41 years ago Cambodia was occupied by the Khmer Rouge (KR). It was the most destructive period of time in Cambodia. Everyone’s life was threatened by killing, malnutrition, being overworked, starvation, and mainly the death from weapons such as guns, mines, bombs, artilleries, and helicopters. Most of the weapons were imported from the United States, China and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, known as USSR. The Khmer Rouge traded agricultural products to get these weapons.
We visited three museums that are related to Khmer Rouge war: War Museum, Cambodia War Remnants Museum and Landmine Museum. The common things that all three museums have are the weapons that were used during the war, and all of those weapons were found around the museum areas and in the forest along Thai border. Those weapons are: guns, mines, bombs, tanks, and artilleries.
What I learned from the War Museum is that after the war, there were six million mines and eight million bombs left in Cambodia. Now, 80% of the mines were cleared but 1.2 million mines still remain. One connection is that those bombs were also a reason that the Khmer Rouge gain their power through propaganda because the Khmer Rouge soldiers told everyone that they need to fight back against the US because US was dropping bombs in our country.
