Traumatic Landmine Stories
By Kimbery Sarna
Siem Reap, Cambodia
This was just purely depressing. We went out to the Cambodian Landmine Museum. This isn't your typical museum, it was essentially a shack about 25 minutes down a desolate dirt road. The museum was set up, and is still run, by an ex Pol Pot soldier. He was one of the men that was ordered to set up land mines throughout Cambodia in the 1980's during the time of war. He now devotes his life to finding and clearing land mines left behind. It is estimated that 6 million mines may still be left in the country. He also uses the museum's funds to help children affected from the land mines. The boy that was speaking to us, teaching us about the various forms of torturous mines, and where they are from, had himself been a victim of an explosion.
When he was 15 he was running through his families rice field with his two brothers and one sister, the same field they played in everyday. Well, as he was running, he stepped on a land mine. He doesn't remember what happened afterwards. But he was thrown, saving his life, but loosing his leg. His brothers and sister were not so lucky. The shards of metal planted in the mine took each of their lives. When he woke, he was in a hospital in Siem Reap, to the news that all of his siblings had died from the mine he had stepped on. He now lives at this "museum", guiding people through the devastating facts and problems still in Cambodia. This was just the beginning of the saddening and aggravating information we learned in Cambodia.
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