Tuesday 30th July, 2013

It is a hot day in Siem Reap, Cambodia. At least 30 degrees. Sweat is dripping from the brow of several tourists as they enter the War Museum. A middle-aged looking man waiting at the entrance offers his services as a free tour guide, which the tourists graciously accept.

The man introduces himself as Thom, and bids the tourists welcome. Thom asks what country the tourists are from, “Australia” is the reply from three, while the fourth answers “British”.

“Oh the lucky country,” Thom remarks to the Australians, as he leads the group on.

Several old tanks, artillery batteries, anti-aircraft weaponry and even a helicopter and Chinese war plane (which resembles the Spitfire model of plane flown by the British in World War 2) litter the ground in the small plot of land dedicated to the museum. From one end of the compound to the other is around 50 metres, and only about 30 metres wide.

The tourists take their seats in a small, open-faced wooden structure. They seat next to a rack filled with various guns from the war, including: AK-47s (Russian, as well as Cuban copies); M16s (American), many pistols and even what resembles a Tommy gun.

Here, Thom begins his story.

At age 12, he and his family traveled towards the Thailand and Cambodian border, hoping to cross into Thailand into safety. However the path contained many, many landmines, and as they approached the border it was clear Khmer Rouge soldiers would not let them pass. The soldiers were killing anyone who tried to cross.

At one point during the journey, as his family were crossing a river at night, Thom lost sight of his family. He searched around for miles asking if anyone had seen them, but Thom soon lost any hope of finding them. He has not seen them since.

Being a lone child, Thom describes how very sad he was.

“A young child, you know. I would cry, cry. Cannot find my mother or father,” he said.

With no-one but himself to look after him, Thom describes the difficult process of getting food.

“I ask the people, ‘where do you get the food?’, and they say off the monks,” he said.

For two years, Thom lived with the Buddhist monks, and they took care of him, and fed him in exchange for work and chores he would do with other orphans at the monastery.

However, this peace was short-lived. At age 14, the Cambodian Army soldiers came and took Thom away and recruited him as a child soldier to fight the Khmer Rouge.

Thom recalls the very strict methods of discipline inflicted upon the soldiers, by their leaders.

“They give us an AK-47, my first gun, and each boy carries a very heavy ammo pack on his back.

“We must say ‘Not heavy Sir!’, if a boy complained it is too heavy, they would give him another 20 kilo to carry,” he said.

This was not the only method of motivation Thom described. If five people were carrying an ammo box, and the leaders thought they were moving too slowly, they would shoot one of them. The four remaining would then move a lot faster.

Not too long into his service, Thom was injured by an American claymore mine. Hot shrapnel from the claymore pierced his left arm, claiming it from the elbow down. He describes the treatment process in gruesome detail.

“No painkiller, they use a wire to cut through”, Thom draws an imaginary line around his amputation, “I begged them, ‘please please just cut off’, but they said is not a clean cut and must do it this way,” he said.

Being a child, Thom was still growing. This meant his bone would continue to grow out of the wound, and had to be operated on again several times.

Thom still believes he was one of the lucky ones. Many people lost more than just an arm. Those that lost both arms and legs had no chance to survive. It was considered humane to give them an injection of water into the belly.

“After about one hour, blood would come out,” Thom makes a motion from his nose, eyes and ears, “then they die,” he said.

Thom was disappointed at the lack of government support for those that had lost limbs. He very much wanted to get a job being a tour guide for the famous temples at Angkor Wat. However the government said “No, because you cannot carry the bag for the tourist,” Thom said.

The Vietnamese people are well-known for claiming victory in their war against the French initially, and then the United States and its allies. However Thom does not believe anyone can win in war.

“Everybody lose,” he says

Thom motions the tourists to stand, and they follow him out of the weapons display structure and onto a dirt path. The path is narrow and leads to a large crater-shaped hole in the ground. He points out several landmines (deactivated, of course), and describes how many bones were found while digging at this site. The tourists gasped as they gazed into the mass burial site.

Leading on, Thom takes the tourists further along the dirt path, to another open-faced wooden structure. There are several boards which displayed photos behind glass, both during the war and of post-war clean-up.

Thom goes on to describe the many programs which have been run to clear out un-exploded ordinance (UXO): grenades, cluster bombs and other explosives. Pointing to two celebrities that led campaigns to highlight the dangers posed by UXO, he asks the tourists if they recognise those in the photos.

“Princess Diana,” one says.

“Jackie Chan,” follows the other.

The number of deaths recorded each year in Cambodia by landmines continues to drop. From staggering heights in the 1990’s, from 4,320 landmine deaths reported in 1996, down to 114 for the first seven months of 2012.

Thom allows the tourists to view the many photos displayed behind the glass cases, before beckoning them on to his next and final speech site.

The tourists take their seats again, and Thom adds more to the tourists’ brief understanding of his life.

Thom believes himself very fortunate and credits an Australian missionary, named John, with taking him off the streets and giving him hope. John taught English to Thom through the bible, which Thom says gave him hope in life and humanity.

Eventually, Thom found work at the War Museum in Siem Reap. There he gives guided tours, showing a vast array of the weapons used during the Civil War in Cambodia, as well as the Indo-China War, (Indo-China is the old name for the region covering: Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam).

Despite all that has happened to him, Thom remains remarkable positive. At 37 years of age, he speaks with all the wisdom of an seasoned monk. He says his hope for the future comes from the developed world. He sees robotic arms being developed in the USA and Japan, and hopes that one day the technology may help not only him, but also his many countrymen in similar need.

“I hope, in 20 years, you can come back and I can give you a hug,” he says to the tourists as they depart on their way.