A Cambodian landmine victim plays volleyball (Photo: AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)Sunday, August 05, 2007
As a young soldier battling the Khmer Rouge along the border with Vietnam, Puch Sarum knew the war would end some day and dreamed of having a good life in a peaceful Cambodia.
KEAN KLEANG, Cambodia (AFP) - One wrong step nearly 20 years ago changed all of that. Puch Sarum's left leg was destroyed by a landmine.
Mutilated, he found himself shunned; unable to work, Puch Sarum soon was destitute -- impoverished in an already desperately poor country that was unable to cope with the tens of thousands of victims of its brutal civil war.
But in 1993 Puch Sarum began playing volleyball, joining dozens of other men with similar disabilities who, on the court at least, had found a place again in society.
"I was reborn," says Puch Sarum, now 38, glancing at his prosthetic leg which hangs in the window of his one-room house on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh.
Turning around the tragedy of war, Cambodia has pulled together one of the world's best disabled volleyball teams comprised almost entirely of landmine victims.
Late this year, it will host the sport's World Cup, the first major international team sporting event to be held in the battered country.
Cambodian landmine victims play volleyball (Photo: AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)
Ranked number one in the Asia-Pacific region, the Cambodian men's team hopes to clinch the title when it competes against at least 12 other international teams from November 24 to December 2.
Current champions Canada have already confirmed their attendance along with Australia, Germany, India, Malaysia, Poland, Rwanda and Slovakia.
Negotiations are also under way with Afghanistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka to participate, while China is sending a team of observers.
"This is a very important step," says Chris Minko, secretary-general of the Cambodian National Volleyball League (Disabled), or CNVLD, which he founded in 2002 for amputees.
Not only does the tournament put Cambodia on the path to host more sporting events, Minko says, but it also draws attention to the plight of the country's 40,000 amputees, many of whom are still forced to the fringes of society.
"Most (of these) athletes are landmine victims -- their participation at international sporting competitions and their success can raise the awareness of the terrible injuries these weapons cause," said Cambodian national team coach Christian Zepp.
Cambodian landmine victims play volleyball (Photo: AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)
Despite feverish demining efforts that began in the early 1990s, Cambodia remains littered with millions of landmines and other unexploded munitions that continue to kill or maim an average of two people each day.
Some 160 amputees currently play on the CNVLD's 17 teams. A decade ago, some were on opposite sides of the frontline, fighting for either the government or the communist Khmer Rouge, which existed as a rebel movement into the 1990s.
"But we are friends now," says Som Chok, a 42 year-old former soldier who told AFP he wanted to commit suicide after losing his right leg while fighting the Khmer Rouge near the Thai border.
"Now I've become normal because the people here are all disabled," he says, adding of his former enemies: "We play volleyball happily together and sometimes we forget we are disabled."
Except for the tell-tale prosthetic limbs, observers might also forget they are watching amputees, as the players jump, lunge and dart around the volleyball court with surprising skill and agility.
"I want to win the World Cup with this very special team," says Zepp, who will spend nine weeks here training the squad -- currently ranked fourth in the world -- for what will likely be a stiff competition.
"We really have a chance to be the world's new number one," he added.
Since Minko started the CNVLD, his teams won gold at the 2002 FESPIC Games, Asia's equivalent of the Paralympics.
"Cambodian athletes are recognised as reaching a new level of agility amongst amputees," says Minko, who sees sport as important for re-integrating the disabled.
"Sport is a powerful tool in the process of rebuilding post-conflict societies ... sport can be seen as a symbolic blueprint of social values and cultural norms," the CNVLD says on its website.
Puch Sarum agrees, saying that he has finally rejoined the peacetime world he dreamt about so long ago.
"Although we are landmine victims, we have to stand up," he says.
KEAN KLEANG, Cambodia (AFP) - One wrong step nearly 20 years ago changed all of that. Puch Sarum's left leg was destroyed by a landmine.
Mutilated, he found himself shunned; unable to work, Puch Sarum soon was destitute -- impoverished in an already desperately poor country that was unable to cope with the tens of thousands of victims of its brutal civil war.
But in 1993 Puch Sarum began playing volleyball, joining dozens of other men with similar disabilities who, on the court at least, had found a place again in society.
"I was reborn," says Puch Sarum, now 38, glancing at his prosthetic leg which hangs in the window of his one-room house on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh.
Turning around the tragedy of war, Cambodia has pulled together one of the world's best disabled volleyball teams comprised almost entirely of landmine victims.
Late this year, it will host the sport's World Cup, the first major international team sporting event to be held in the battered country.
Cambodian landmine victims play volleyball (Photo: AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)Ranked number one in the Asia-Pacific region, the Cambodian men's team hopes to clinch the title when it competes against at least 12 other international teams from November 24 to December 2.
Current champions Canada have already confirmed their attendance along with Australia, Germany, India, Malaysia, Poland, Rwanda and Slovakia.
Negotiations are also under way with Afghanistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka to participate, while China is sending a team of observers.
"This is a very important step," says Chris Minko, secretary-general of the Cambodian National Volleyball League (Disabled), or CNVLD, which he founded in 2002 for amputees.
Not only does the tournament put Cambodia on the path to host more sporting events, Minko says, but it also draws attention to the plight of the country's 40,000 amputees, many of whom are still forced to the fringes of society.
"Most (of these) athletes are landmine victims -- their participation at international sporting competitions and their success can raise the awareness of the terrible injuries these weapons cause," said Cambodian national team coach Christian Zepp.
Cambodian landmine victims play volleyball (Photo: AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)Despite feverish demining efforts that began in the early 1990s, Cambodia remains littered with millions of landmines and other unexploded munitions that continue to kill or maim an average of two people each day.
Some 160 amputees currently play on the CNVLD's 17 teams. A decade ago, some were on opposite sides of the frontline, fighting for either the government or the communist Khmer Rouge, which existed as a rebel movement into the 1990s.
"But we are friends now," says Som Chok, a 42 year-old former soldier who told AFP he wanted to commit suicide after losing his right leg while fighting the Khmer Rouge near the Thai border.
"Now I've become normal because the people here are all disabled," he says, adding of his former enemies: "We play volleyball happily together and sometimes we forget we are disabled."
Except for the tell-tale prosthetic limbs, observers might also forget they are watching amputees, as the players jump, lunge and dart around the volleyball court with surprising skill and agility.
"I want to win the World Cup with this very special team," says Zepp, who will spend nine weeks here training the squad -- currently ranked fourth in the world -- for what will likely be a stiff competition.
"We really have a chance to be the world's new number one," he added.
Since Minko started the CNVLD, his teams won gold at the 2002 FESPIC Games, Asia's equivalent of the Paralympics.
"Cambodian athletes are recognised as reaching a new level of agility amongst amputees," says Minko, who sees sport as important for re-integrating the disabled.
"Sport is a powerful tool in the process of rebuilding post-conflict societies ... sport can be seen as a symbolic blueprint of social values and cultural norms," the CNVLD says on its website.
Puch Sarum agrees, saying that he has finally rejoined the peacetime world he dreamt about so long ago.
"Although we are landmine victims, we have to stand up," he says.
1 comment:
This is pitiful,
I am very proud see my Cambodian beloved one not giving up any hope so easily,
this is the real blood who built the Ankor, but one more last hope is all Cambodian
unite it and kick out dictator leaders from Cambodian 's back.
We can do it as long as we have hope.
912
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