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The founder of the Cambodian Land Mine Museum, Aki Ra, was an orphan and a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge. Receiving his first rifle at the age of ten, he himself laid hundreds of mines. He joined the United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia in 1994, where he was trained to disarm the countless mines still spread throughout the country.
Land mines are designed more for suffering than for death. The point is to maim, not kill – a dead soldier can simply be buried and left behind, but a wounded one can slow down a whole team. They are one of the cheapest and most cost-effective instruments of war in the world – they can be made for as little as a dollar, using little more than gunpowder and some nails.
In 1997, Aki Ra bought a parcel of land outside Siam Reap, where he housed his decommissioned weaponry. The government of Cambodia didn’t care for the place, and often accused Aki Ra of running a market in illegal weaponry. At the same time, his de facto museum became a safe haven for most common Cambodian land mine victims: children, with missing limbs.
His museum’s continued survival is thanks in part to international attention, and its unexpected success as a tourist destination. The museum has recently undergone renovations, and exhibits rounded by chicken wire have made way for plexiglass. The new facilities enjoyed their grand opening in April, 2007.