Originally published in Village Life Magazine, October/November 2006
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'I want to make my country safe for my people,' says Aki Ra, better known as Akira. It's a nice sentiment that means a whole lot more when the story behind those words is known. Like so many Cambodian's, Akira was conscripted into the Khmer Rouge as a child soldier during the mid to late 1970's. As part of the Khmer Rouge, one of Akira's jobs was to lay landmines and it is landmines that have changed his life. It is estimated that between 6 million and 11 million landmines are still active and in the ground throughout Cambodia. With them is countless unexploded ordnance (UXO) that includes bombs, mortars, grenades and bullets; many of which are connected to trip wires and rigged as booby traps. The terrifying figure is 800 people are killed or wounded in Cambodia every year. A conservative figure is two people will step on a landmine or walk through a trip wire, every single day still. Now a man in his mid thirties, Akira has dedicated his life to the removal of mines and UXO throughout Cambodia. In doing so, Akira and his wife Hourt have adopted many landmine victims who stay with them at their home and museum in Siem Reap. Just one example of the plight that still affects Cambodia is Sopphart. Sopphart comes from Popei in Cambodia's north. One day while collecting firewood with his older brothers, Sopphart stepped on a mine that blew off his foot. Hearing the explosion, his brothers, who were a short distance away, ran towards him to help. As they did, one of them ran through a tripwire connected to a fragmentation grenade. That grenade killed his brothers instantly and a fragment from the grenade blinded him in one eye. Within seconds, Sopphart had lost his foot, his eye and his two brothers. When news reaches Akira from a village like Popei, he simply travels there, goes to where the mine was detonated and finds and disarms all the others. Having spent so much of his early life laying landmines, Akira knows the patterns in which they were laid and where to look. On a good day, Akira will astonishingly find between 100 and 200 mines. With the extent of the landmine situation and resultant devastation in Cambodia, Akira's dedication to the removal of every mine and unexploded ordnance, is in a realm beyond admirable. Through sheer determination he will make his country safe for his people. |
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