Prize winner vows to make Cambodia landmine-free

Ra Aki poses for a photo in a Cambodian jungle while working to remove mines in this undated photo. Courtesy of the AsiaN

08-12-2012
By Kim Se-jeong
The Korea Times

A winner of the Manhae Peace Prize said his de-mining project will continue until his fellow Cambodians have safe land to cultivate crops and build houses.

“If I clear landmines, village people can use (the land) to build houses and to plant crops. (I want) to make land for them to use safely,” said Ra Aki wearing a camouflage jacket during an interview with The Korea Times, Sunday.

He received the prize Sunday. The 16th Manhae Grand Prize, conferred by the Manhae Foundation, gives prizes in categories of peace, social service, academic excellence, art, literature and missionary work.

Aki Ra, 2010 CNN Heroes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx4Bz2IZWmg

Cambodia's Demining Hero

Aki Ra (Photo: Courtesy of Cambodia Self-Help Demining Organization)

The U.S. Department of State salutes Aki Ra, founder of Cambodian Self-Help Demining.

10-27-2010

Voice of America

Editorials

Today, Cambodia has one amputee for every 290 people, one of the highest ratios in the world.

The United States Department of State salutes Aki Ra, founder of Cambodian Self-Help Demining, for being named by the Cable News Network, CNN, as one of the Top Ten Heroes for 2010.

Aki Ra, a former Khmer Rouge child soldier, has been clearing mines since 1992, when he received training from United Nations personnel who came to Cambodia to restore peace. In 1993, Aki Ra continued to clear mines on his own, using crude equipment he fashioned himself. In 2005, he went to the United Kingdom to receive formal training and accreditation for demining.

In 2008, Aki Ra formed his own demining organization with former soldiers and war crime victims. Aki Ra has estimated that he and his organization have cleared about 50,000 mines and unexploded munitions, and made safe some 160,000 square meters of land, mainly in the war-troubled area in northwest Cambodia.

Aki Ra, who lost his family during Cambodia’s internal conflicts, was conscripted as a child soldier by the Communist Khmer Rouge regime. The Khmer Rouge was responsible for an estimated 1.5 million Cambodian deaths. Aki Ra recalled that he was about 10 years old when he was given a rifle as tall as he was. For 3 years, Aki Ra worked as a mine layer for the Khmer Rouge. He estimated that he planted as many as 4,000 to 5,000 mines in a month.

The Cambodian Mine Action and Victims Assistance Authority estimated that 4 to 6 million land mines were planted during three decades of conflict. About 63,000 Cambodians have been maimed, and 19,000 were killed. Today, Cambodia has one amputee for every 290 people, one of the highest ratios in the world.

Aki Ra and other Cambodians are working with assistance from many nations in clearing mines. The United States is the world’s leading provider of financial and technical assistance. Worldwide, the United States provides more than $1.8 billion to support humanitarian mine action, contributing toward a dramatic global reduction in casualties. Since 1993, the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program has invested more than $71 million in clearing mines in Cambodia. The United Sates is proud to recognize the work of Aki Ra and other brave men and women in clearing mines in Cambodia.

Deminer Sets Sights on CNN's Top Hero Award

Aki Ra, the former Khmer Rouge soldier, plans to expand his demining project should he wins CNN's Top Hero Award. (Photo: Courtesy of Cambodia Self-Help Demining Organization)

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Friday, 22 October 2010

“When the war was over, I thought differently and wanted to do good deeds to change the faults of my past and to help the country.”

A former Khmer Rouge soldier who has been nominated for a CNN broadcasting “Top Hero” award says he plans to expand his demining project if he wins.

Aki Ra, who runs the Cambodia Self-Help Demining Organization, told VOA Khmer he hoped to grow his organization to be able to demine the rest of Cambodia and move on to other countries.

Cambodia remains littered with mines and unexploded ordinance left from decades of civil war. Aki Ra, who is 40, has been demining since 1993, without technical guidance or assistance.

He offered advice to those who may mistakenly wander into a mine field: backtrack. “Remember the footprints,” he said. One can walk on logs or rocks to escape the field, as well, he said.

