Stationed with a unit of the Vietnamese Army
By Mr. Aki Ra |
The following articles are from a packet from the Siem Reap Landmine Museum. It shares some of the authors' experiences while there was fighting amongst various armies during the war.
It was 1988 and I was stationed with a unit of the Vienamese Army in a small town of strategic importance called Kting, about 50 Km north of Siem Reap. Our unit consisted of about 40 soldiers and so far we had been very successful at fighting the numerous Khmer Rouge units in the area. At night, the Vietnamese Army would have 2 patrols, each of 5 men, on guard while the others slept. At any one time, one would be on 'search' and the other at rest. On this particular night, whilst I was in the rest patrol, the Khmer Rouge decided to attack our unit. They planned their attack carefully, striking one end of the camp when the search patrol was at the other end. Our unit was taken by surprise and I was woken up by fighting. After about 2 hours of fighting over 30 of our unit had been killed and I managed to escape to the surrounding mine field with one other soldier from the unit (De Hong). We managed to navigate through the mine field and got to the next village of Peaksnei which was occupied by Khmer Rouge soldiers. I did not have a gun so I and Hong came up with a plan. We would use sticks to pretend we had guns and make signals and shout as if commanding a huge unit of soldiers. Because there were less than 10 Khmer Rouge soldiers and it was still dark we succeeded in scaring them all away. We were then able to get passed the village to the nearest Vietnamese Army post for much-needed backup.
Mr Aki Ra
Between the years of 1984-1989 there was heavy war in Cambodia. The Vietnamese and the Cambodian army were fighting three groups of soldiers in the jungle-the Khmer Rouge, the Para and the Sunsan. Both sides drafted people from villages to work for them. The Khmer Rouge group was called A-6 and the Vietnamese group A-5. Each workforce was subjected to extremely hard labour but people were given no choice but to join. They were made to carry ammunition, dig trenches and build and lay mines.
Both sides killed animals for food and would often visit the villages to steal food and demand cigarettes and supplies. The Khmer Rouge destroyed enemy vehicles and cut up the tires to make sandals.
Fighting would often continue for days and the soldiers went with very little water and food and lived mainly on rice which they cooked in a bag. Without water, soldiers were sometimes forced to use urine to soften the rice before eating. I saw soldiers cook and eat the meat from bodies of soldiers killed by the fighting and learnt which jungle leaves and insects could be eaten for survival.
Mr Aki Ra
Many people between the years 1984 to 1990 were killed or injured by land mines. The hospitals were very far away and there were few civilians or soldiers who had first-aid knowledge to help. Hospitals were set up in the jungle by the armies but there were many casualities and few doctors and medicines or equipment so many people died.
Many of the soldiers who were victims of mines were evicted from the army and then left to find badly paid jobs, such as road cleaning-many resort to begging. There are still hundreds of people killed every year from land mines, most of them are civilians working in the fields who come across them while clearing the land.
Soldiers from Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge forced villagers to sell their food to them very cheaply and if they refused the soldiers would just take the food anyway. The soldiers used to send farm animals into the fields so that the animal would be killed by mines for food. During the war, the leaders of the armies owned the land, so the villages were under their control. The soldiers often put off paying for goods. The leaders of the army became very rich while the villagers had little food or money.
Mr Aki Ra |
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