Most of this region, and Cambodia especially, has had a long history of violence in recent times. A trip to the Cambodian Land Mine Museum illustrated how the legacy of these wars live on. The statistics of the number of landmines and 'dud' shells (UXO) that are still in the country is astounding. They estimate that there are millions of these things still in the ground. At many of the Wats there are little groups of men missing limbs playing music for tips from the tourist to raise money. One (and no) legged folks are a common sights in Cambodia, but I never put the two together. Evidently, children are the most common victims as they tend to play in wooded areas and off of the well traveled paths, and also they don't know to stay away from mines when they find them. When I thought about it, this really seems to add insult to injury. Not only are these the poorest people I've ever seen, but they also have to worry about their kids being killed by mines. Ironically, the US government deployed and supplied the majority of these mines, and yet they aren't aiding in the clean up, nor have they signed the landmine band. I also learned the nifty fact that landmines are designed to mame, not kill, because a wounded solder is more of a liability to the enemy then a dead solder (they have to use resources to care for the wounded ones).
The whole thing also made me realize how much other countries have influence the wars in Cambodia (well, lots of other places too). None of the landmines and munitions which were used in this country were built in there, they were all build in the US, the USSR or China. Cambodia has been pushed and pulled over and over by the big guys. It would be interesting to see how they would look today if all that energy had been spent making the place better instead of bombing it.
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