ANUCHA CHAROENPO
Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Sa Kaeo - One of the most landmine-infested areas in the country will be redeveloped as another Thai-Cambodian border market when 40 civilian deminers finish their mine clearance operation.
Clearing of the 70 rai area of public land at Ban Thung Ruang Thong village in tambon Klong Nam Sai of Aranyaprathet district began early this month.
The operation is being carried out by the General Chatichai Choonhavan Foundation and the Thailand Mine Action Centre. The work is expected to take about four months.
The villagers sought help from the two organisations to remove the countless mines laid in the area during the civil war in Cambodia in the 1970s.
"We believe that the market will stimulate economic activities between the two countries," said village chief Aree Ploymalee.
"Many jobless Thai and Cambodian people will no longer have to struggle to make ends meet because they can bring goods to sell at this market.
"And if possible we want it to be as famous as Rong Klua border market." Rong Klua market, a nearby border trading point for Thai and Cambodian merchants, is widely known as a place to buy and sell leatherware and used clothes. It is opposite Poipet, in Ochrov district of Cambodia's Bantaey Meanchay province.
Mr Aree said the new border market project, only about 500 metres from Phanom Malai district in Bantaey Meanchay, was initiated by his village committee and supported by a development military unit of the Burapa Task Force.
The army will also use the village as a temporary border crossing point.
Mr Aree said most villagers earn their living growing rice and collecting forest products, but this work is not available all year round.
After harvesting, these villagers have no work for four months every year. Many young people and couples have had to leave for Bangkok and other industrial areas to find jobs, he said.
They left their children behind with their grandparents.
Mr Aree said part of the cleared area would be dug up and turned into a reservoir for all villagers to use during the dry season.
Mr Aree, 49, is one of five people in the village who have lost a leg to landmines. He stepped on one in a rice field in 1975, the year Khmer Rouge guerillas led by Pol Pot took control of Phnom Penh.
He said the many other disabled victims of mines in the border district would also benefit from the planned market.
They could open small shops selling goods and lottery tickets.
Suthikiet Sopanik, the foundation's director, said he was certain that the 40 deminers would finish the operation within the given time, so that the market could open soon. He said the deminers were all villagers from mine-infested areas in Sa Kaeo province.
They had passed a training course on mine clearance at the Military School of Craftsmanship at Phanurangsee Camp in Ratchaburi province. The course lasted 10 weeks.
Clearing of the 70 rai area of public land at Ban Thung Ruang Thong village in tambon Klong Nam Sai of Aranyaprathet district began early this month.
The operation is being carried out by the General Chatichai Choonhavan Foundation and the Thailand Mine Action Centre. The work is expected to take about four months.
The villagers sought help from the two organisations to remove the countless mines laid in the area during the civil war in Cambodia in the 1970s.
"We believe that the market will stimulate economic activities between the two countries," said village chief Aree Ploymalee.
"Many jobless Thai and Cambodian people will no longer have to struggle to make ends meet because they can bring goods to sell at this market.
"And if possible we want it to be as famous as Rong Klua border market." Rong Klua market, a nearby border trading point for Thai and Cambodian merchants, is widely known as a place to buy and sell leatherware and used clothes. It is opposite Poipet, in Ochrov district of Cambodia's Bantaey Meanchay province.
Mr Aree said the new border market project, only about 500 metres from Phanom Malai district in Bantaey Meanchay, was initiated by his village committee and supported by a development military unit of the Burapa Task Force.
The army will also use the village as a temporary border crossing point.
Mr Aree said most villagers earn their living growing rice and collecting forest products, but this work is not available all year round.
After harvesting, these villagers have no work for four months every year. Many young people and couples have had to leave for Bangkok and other industrial areas to find jobs, he said.
They left their children behind with their grandparents.
Mr Aree said part of the cleared area would be dug up and turned into a reservoir for all villagers to use during the dry season.
Mr Aree, 49, is one of five people in the village who have lost a leg to landmines. He stepped on one in a rice field in 1975, the year Khmer Rouge guerillas led by Pol Pot took control of Phnom Penh.
He said the many other disabled victims of mines in the border district would also benefit from the planned market.
They could open small shops selling goods and lottery tickets.
Suthikiet Sopanik, the foundation's director, said he was certain that the 40 deminers would finish the operation within the given time, so that the market could open soon. He said the deminers were all villagers from mine-infested areas in Sa Kaeo province.
They had passed a training course on mine clearance at the Military School of Craftsmanship at Phanurangsee Camp in Ratchaburi province. The course lasted 10 weeks.
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