying and clearing landmines. He estimates that he has likely cleared over 50 000 landmines over the years.

The museum, besides a lot of very interesting information and pictures of Aki Ra at work, is full of diffused landmines - literally thousands of them, in addition to heaps of other military implements – mortars, giant guns, even Khmer Rouge uniforms. And the museum also operates as a school for two dozen disadvantaged Cambodian children. And they do outreach to teach Cambodian people how to recognize mines, and what to do if they see one.

As an added bonus, the museum (slash school slash outreach centre) is funded through a Canadian NGO (woo Canada!) called The Cambodia Land Mine Museum Relief Fund. It seems to be about as worthwhile a cause as you could find.