This, he said, taught him the fastest, easiest methods for clearing mine fields.

“When the war was over, I thought differently and wanted to do good deeds to change the faults of my past and to help the country,” he said.

His project now includes 25 staff in Banteay Meanchey and Battambang provinces, but he said now he is short of funding and equipment.

The CNN Heroes award is a contest that highlights community work of activists around the world.

Mine Clearance Activist Earns CNN 'Hero' Honor

An image of Cambodia Self-Help Demining organization website. (Photo: VOA, Khmer)

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington, D.C Wednesday, 29 September 2010

Aki Ra, 40, a former child soldier of the Khmer Rouge, established the Cambodia Self-Help Demining organization in 2008, to help people clear their land of the remnants of Cambodia's warring past.

Click here to vote for Aki Ra

A Cambodian demining activist has been chosen as a “Hero” by the international broadcaster CNN, in work that was also recognized by the US State Department.

Aki Ra, 40, a former child soldier of the Khmer Rouge, established the Cambodia Self-Help Demining organization in 2008, to help people clear their land of the remnants of Cambodia's warring past.

In a statement, the State Department said it “saluted” his work and his designation as one of CNN's Heros.

Bill Morse, international project manager for the group, said he was delighted to have recognition from the State Department. The demining organization has helped clear some 160,000 square meters of mines, focusing mainly on the war-troubled northwest, he said.

The State Department provided a $100,000 grant for 2009 and 2010 to help Aki Ra's team, the agency said in a statement. “Since 1993, the US Humanitarian Mine Action Program has invested more than $71 million in humanitarian mine action in Cambodia,” it said.

The Cambodian Mine Action Committee says mine and ordnance casualties fell from 271 to 243 from 2008 to 2009.

Aki Ra: CNN Top 10 Hero - Please vote for Aki Ra

Click here to vote for Aki Ra

[US] State Department Salutes Cambodian Humanitarian Demining Hero

Aki Ra

September 27, 2010
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC

The U.S. Department of State salutes Aki Ra, founder of Cambodian Self-Help Demining, for being named by CNN as one of the Top Ten Heroes for 2010. Aki Ra’s organization is supported by the Landmine Relief Fund, an American nongovernmental organization that is the recipient of U.S. Department of State funding.

Cambodia Self-Help Demining was established in 2008 and works to safely clear landmines and unexploded ordnance in rural areas of central Cambodia. In 2009 and 2010, the Department of State provided a $100,000 grant to Landmine Relief Fund to support Aki Ra’s clearance team.

The Landmine Relief Fund (www.landmine-relief-fund.com) is one of more than 60 members of the Public-Private Partnership Program for Conventional Weapons Destruction that collaborates with the Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. The mission is to clear landmines and explosive remnants of war, teach mine risk education, assist injured survivors of conflict, and destroy small arms, light weapons, and munitions that are excess to foreign countries’ needs.

The United States is the world’s leading provider of financial and technical assistance for humanitarian mine action. Since 1993, the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program has invested more than $71 million in humanitarian mine action in Cambodia. Worldwide, the United States spends more than $1.8 billion in mine action assistance, contributing toward a dramatic global reduction in casualties. To learn more about the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement’s programs, visit www.state.gov/t/pm/wra.

Cambodian Hero With Texas A&M Ties CNN’s “Hero Of The Week”

July 30, 2010
Texas A&M News & Information Services

CNN’s “Hero of the Week” is Aki Ra, a Cambodian whose land mine museum has ties to Texas A&M University. Ra is being featured this weekend on the network’s various stations.

Ra and his Self Help Demining organization have cleared about 50,000 mines and unexploded weapons since 1993. The Cambodian Land Mine Museum in Siem Reap, Cambodia, was Aggie-designed and partially funded by members of the Texas A&M student chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students, who held a fun run and a T-shirt sale to raise money for the project.

Footage from a documentary about Ra titled “A Perfect Soldier” premiered Thursday on CNN, CNN International, CNN Breaking News and CNN Espanol. Footage will be shown as part of the CNN Hero story, airing several times Friday and over the weekend, then being re-broadcast later in August.

