Sunday, September 13, 2009

Aki Ra Clears Cambodian Landminds by Hand

Three decades of war in Cambodia left many landmines all over the country. These landmines were scattered throughout the country side by the Khmer Rouge, the Heng Samrin and Hun Sen regimes, the Vietnamese, the KPNLF, and the Sihanoukists. Unfortunately many of these landmines were undocumented, and as a consequence upwards of 40,000 Cambodians have been victims of landmine blasts from 1979 through the present.

I loved my time in Cambodia, though I only visited Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor. The people were so friendly and the Temples were amazing. Cambodia is a dangerous place to visit though, you must always stick to the path because of active undocumented landmines still out there.

This video I randomly found shows a man named Aki Ra, a former child solider in the Khmer Rouge's army, finding and disarming landmines with nothing more than a stick and knife. This is a truly courageous act, but it doesn't just stop there. Apparently Aki also houses and pays for the schooling of children that were victims of landmines.

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