Caving in SE Asia: Cambodia's Unexplorable Caves

11 November 2007

Cambodia's Unexplorable Caves - WildAsia

http://www.wildasia.net/main.cfm?page=article&articleID=239&contactID=720
Although Pol Pot and his regime have gone, their vicious mark on Cambodia and its people have not. Landmines riddle the countryside, closing off potentially wondrous and unexplored limestone caves. LIZ PRICE retraces the country's dark history.

Cambodia's Unexplorable Caves

Although Pol Pot and his regime have gone, their vicious mark on Cambodia and its people have not. Landmines riddle the countryside, closing off potentially wondrous and unexplored limestone caves. LIZ PRICE retraces the country's dark history.

Written by Liz Price on 10 Nov 2005 with 0 comments.

There have been few caving expeditions to Cambodia, the ones that have taken place were held mostly in the mid 1990's. This is simply because in the past it has not been very safe in Cambodia due to two factors. The first was the Khmer Rouge regime and the second is the number of land mines left from the regime which still litter the countryside.

Many people don't know much about Cambodia, but they have probably heard of three things, Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat and Pol Pot. Phnom Penh is the capital, one of the loveliest of French- built cities in Indochina. Angkor Wat is an incredible complex of Buddhist and Hindu temples, dating back from 802 - 1432. It was granted World Heritage status in 1992. Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge and was responsible for the killing of millions of Cambodians and causing misery to millions more.

Prior to Pol Pot's arrival, Cambodia had much conflict between the national army and communist guerillas backed by North Vietnam and China, and then the US and South Vietnamese armies invaded half way through the Vietnamese War (1964-75). From 1975 - 1978 he led an insane regime. Pol Pot implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of a society ever attempted. Its goal was to transform Cambodia into a Maoist peasant-dominated agrarian society. The Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh in 1975 and forced the entire population to march out to the countryside and undertake slave labour. Disobedience of any sort often brought immediate execution. Educated people, leaders and also minorities were targeted.

During this period hundreds of thousands of people were killed by the Khmer Rouge leadership, whilst thousands more died of famine and diseases. It is not known exactly how many people died; the estimates vary between one and three million. Thousands were killed in the "killing caves".

The xenophobic government was toppled in December 1978 when the Vietnamese invaded and installed a new government. The Khmer Rouge were driven into the remote forests where they continued guerilla attacks. A civil war then followed for the next 20 years. During this period the British government used Malaysian jungle camps to train guerilla fighters in landmine laying techniques. Thousands of mines were planted, along roads, in rice fields, in fact almost everywhere. Thousands more Cambodians died, from the fighting and from the landmines.

Peace was agreed in 1991 and King Sihanouk returned, having been crowned in 1941 (he abdicated in October 2004). However, the Khmer Rouge continued killing civilians until they surrendered in 1999. Pol Pot died in April 1998.

For much of the 1980's Cambodia remained closed to the Western world. In 1994 the Khmer Rouge resorted to a new tactic of targeting tourists, and 6 foreigners were killed in two separate attacks. So it is only really in the last decade that Cambodia has once again been attracting foreign tourists, and it is only in the last 5 years that it has been relatively safe to travel, from the point of view of armed hold ups etc.

However, the threat of landmines is still there. It is still very much advised to remember the golden rule "stick to marked paths in remote areas". The most heavily mined parts of the country are the Battambang and Pailin areas - this area also happens to have limestone.

An estimated 4-6 million landmines were dotted around the countryside. As many as 40,000 Cambodians have lost limbs due to mines. Cambodia has one of the world's highest numbers of amputees per capita, an estimated 1 in 275 people. Although the landmines are being cleared, there are still new victims. Therefore it is still not safe to explore many of the remote limestone areas.