Scheduled airings (adjusted to Central Time) are:

• Friday (July 30): 1-2 p.m. on CNN, 12:30 p.m., 4 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight on HLN; and 7 p.m. on CNNI.
• Saturday (July 31): 9 a.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. on CNN; 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. on HLN.
• Re-runs are schedule on Monday (Aug. 2), Tuesday (Aug. 3) and (Aug. 8).

For more details, go to http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/index.html. Future updates as well as behind-the-scenes video updates, pictures, and commentary from the filmmakers will be posted on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Perfect-Soldier/10150094017135644.

Aki Ra’s website for his project is http://www.cambodianselfhelpdemining.org/.

Texas A&M architecture student involvement in the Cambodian project began in fall 2003, when Richard Fitoussi, director of the Cambodian Land Mine Museum Relief Fund (CLMMRF), requested student designs for a new facility to replace the existing museum. Texas A&M architecture design studios participated and the design by students of Julie Rogers, a senior lecturer in architecture who has a special interest in Southeast Asian art and architecture, was chosen for the project. Rogers’ group of students consulted with professional architects on the design.

The museum site was dedicated in April 2007.

Palm Springs man helping to clear Cambodia of explosives

Bill Morse, who helped set up the Landmine Relief Fund in Cambodia, holds a Cambodian sign telling people to stay away from land mines. Morse used to own a marketing and sales consulting business, but now focuses his efforts on helping to clear land mines. (Omar Ornelas, The Desert Sun)

How to help

For more information, or to make a donation, visit www.landmine-relief-fund.com or www.cambodialandminemuseum.org.
Landmine Relief Fund
P.O. Box 4904
Palm Springs, CA 92263.

December 26, 2008
Stefanie Frith
The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California, USA)

The humidity is intense. More than 80 percent, on top of the 90-degree weather. He uses a kroma — a thin scarf — to wipe the sweat out of his blue eyes and over his closely cropped gray hair. He carries rice, water, Spam, Cup of Noodles, coffee and tea on his back. Maybe tonight there will be something else to eat with it other than rat.

Ahead of him in the Cambodian jungle, one of the metal detectors goes off with a “wow, wow” sound. A land mine has been found. Palm Springs resident Bill Morse never thought he would be running a charity to help clear the unexploded bombs and land mines in Cambodia.

Read Bill Morse's mydesert.com blog about his work in Cambodia.

He owned a marketing and sales consulting business, which he closed last year to focus his efforts in Cambodia. Now he spends up to eight months a year working in Cambodia, in the Landmine Relief Fund office or in the jungle, clearing land mines, eating whatever he can catch, and sleeping in huts or on the ground.

“There is a perception that Cambodia is handling it,” Morse said recently, sitting in his living room, surrounded by artifacts from his trips around the world. “Our objective is to clear land mines in low-priority villages.”

The land mines and bombs are from when the United States infiltrated the country and when the Khmer Rouge was in power in the 1970s, Morse said.

More than 500 people were injured from exploding land mines in Cambodia last year, Morse said. An estimated one in every 250 Cambodians has been injured since the 1980s, he said.

Finding Aki Ra
Five years ago, Morse traveled to Cambodia. He had heard of a man named Aki Ra from a friend who had raised money to buy him a metal detector so he didn't have to search for land mines by hand.

Aki Ra has cleared 50,000 land mines — and still has all his limbs. By age 5, he was orphaned. By age 10, he was fighting with the Khmer army, laying the land mines he would later seek to eliminate. When he was a soldier, he could lay 1,000 land mines a day. “Nobody kept a record,” Morse said.

He survived the genocide that killed 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979 — more than 20 percent of the country's population, according to Yale University's Cambodia Genocide Program.

It wasn't easy finding Aki Ra. He ran a land mine museum on a dirt road, but the hotel concierge either didn't know of it, or wouldn't tell Morse where it was. When he did find him, Morse said he was overwhelmed by this man, and knew he had to help.

Morse not only set up the Landmine Relief Fund and became its director, but he returned to Cambodia to help Aki Ra with international certification. He joined Aki Ra in the jungle, hunted for meals as they looked for land mines, and stood by his side as he located them in the ground.

“You dig the hole at an angle, so if you hit the land mine, you hit it on the side,” Morse said.

Land mines were never designed to kill, said Morse, who spent a year in the U.S. Army. Injuring people was more effective in the war — as the injured had to be carried by at least two people. This is not to say the mines haven't killed.

Recently, Aki Ra was clearing land mines in a village when the government ordered him to stop. Shortly after, five people were killed when their truck went over one.

Morse spends several months a year in Cambodia, working in the Landmine Relief Fund office and in the jungle with Aki Ra and a five-member crew. When land mines are found, the area is roped off and the devices are blown up. Morse said he used to stand next to Aki Ra as he did his work.

Now, with recent government accreditation, Morse said he goes into the area last and documents what the team does. It takes a team of five to clear the mines — four people are needed to carry a stretcher — he said.

There are several land mine clearing organizations in Cambodia. The issue gained prominence when Princess Diana campaigned for the clearing of devices. There are also several groups affiliated with the cause. Project Enlighten provides educational opportunities for children in Cambodia, including those living at the Landmine Museum run by Aki Ra.

Project Enlighten Founder Asad Rahman knows Morse well and said he is one of the “most honest and driven men” with whom he has worked.

“His vision and passion to help eradicate the land mine issue is unparalleled. He is a saint,” Rahman wrote in an e-mail from Laos to The Desert Sun.

Morse only wishes he could do more. Donations have dribbled recently and he said he would like to have a celebrity step in as a spokesperson to help gain publicity for the cause.

He wants to raise $45,000 to put another team of five into the Cambodian jungles. “I couldn't think of a better way to spend my money and my time. We are going after the stuff we left there. I'm (just) a janitor.”

A former Cambodian boy soldier defuses his past

Exhibiting his past: Aki Ra, above, in the courtyard of his Cambodia Landmine Museum shows a Russian-made antipersonnel mine that he found in the jungle and defused by hand. His childhood was spent laying such devices. (Photo: Annie Linskey)

Aki Ra laid mines with his bare hands for the Khmer Rouge and now takes them away to villagers' delight and official frustration.

January 08, 2008
By Annie Linskey
Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

Siem Reap, Cambodia
Walking through his new land-mine museum, Aki Ra picks up a Russian-made antipersonnel mine. He avoids touching the trigger pad even though he defused the device a long time ago.

"You hold like this, no problem," he says, pinching the sides of the coffee-cup-size mine. It's green, to match the Cambodian jungle where it once lay buried, threatening the life and limb of all who came near. Aki Ra is comfortable handling explosives. He grew up laying minefields for the Khmer Rouge. "I put mines around Siem Reap buildings, Otdar Meanchey, near the Thai border," he says. "I cannot forget that stuff."

He now works to undo that damage. Ten years ago he opened an ad hoc land-mine museum in his home. Back then, it was just a collection of mines that he'd defused, but it drew thousands of tourists who were in town to visit Angkor Wat and other famous temples. Last summer he moved the Cambodia Landmine Museum – to a building that architecture students at Texas A&M University designed to display his collection.

His willingness to show the mines to tourists has made him the unofficial face of the problem in Cambodia. Photo displays at the new museum present him as the little guy trying to make his country safe.

But in the world of official demining and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Aki Ra is unorthodox. He has had no formal education. He has an e-mail address but rarely checks it. He dislikes planning – if a village chief asks for help clearing mines, he's apt to stop off, impromptu, to help. His removal process involves creeping up to a mine, prodding the side of it with a stick, and plucking it out of the ground with his hands. Then he moves on. He doesn't keep records. Big demining groups, on the other hand, prioritize location and follow international safety standards. They grid minefields and painstakingly check every inch of land using metal detectors. They rarely touch land mines, preferring to blow them up with explosives. They keep careful records of the number of mines they find and the exact perimeter of the land cleared.

Aki Ra's methods irritate these big groups. The government here has temporarily banned him from clearing mines, so he has resigned himself to getting certified. This fall, an American sponsor helped him attend demining courses in England; now he is applying for a license. He has lots of support: At least five foreign groups raise money for his projects, the former Canadian ambassador to Cambodia has lobbied on his behalf, and the Cambodian minister in charge of land-mine clearance is carefully complimentary.

"I admire him," says Sam Sotha, of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority. "When he first started, he was very small. He started something from empty hands. From scratch. Alone. Now he has his name. His reputation is all over."

• • •

As Aki Ra's reputation has grown, he's become more reticent. He agreed to a interview only after prodding from a donor. "People ask the same questions about my life and my background," he says.

But bits and pieces of his life do emerge in a conversation that, though foggy and inconsistent in places, reveals a story of survival and success against the odds. As an orphan who became a boy soldier in the Khmer Rouge, he hunted deer and wild boar using an AK-47. He laid land mines around homes and farms, sometimes to kill animals for food, sometimes to kill villagers. "My friends, many of them are dead," he says. "Some are still alive but no legs. No arms."

In 1979, as the Vietnamese Army swept through Cambodia, Aki Ra was forced to join them, fighting against the Khmer Rouge and laying more land mines. Later, he joined the Cambodian Army. Then, in 1994, the United Nations taught Aki Ra how to clear land mines.

Walking through the museum, he shows mines he retrieved, including a stack of antitank mines, each as wide as a dinner plate. In one corner are stacks of Bouncing Betties, fearsome bombs that look like soda cans but shoot up from the ground, exploding at waist level.

The mine problem is very real in Cambodia. Between January 2006 and August 2007, 300 people were killed or injured by land mines, according to the Cambodia Mine/UXO Victim Information System. In the same time, there were 415 casualties from UXO or unexploded ordnance, like the thousands dropped by US forces on the Vietnam-Cambodia border before Pol Pot rose to power.

• • •

Professional mine clearers view Aki Ra's museum and methods as an affront to their own careful work. Where are the fields he's cleared? Are they really safe? Or is he giving villagers a false sense of security?

"I've received many complaints," says Mr. Sotha.

Tim Porter, program manager for HALO Trust, a Western NGO that employs 1,100 deminers in Cambodia, rolls his eyes when Aki Ra is mentioned: "[He] is promoting himself off the back of a problem that exists. Those people who get involved [with his cause] when they're on holiday in Cambodia don't get the full picture and that is wrong."

While demining NGOs focus on areas considered high priority, Aki Ra has won friends by going to low-priority villages. A few years ago, he cleared unexploded bombs for a neighbor – a Japanese expatriate named Morimoto Kikuo, who hasn't forgotten.

After walking though the museum, Aki Ra takes his family – including a 3-year-old son named Mine, as in land mine – to a party at Mr. Kikuo's farm. Kikuo describes Aki Ra this way: "He's like a soldier still. Someone has ordered him to demine. If he cannot demine, he cannot live."

Toward the end of a meal of rice, meat, fish, eggs, and soup, Aki Ra's cellphone rings. He gestures frantically for a pen. It's "Mr. Bomb," an old friend and demining partner from Australia. Aki Ra writes his hotel room number down on his palm and motions that it's time to go.

Mr. Bomb, aka Tony Bower-Miles, and another Australian are visiting for three months. "We're here to help this country and help Aki Ra," says Mr. Bomb, pointing to four nylon cases in the corner of his hotel room, each containing a metal detector. Mr. Bomb, who fought in Vietnam and has no license to remove land mines here, has arranged for an Australian TV crew to tape them. "You need to tell them your story," Mr. Bomb tells Aki Ra. "It could raise a million dollars."

Aki Ra just looks sad. He's tired of telling his story.

Later, he goes to a simple Siem Reap bathhouse because the running water at his house isn't working properly. He stretches out in a whirlpool and reiterates that it is hard for him to talk about the past. Even though life is better now, he says he has nightmares when he talks about the Khmer Rouge. Unexpected loud noises scare him. He says he's breathed too much TNT, drunk too much bad water in the jungles.

"When I'm finished with land mines in Cambodia, I think I'll forget about all the bad things, the war, the land mines," he says. "I will farm."